Grassroot Crypto Education | Series 2 Volume 13 - How to Send an Encrypted Message on the Steem Blockchain | (#burnsteem25)
Introduction
Hello, kids and community members. I believe you are all doing great today. It's the 13th volume of series 2 of our grassroot crypto education, it's been a great journey so far and your participation makes it worth it. For today, we are discussing a beautiful context titled "How to Send an Encrypted Message on the Steem Blockchain". Let's get into it.
Designed with Adobe Photoshop
Encryption
It's important to open the basis to encryption again before we delve into how to send private messages with it, if you had followed our lectures before, you'd be familiar with encryption. Encryption is a product of cryptography that enables users to communicate secretly in the presence of outsiders without revealing the content of the message.
A few people believed Steemit has the disadvantage of making everything public and have always rated some other social media platforms with private message features more advantageous in that realm than Steemit. Well, that's not the case, you can utilize Steemit for private communication utilizing encryption.
Encrypting a piece of information converts such readable words into a format that nearly makes no sense like alphanumeric combinations, and it can be called ciphertext which interprets nothing to the public. Such message at the destination is decrypted by utilizing designated keys (private keys) which converts the information back to plaintext for the right recipient to see the details.
Private-Key Encryption- An Illustration Designed with Adobe Photoshop and Utilized in one of our Previous Lessons | Here
From the illustration above, Joe and Jane were the main communicator who has chosen private-key encryption to pass across a secret message in the presence of outsiders. A private key was utilized to encrypt the plaintext which was converted to ciphertext while it was hidden from the outsiders.
Jane decrypted the message utilizing a private key to have a readable format at the destination. Let's now head into how it's practically done on the Steem blockchain.
How to Send an Encrypted Message on the Steem Blockchain
The exchange of encrypted messages on the Steem blockchain can be done via the Steemit Wallet utilizing dust. If you have followed our previous lessons, dust in cryptocurrency is an almost infinitesimal amount of an asset, for example, 0.001 STEEM.
The message is going to be conveyed utilizing a memo, as such the private memo key would be utilized for encryption by the sender and decryption by the recipient. We are just about to explore symmetric encryption. Let's see the steps involved.
- Visit your Steemit Wallet and locate any of the wallets, STEEM or SBD. For this, we would be using STEEM. Select transfer from the wallet's drop-down.
Select transfers on your wallet
- On the next interface, enter the account you are sending the message to, for example, steem4nigeria. Input the dust, 0.001 STEEM. In the memo section, to encrypt a memo, you have to add # at the beginning of the message without any space, for example, #Sending you an Encrypted Message today. Click the Next button. Note: # is the special character for our encryption.
Input an account, dust amount, encrypted message and click Next
- On the next interface, sign the transaction with your private memo key.
Sign the Transaction
Through the steps above, I have just exchanged an encrypted message with @steem4nigeria and the content is visible to only both of us. It was encrypted by me using the private memo key and the content was decrypted by the recipient, utilizing its account private memo key. If you had followed the same steps, you will be able to send encrypted texts to your friends. Let's see what the result looks like in the wallets of the communicators.
Visible Memo on the Sender's Wallet
Visible Memo on the Recipient's Wallet
I have been able to view the content of the encryption because as a sender I initiated the transaction with my private memo key and have decrypted the message as a receiver utilizing the private memo key. What happens if the wallet was viewed by another user? The content of the encrypted message would be hidden. Let's take a look below after I had logged out of the recipient account.
Hidden Memo to Outsiders
Utilizing the Block Explorer to check on the Details of an Encrypted Message
Remember, we can look up different transaction details on the blockchain, and in this section, we would be checking the encrypted message transaction and see what it's shown to the public on the Steem blockchain.
- You can check the details of a transaction on the block explorer using the block, wallet ID/address, transaction ID, and so on. We would be using https://steemblockexplorer.com/ to look up the transaction, from the landing I typed in my username and clicked on the search button.
Search for your username
- On the next interface is the list of your transactions, locate the encrypted message transaction and click on the ID just at its front to explore the details.
Locating the Encrypted Message Transaction
- You can see below that what the public see is a ciphertext which is " 5NNu63ub64wgQzkeGnomSEfUXyaus86Mo3TYYXvt48xkZ8dPqMvMGE5sJN3gc9SSnshfRZh5uDNssNKk6fxt6H41Fg3oJHr4zrdBupznkVJxKJ8c8e9dbjdSc1HsEzEGM3Zf3izq2KYqk8EAEmsqum4imhXm56NGYqBVVWtWhcdK1" as such they don't know what messages was exchanged.
Ciphertext and other transaction details
The transaction ID of the transaction above is 1ba8272be48b0ad086a1b5dc7004dd8d941a7cdb and it was recorded in block 65622439. In essence, you can lookup an encrypted message transaction on the Steem blockchain to see the block number, time of the transaction, accounts involved and so on but the content of the transaction remains hidden to outsiders who don't have access to the users' private memo keys.
Conclusion
In conclusion, even when it seems one can't communicate in private on Steemit while many see it as a disadvantage yet it's possible to make private communications in the presence of outsiders without leaking the content. We have discussed in the piece how users can utilize encrypted messages to communicate securely on the Steem blockchain. I hope you have learned something new about our dear platform today and I look forward to seeing your entries. Kindly ask questions in the comment section. Thank you.
Important Notice: Genuine exchange of encrypted messages should only be done utilizing dust (for example, 0.001 STEEM). Exchange involving an appreciable amount of STEEM/SBD may be considered a tricky movement of funds between accounts and such actions bring about suspicions. Beware!
Homework Task
- What do you understand by encryption in the Crypto Ecosystem? What is the Special character utilized for encrypting a memo on the Steem blockchain.
- Utilizing the Steemit Wallet, show how to exchange an encrypted message [Show the steps and screenshots- Use your close friends or teachers as recipients to avoid spamming other notable accounts (note that you don't need to ask for their account keys)]. What happens to outsiders when you encrypt a message? Anonymously view your wallet by logging out and see if the content of the encrypted message is visible (Show the screenshot).
- Use https://steemblockexplorer.com/ to look up the transaction on the explorer and show your observation. (Screenshots required). Note: You may need to refresh the explorer pages a few times before the details of your transactions show up, kindly take note.
Guidelines
- Write an article of at least 300 words. Keep your explanation as simple as possible.
- Include the tag #grassroot-educations2v13, #fintech, #steemexclusive, and your club status among the first 4 tags. Also, tag me @fredquantum in your homework entry.
- The participation in this lecture/homework task is open to everybody (anyone can write, I will leave my comments on your entries) but only entries made by verified kids (not participating in the Academy yet) would be accessed with grades.
- I will check your articles and drop comments on the entries submitted now till 11:59 pm UTC, 10/07/2022.
Cc:-
@steemkidss
Wow, this is awesome! How to send encrypted message on the Blockchain? The kids will really benefit from this lesson.
Yes, it's very possible to send secret messages on the Steem blockchain. I look forward to seeing the kids' and others' participation in this. Thank you, @ngoenyi.
wow I really learnt a lot from this you have taught me a lot thanks for educating me
I'm glad this helped you and I look forward to seeing you participating in the homework task.
Thank you for contributing to #LearnWithSteem theme. This post has been upvoted by @daytona475 using @steemcurator09 account. We encourage you to keep publishing quality and original content in the Steemit ecosystem to earn support for your content.
Regards,
Team #Sevengers
The #learnwithsteem tag focuses on teaching through tutorials and lessons some knowledge, skill or profession that you have. Please avoid using it if it's not about that. Thank you!
Thanks for the support, @daytona475.
What a great lesson my friend. You are a great tutor for this topic, many successes.
I'm glad you found value in this lecture. Thank you, @carlaisl.
This is a very interesting lesson that I need to participate. I love everything that I have read from the beginning to the end. Expect my entry soonest.
Thank you, @josepha. I hope to see you exploring the context.
amazing lecture i will surely take part in this one @fredquantum
Great! I look forward to your participation, @ghani12.
sure teacher @fredquantum
this is yet another great lesson by you my dear teacher you have amazing knowledge about crypto education i learn a lot by you @fredquantum
I'm glad you found this educating. Thank you.
This is really enlightening.
Thank you.
Are this class meant for kids only, I think I have asked before, I couldn't remember the reply😁
Anyone can write the homework task on this. I will interact with the articles but only entries made by verified kids would be accessed with grades.
Oh ok, definitely for children😁
😊 😊