Normie Talk - New Steemit Wallet Change | How Does It Work Now?

in #steem5 years ago (edited)

panic.jpg
Deep Breaths... Deep Breaths... Deep Breaths


Hey Guys! The @steemitblog announced that the planned change to Condenser went live today ... and normal users all over Steem went, "What the hell is a condenser?" and continued to scroll...


Until of course they clicked on their wallets and panic ensued.



The response is understandable. We are all very used to how the steemit.com site is set up and how it works, so even small changes don't go unnoticed. A big change like this, with our wallets, is bound to get some attention.

I believe the most confusing thing here to the normal user is that now we are directed to a whole new site.. one that looks like steemit.com, but isn't. We have all be trained to be very careful with our keys, so it's not surprising that there were some that were immediately concerned that this was some sort of phishing site.

In Steemit Inc's defense, they did announce that this change was coming way over two months ago and have updated on the "condenser split" multiple times since then.


But what average user knows what a condenser is and why would they care?



To me this is a common case of miscommunication due to the different types of users here, all with different ways they use the Steem Blockchain as well as different levels of understanding of the chain itself.

Which let's be honest, this is exactly what we want- A diverse ecosystem of users from all different backgrounds. We just have to work on bridging the gap of communication between the more tech savvy users, and then us "Normies" ;)

And that is my goal for this post.




Why The Change?

Have no interest in the "why" and just want to know how to use your wallet? Just scroll, scroll, scroll...

The whole goal here is to split the SOCIAL aspects of Steemit.com (blogging/commenting/upvoting etc) from the MARKET aspects (market/wallet/transfers etc).

Now we have two domains to interact with the Steemit Interface;



1.) Steemit.com (SOCIAL)

2.) Steemitwallet.com (MARKET)


I feel Steemit Inc actually explained the reasoning for the condenser split, and the goals they hoped to achieve by doing so quite well. Therefore I will just quote them from their initial announcement post, and then I will walk you through the process of what your wallet will look like now.

Splitting Condenser - Social and Wallet By @steemitblog


Condenser is the open source software that powers steemit.com and features 5 major functionalities: blogging, social, market, wallet, and sign-up. Initially, having all of these features in one codebase made everything easier to manage and scale. At this point in our growth, however, there are some important advantages that we can unlock by separating out the wallet functionality from the social functionality as it requires the highest level of security. This change would have little to no impact on user experience.

Ad space provides hackers with another avenue through which they can launch an attack. Separating out the wallet functionality and hosting it on an entirely different domain is the best way to protect users because it guarantees that even if a hacker manages to find a way around our strong security measures, they will still not be able to gain access to any financial information.


Additional Benefits

1.) Because the Condenser-Social and Condenser-Financial (these are placeholder names, not official) applications will be smaller than the existing Condenser, they will consume less memory on the server-side and the client-side, reducing both our costs and the costs to the end user (CPU/RAM usage on their machine)

2.) By making the surface area of Condenser-Social (the social functionalities in Condenser) smaller, we will be able to develop new social functionalities with greater ease

3.) Developers who want to create Steem-powered front ends will have the ability to choose between supporting one or both of the applications. Financial applications could choose to only support Condenser-Wallet, while social applications could choose to only support Condenser-Social. This should enable more rapid and diverse innovation for Steem applications.


This project is in-line with our main priorities at the moment of lowering costs and increasing revenue so that we can improve the economic sustainability of the Steem ecosystem.


  • Safety
  • Scale-ability
  • Ease of implementation of social functionalities
  • Sustainability (cost savings)


    Alright, now that we know the "why" let's see what this will look like for us...



What will it look like now?

The actual interface of the Steemit.com website looks pretty much the same;

Screenshot (37).png

(Remember this update is only on the Steemit.com interface and not the Steem blockchain itself. Other user interfaces will not be effected by this at all).

When you are on your profile, scrolling in your feed, commenting etc. everything is the same as before. You are using steemit.com, the SOCIAL domain of Steemit.


The change comes when you click on the "wallet" tab specifically;



Screenshot (26).png

Which now redirects you to - Steemitwallet.com/@yourusername/transfers

The site looks the same as your old wallet, but now you are on the separate steemitwallet.com domain.

Always Be Aware of domains:

  • To be safe anytime you go to enter your keys, always double check the domain name (highlighted in yellow above).

This is a safe practice I do personally and normally will catch any sort of "phishing attempts". Which means when hackers will copy the look of a site to try to trick you enter your keys/passcode and then they collect it.

  • The wallet domain will always be - steemitwallet.com/@yourusername. If it is steemetwallet.com or any other variety, IT'S NOT THE RIGHT PLACE AND DO NOT ENTER YOUR KEYS.

I know, it sounds dramatic, but it's a very easy way to protect yourself and your Steem investment. Just take the extra moment to check ;)

What's Next?

Ok, as you can see in the screenshot above, I have been transferred to my steemitwallet.com domain but I am not logged in. Just like on the steemit.com website, click that login button;

Screenshot (27).png

Now here is where the confusion came in...

1.) Why is the wallet asking for my posting key??
Well, it's actually only recommending the posting key... why?

  • Because you do not need anything above your Posting Key to look at your wallet.

  • You only need a higher authority key (i.e. Active) to make transactions within your wallet.

This is just an additional attempt at educating users to always use the lowest authority key needed for each action, and only enter a higher level key when prompted to do so.

You can log into the wallet with any of your keys, but posting is the lowest authority needed to log in to your wallet.. so that is what is recommended.


2.) Why doesn't the steemitwallet.com have my password saved in browser like steemit.com?

  • Because this is a different domain, that you have never visited before.

Just like when you first went to steemit.com, you will need to manually enter (or copy/paste from a file) your key.

  • Once you have entered your key and selected login, your browser will then ask you if you want to save the password for the domain, which you can then choose to do.

I don't actually do this, for the record... I manually enter mine from a file each time. But this seemed to be an issue for many.

Steemit Inc. recommends using a password manager like LastPass or 1password.

3.) What if I don't have my posting key saved and was relying on the browser saving it all this time?

Well, first things first - PLEASE SAVE YOUR KEYS IN MULTIPLE PLACES. Seriously, this is a must do. Copy them to a file, save in a thumb drive, as well as print multiple hard copies and keep them safe. This is your Steem investment here, you need to protect it.

  • You can log into wallet with any key.

  • If you have been relying on your browser to save your posting key for you and don't have it saved elsewhere (please read the all caps above again), then you will need to log in with your Master Password to then reveal all of your private keys, and then you need to save them all much better than you did before.

  • If you have your keys absolutely nowhere and were relying on the browser saving it. First, please stop doing that. Second you will need to find your key that was saved in your browser. To do so you will need to search your computers password manager. This process is different depending on the browser used, so I would recommend doing a google search for how to recover passwords from the password manager for your specific browser and follow those directions. Then please follow the safe key keeping suggested above.


Now that we are logged in...

Once you have logged in you will see the normal wallet options we are used to seeing, with a few updates.


Screenshot (29).png


When you click on the "Keys And Permissions" there in the center tab (highlighted with arrows), you will see some great additional information that we haven't had before.


Screenshot (30).png

Look at that lovely graph!!!

Yes, a beautifully blue info graph to tell us all what keys we need for what actions! Let's get a closer look...

Screenshot (35).png

As you can see, you only need your posting key to interact in the social side of Steem and that is why the Steemit.com website will now only accept the posting key.

On the same page you will find a link to learn more about keys and the uses behind them as well as to safely manage them. I suggest everyone go and read this post, bookmark it, and refer to it often;

Steem Basics - Understanding Private Keys by @steemitblog




What if I want to make an actual transaction?

You only need your Posting Key to view your wallet. Once you are logged in, if you attempt to do any action that requires a higher authority key, i.e. Transfers, Powerups, Buy/Sell Etc


You will be prompted to use a higher authority key.


A window will pop up (like below) and instruct you that an active, master, or owner key is needed for this action. Always use the lowest level key possible, in this case - Your ACTIVE key.

Screenshot (34).png

Once you enter your key, the transaction will go through.. just like on the old wallet.


What happens when I am done in my wallet?

Ah, here is the part that I believe needs a bit of change (many seemed to voice the same concern).

  • Currently when you are done with your transactions there is no way to just "go back" to your Steemit.com profile.

  • You will need to simply enter the domain name in the address field and go back that way.

I am sure there is a safety reason for this, but it is extremely inconvenient and I hope that there will be improvements to that soon.

So, enter the steemit.com domain back into the field and go back to the SOCIAL side of Steemit and tell everyone you just survived your first steemitwallet experience!



Final Thoughts


  • The world is not burning, but we do now have two domains to experience- Steemit.com for SOCIAL and Steemitwallet.com for MARKET.

  • We have to get used to something new, and I am sure we will have some learning bumps along the way.

  • Save your damn keys - This will hopefully be an opportunity for us all (new and old users) to revisit key safety as well as incorporating the practice of always using the lowest needed authority key for each action. (Don't forget to read the POST on that!)


I hope this will help ease some minds, give a bit of understanding or at least make you giggle. If you need any specific help, let me know and I will do my best to answer... or find someone much more intelligent than me to do so.


Much Love and Steem On,

Justine

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this is pretty much a must read for everyone.

appreciate the normie talk! it helps the ‘rest of us’ :)

Posted using Partiko iOS

Thank you! I’m a big fan of “normie talk” as well as breaking things down in easy to understand, easy to follow ways. If I can do that for Steem stuff, I’m all for it! Thanks for the support 🤗

I cant fucking believe @steemitblog actually resteemed your Boot Licking post

Instead of actually asking why they are so incompetent you just kiss ass, disgusting! You LIED all over the wallet post by the way, you LIE and say a posting key is fine for a wallet page, when NO , if a user isnt adept like me and already using vessel, or had copies of their active key, they are fucked!

Also you cant even click BACK ion the new wallet page, its terrible

Why is someone like you with barely any SP being used when steemit should HIRE A FULL TIME person to actually make these posts? WTF is @ned even doing? Just using volunteers? Interns? WTF is wrong with @ned and @steemitblog you LOCKED OUT all the users without technical knowledge

and here you are with a post acting like theres NO PROBLEM with a fucking PDF with your keys on it in plane text un encrypted..... fucking joke right?

You realize your post is just pushing for people to ACCEPT this incompetence, acting like its OUR fault? "Breath?" how condescending..

Ned should be the one breathing because hes going to be without any investors soon

@ackza: Do you still have your master password? The one that is generally given to new accounts? With it you can get your other keys, either by downloading the PDF, or, if you don't want to download the PDF, you can also see your other keys at steemitwallet.com (Permissions)

You realize your post is just pushing for people to ACCEPT this incompetence, acting like its OUR fault? "Breath?" how condescending..

Pretty sure my post just explains, with screenshots, how the new wallet set up works. Are you reading another post perhaps?

I see you don't use the steemitwallet (as you said) so maybe since you haven't done it yourself you are still a bit confused. I hear there is a post for that.

Why is someone like you with barely any SP being used when steemit should HIRE A FULL TIME person to actually make these posts?

ummmm because this is a blogging platform and I made a blog about an issue many were confused about. Ned, steemit or anyone else didn't ask me to do so, or pay me to do so. I am only paid through the rewards on this post... that I made under my own complete free will because I felt it would be helpful.

Thanks for the usual amazing feedback, as well as always jumping on a top comment and upvoting yourself. Thank the Steem gods we have "adept users" like you here to make it all clear for us.

Here is a tip; Go try the wallet if you are going to speak about how it works.. as if you have not even experienced it.. screaming like a wild banchie about what it does just makes you look like a fool.

I don't agree on how @ackza replied up there, you just tried to help and made a post. He is angry with steemit and scream all out here and offended you for no reason.
But I undertand why he is so mad. I always could access my keys throught the wallet, so I thought, on my lack of knowledge, that my keys were ok, if I needed I could just look up there. And then all of a sudden, I couldn't access it anymore. I was really really lucky because on my cel phone I could still access it and then I wrote all my keys on a paper. So i could recover my account. But if the person, with the same problem as me, didn't have his account on the cel phone or something like that, he lost his account forever. So, yes, a lot of people is really mad, and lost his/her account forever.
I think this move, the way it was implemented, was really bad for steemit and its users.

!ENGAGE 100

Here are your ENGAGE tokens!

To view or trade ENGAGE go to steem-engine.com.

Damn man. This comment is on fire! haha. Is it really that bad? I mean the worst thing about the wallet i see is that i have to open the wallet just to see my balance. Thats annoying. They could have left everything where it was and just create a new icon for the wallet.. The old wallet would show the balance and would be non interactive. Opening a new tab every time is damn annoying.
The other thing is that the font doesnt match. haha
Nothing to get this mad about... lol
I dont get it how everyone without technical knowledge is locked out? You mean everyone that never saved any of their keys?
Its hard for me to feel bad for those folks. Cant they just open saved passwords and copy it?

Great article there. I don't think I could write it any better myself. I will resteem this so my followers can learn about these new Steemit changes if they haven't yet.

Just in case someone out there didn't get this info:

If you only have your 'old password' (from now on known as the Master Password or Master Key), you can get ALL your other keys by going to this URL:

https://steemitwallet.com/@YOUR_USER_NAME/permissions

It will ask you for your username and your master password, and when done, it will show you all your keys: Posting, Active, Memo, Owner. Right now you need the Posting and Active ones, but its probably a good idea to write down the owner key in paper somewhere.

Trying to log in into Steemit with the master password should probably give you the option to get your other keys too, either as PDF or by sending you to the mentioned URL.

I am having a problem with my wallet in that I am not able to power up or sell my SBD in the market. For both these functions I get the "transaction broadcast error". Anyone has any idea how to solve this? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Hmmm I have not had that issue and it seems you have plenty of RC. I would say close out or try a different browser and attempt again.

You will get a pop up asking for you to log in with a higher authority key (as usual) but I can’t think of why you would get a broadcast error.

If you retry will you document your process and we can try to get to the bottom of it?

Thanks for the prompt response, @llfarms. I closed out and tried powering up with Brave and Chrome browsers just now with active private keys and got the same broadcast errors in both cases. It is past 1.18 am here and I going to sleep now. Should you respond shortly I will only respond back later in the morning local time. Thanks for your assistance again.

You will not have any luck, just use the Vessel Wallet or just use busy.org, also you can just go use Blocktrades for nwo and steemconnect, and using websites that use steemconnect you shouyl dhave eveyrthingw orking teh same like it was before

just go download @vessel off the github page its made by @jesta who is a great steem witness used to be top witrness at least, if hes not anymroe, its because hes working on EOS greymass wallet or maybe he has a new project now

but anyway , just go use Vessel, or go on Steemspeak.com discord if you need help from an actual 24/7 support discord for steemians
https://discord.gg/FEK2ynq

It works for me. What I do is, I go to steemitwallet.com and then log in using my ACTIVE key. I was able to power up and such.

Thanks @ackza for the advices.

I was able to sort it out. The error was in my password manager. It has for some unknown reason changed two of the characters (tt) in the active key to ??. I have corrected that and the wallet works fine now. Thanks any way for the useful and alternative suggestions.

cc @llfarms

I need to read this carefully, I'm not much around but come when I can to post, at the moment so not gone but jsut not that active as I used it while I tend some real life things, and I come back to changes and makes me feel like I'm loosing the gist of things so I'm always happy to find your explanations haha XD will see tomorrow. I do not keep my keys at hand nor use other interfaces than steemit.com so at least for the first time I need to relog in (that can take me a few days LOL)

Basically you need your posting key to write on Steemit.Com and your active key for sending / receiving STEEM / SBD at SteemitWallet.Com If you don't have these keys and you only have your old good-for-everything password, you can get these keys still by downloading the PDF offered to you when logging in to Steemit. Keep safe.

Thank you for this! I'm a tech doofus and therefore easily confused by any changes. Your post was clearly written and very informative. I appreciate you taking the time to do this for those of us who need a little help!

You’re welcome!

Oh, I’m a total tech doofus too and that’s why I wanted to break it down step by step... as it’s exactly what I would need to clearly understand the changes and make me feel comfortable with such a important change to something that holds all my money! Haha.

So glad it helped, that was my goal.

I appreciate you taking the time to comment!

Good

A lot of people here just treat this like a normal social media site, not a crypto site. No other social media site (or heck almost any site in general) requires you to know 5 different passwords (master, owner, memo, active, and posting) and each one does different things, every other site you have 1 password to do everything.

The big issue here is everyone (Steemit, some users, etc) forget that this is a consumer platform for normal users and normal users don't know anything about how crypto works, they just see "big bucks" and hope to make a buck. Those people wouldn't know anything about key security or the "open source platform powering Steemit".

Basically they needed to handle it differently:

  1. Don't refer to it as Condenser, no normal person would understand that.
  2. Explain clearly why people should care about separate keys, not why Steemit should care. Steemit mentioned it saves them money and reduces attacks via ads but they didn't really explain how that effects the user (less risk of your money being stolen). Power users could easily infer that but not the average person.
  3. They needed a longer timeline, the only warning normal people who don't check the blog would've seen is the warning when logging in for like a week before the change. That's not enough time for something this massive, especially since some people might not even log in every week. They should've had a banner at the top of the page like they did today for the split for the whole month and had a warning on the wallet page itself.

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Have you successfully used this @llfarms ...

"There is also a password manager called keychain that could be an option. Go check them out and see what works for you!"

... since I have Keychain, but it did not populate the password field.

My assumption was SteemIt had elected, at least for now, to not concern itself with supporting this nice option.

Works great with other apps, e.g. like SteemWorld though!

Posted using Partiko Android

I’m familiar with keychain but have not used it myself. I have heard many good things about it though and it’s on my list of things to “test”. I do know that Steemit has not implemented it at this time.. I’m not sure if they have plans to in the future.. but it’s mentioned to them often haha.

Okay, thank you for the prompt response @llfarms. Just thought I would ask, in the event you had successfully used it. Which would've meant I needed to figure out why my implementation of it didn't work ...

Have a good afternoon!

Oh! I just realized I goofed as I recommend a key manager that is not compatible with the Steemit.com interface. Total goof when going back and adding information Sorry about that!

Yes, currently keychain is not compatible on steemit.com but is on other interfaces. I went ahead and edited the post to reflect that, as it implied it would actually work of course.

Hopefully that is something they are considering as many rave about keychain.

Not to worry @llfarms. I didn't want to suggest that directly, as I believe your wording could have been interpreted in more than one way. Thanks for the follow-up!

Posted using Partiko Android

Even though peeps are helping spread the message is great, I wonder how many people are going to be so completely confused even hate the change even though this is going to benefit us all

I love normie talk!

Yes, I hate that there will still be confusion. It looks like Steemit Inc is actively working to improve on that though (notice the new blue banner) and I hope it continues. Communication is hard here sometimes!

haha, thanks ;) I am running with the normie talk lately lol.

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