Achievement 2 @cryptogecko: Basic Security on Steem

Question 1 - Have you retrieved all your keys on steemit?

Yes, I have retrieved and saved all of my private keys in a digital file and have also stored them on two external devices. I have stored all of my private keys in a pen drive and on my hard disk, both of which never leaves my bag.

If someone knows your private keys, they can use your vote value or funds from your wallets, and worst of all, they can change your current passwords. Therefore I cannot risk my keys and lose all my assets.

Wouldn’t it be fun and amazing if we did not have to save all of our keys and just use something that anybody cannot steal? Like our fingerprints.

Question 2 - Do you know each of these key functions and restrictions?

Yes, I know all about the functions and restrictions of my private keys.

Private Posting Key - This is one of the most used keys among all the keys available to us on the steem blockchain. Steemians can use their private key for social actions like posting on the steem blockchain, commenting on other posts, resteeming, upvoting or downvoting a post.

Whenever we are using the social media features of the steem blockchain, we must only use our private posting key.

Even if someone gets access to your private posting key, they can not transfer money from your account.

Private Active Key - Active key is the key to your money. Yes, anybody who has this key has access to your wallet, and can easily transfer your assets. So you should always be careful while using your active key. For example, you should never use your active keys over public wifis.

Today, even a small school kid is getting more knowledge from YouTube than they would get from their school books. And I am sure many of them might know how to get a person’s usernames and passwords using public wifis.

Private Owner Key - The owner key must never be used in any circumstances. You only need it when you want to recover your forgotten, lost or hacked account.

Yes, you can get hacked here on steem blockchain too. But it’s not blockchain’s fault. Users are the ones who do not save their keys at a safe place and tend to give them out to someone who is playing fraud with them.

So when you have saved your private owner key somewhere, you should let it stay there until and unless your key needs to be changed or your account is to be recovered.

Private Memo Key - The memo key is mostly ignored by users, but it can come in handy when you have to talk secretly to someone. For example, if you want to talk to your business partner about something that needs secrecy, you would be using your private memo key. This will help your message getting encrypted from your side and only decrypting at the receiver’s side.

Question 3 - How do you plan to keep your master password?

I have already stored my keys on two digital storage devices, and I plan to write all of my keys in a diary. So that even if the storage devices get corrupted, I will have all my keys stored somewhere safe.

There are many other methods of saving your keys both online and offline. Both have their pros and cons. A cryptocurrency and blockchain blog written on Changelly explains the ways to store your keys. Here is the article link. Read it to explore more ways to save your keys.

Question 4 - Do you know how to transfer your Steem token to another steem user account?

Yes, I know how to transfer Steem tokens from my account to another account on the steem blockchain. The most interesting thing about transfers is that it takes only 3 seconds for the transactions to show up on the receiver’s account wallet transaction list.

If a person wants to transfer Steem token or SBD tokens to another steem account then there are few steps that they need to follow:

1. Go to https://steemitwallet.com

2. Now, there is a dropdown menu given beside the amount, you should click that button to open the dropdown menu. The topmost option is for transferring Steem tokens to another steem account.

3. When you click the “Transfer” options, it will open up a pop-up to enter your transaction details.

4. The first thing is the “From” address. This address is already filled as you are the one from whom the wallet the money is being transferred.
   

5. The second one is the “To” address. This is the address you are sending your money to. Do not ever make a mistake while writing the receiver’s username, because once transferred they might not give you anything back.
   

6. After writing the username of the receiver, you will write the amount of the tokens you want o send to that user. It can be less than or equal to what you have in your wallet. Of course, you can not send more than what you have. I thought you knew that.
   

7. At last, comes to the memo field, which is used to specify why the transfer is being done. It is not mandatory but you can do this to let the user know why you sent them the tokens. There are some cases where the memo IS mandatory, like when you are sending tokens to trading platforms. That way they know that it is you who is sending them tokens.

8. After completing all of the above steps, you need to click on the send button, and your tokens will be sent to another steem account.

Question 5 - Do you know how to power up your STEEM?

Yes, the most important of them all is to power up your steem. So you haven’t heard about the staking mechanism that is the basis of the steem blockchain? Steem is the token that is given to you for participating in blockchain activities. When you transfer them to your steem power, it is called staking your steem tokens. Your tokens get locked for a certain period, but your authority on the blockchain increases as you now own the shares of the steem company.

1. Click on the menu to use the power up option
   

   ^{Source: SteemitWallet}

2. Enter the amount you want to power up
   

   ^{Source: SteemitWallet}

To power up steem, all you need to do is to select the third option (“Power Up”) given beside the steem token amount. When selected, this option will also open a popup window. But here you will not see a receiver’s address field, because you are powering up your tokens in YOUR account, silly. It only asks for the amount that you want to power up. When the amount is given to the field, all you need to then do is to click the Power Up button. And you will have more resource credits in your name.

Here is a link to my Achievement 1 Post