rypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 9: Blockchain Wallet-- Types, Uses, Installation, etc.

Hello Everyone. Hope you all are learning the crypto with fun every week. As we know that the decentralized systems are highly secured as no one can access the wallet without the password. But you should be very careful about keeping the backup of your keys because once you lost password, you will lost your account forever. You Should keep the backup of your password very carefully because there is no central authority to help you to recover your keys.

1) How do you store/secure your keys? What are the different forms of Private Key(Examples/Screenshot)? Download & Install TronLink Wallet(Android/iOS/Extension)? How do you store the key(Hint- write it down on a notepad, demonstrate it with examples)? Which form of the key are you comfortable with to handle your TronLink Wallet? Include Screenshots & hide/blur the sensitive information.

How do you store/secure your keys?

Let's suppose you forget the password of your Instagram account. You have the option to recover it using the email or phone number which you have entered while registration process. The Instagram is a centralized application where the central authority is there to help you in recovering your password.

But if we lose the password in case of decentralized application, you cannot recover your password. There is no way to get your keys back. You will lose your account forever. There is no central authority to which you can ask for help. You are only responsible for keeping the backup of your passwords very carefully.

The Steemit is a decentralized platform. Here you are given a PDF file containing the keys of your account. Here there is no third party. If you lose your password, you will lose your account forever. There is no way to recover it at all. So keep the backup of your account very carefully.

How I keep Backup of my keys

I am very careful about the backup of all my passwords. I do not rely a single backup. I always have multiple backups of all my accounts whether it's Instagram, Steemit Gmail, etc. I do not trust on keeping the backup of the passwords online. This way do not satisfy me. So i always keep the backup offline. Many people keep their password in the google drive. But i think that is still hack able. So you shouldn't keep your password ever online .

1- I have a USB where i store all my password. I keep the backup of all my account's password in that USB. I have keep that USB very carefully and do not let anyone to use it. I also do not use that USB for any other purpose.

2- I have a Folder on my laptop where all my passwords are stored. I have made a file of all the password and keep that hidden in my laptop.

3- The most satisfying and reliable way for me to keep the backup of my passwords is noting them down on a register. I Note my password of the accounts there and keep that password in my draw. But i have not noted my password in a straight way. If in some case, my register get accessible by some person, he would not be able to get my password because i have encrypted it according to my own.

4- I think the memorizing the password is also good. But this is also become hard in case of private keys and key store file because these keys are combination of letters, digits, signs so it is not possible for a common person to memorize such hard password. So always keep your password backup offline. Wrote them on your register, store them in your USB, in private folder, etc.

What are the different forms of Private Key(Examples/Screenshot)?

Mnemonics:

Mnemonic is a group of the word. These words are not linked or connected with each other. Multiple applications are there where you given a set of the word, usually 12 words, while registering yourself on that application. This group of the word can be use to access your account. You are not able to take the screen short of the Mnemonic page. So to keep the backup of the mnemonic key, note it down offline on any register or notepad. The mnemonic key is also as much important as your private key or master key because in case of losing your password, you can recover your account with the mnemonic.

The Mnemonic key look like as below:

You can see, all the word are different and are not linked with each other. These random word collectively are known as mnemonic key and this key is able to change all the other keys of your account. The mnemonic key, which you are given while registering yourself on the any platform, can be use to change the all other passwords easily.

Private Password

For steemit account, you have a private key. You can see that your private key will be a combination of alphabets and digits. This key is use to access your account. You can see that your private key is a collection of digits and alphabets but do you notice that all the alphabets are in small letters. You will not see any upper letter in the private key.

Key Store file:

In mnemonic, we see that there are only the alphabets. There are the word only without any single digit. But in case of Private key, we see a combination of alphabets and digits. If we talk about the Keystore password, we will have the digits, alphabets and the special signs such as brackets, full stop, comma, etc.

To keep the backup of the key store password, the best way is to store this file in USB. You can mail this file to your mother as backup. Suppose you want to keep the backup in written form. But while writing, if you miss any single sign, your password will incorrect and won't be able to access your account.

Download & Install TronLink Wallet(Android/iOS/Extension)?

The process of downloading and installing the Tronlink Wallet is very simple and easy. This is a decentralized application and we know that the registration process on the decentralized application is very simple and easy.

• Write the Tronlink Wallet on the play store of your mobile phone and install it.

• After downloading it, open it. Below page will appear. As you want to create the account so ignore the other two options and click on the Create Account.

• A page with rules and regulation will be appear next. Click on the ACCEPT button on the below of the page.

• Next you will have to set the name of your account and then set the password. While setting the password, you need to keep some points in mind like password must have at least one upper letter, one lower letter, 1 digit and al least 8 characters.

- Next the below page will be appear to you. It's mean your account has been created.

How do you store the key(Hint- write it down on a notepad, demonstrate it with examples)?

When you were creating the account on Tron wallet, there was the mnemonic key on the page. This mnemonic key consisted of 12 word which had no sense. You were asked to keep backup of mnemonic very carefully. You saw that you were not able to take the screen short of that page because of some security issues. So i wrote down all those word on my register. I also safe this picture in my private folder and in USB.

Which form of the key are you comfortable with to handle your TronLink Wallet

Now we have studied all the types of the keys. The private key is combination of the letter and digits. The key store file is the combination of letters, digits and multiple other special signs such as brackets, commos, etc. Both these types are complicated to some extent.

So i like the mnemonic key most comfortable key to handle with. This is just a group of 12 word with no digit, letter, commos or any other sign. The 12 simple word are there in mnemonic which are easy to tackle. I simple write down the mnemonic word on my register and store it. It is the best way because you can access it anytime you want.

Conclusion

This is extremely important to keep the backup of all your password whether it is centralized or decentralized applications. But in case of decentralized application, it become more important because there is no way to recover your password. The best way to keep the backup is to store your keys offline. The online may have threats to get hacked or steal your information.

Cc: @sapwood
@kouba01