The ABC’s of Steemit

This series of articles is dedicated to explaining the basics of Steemit for new users and anyone else who wants to brush up on Steemit basics.

It will include a variety of topics and concepts that are vital to understand and master to become a dedicated and successful member of the Steemit community.

Let's start with the letter--

A stands for Always protect your password. This rule cannot be stressed enough. You may have read this on your password page—spend a minute and read it again.

The first rule of Steemit is: Do not lose your password.
The second rule of Steemit is: Do not lose your password.
The third rule of Steemit is: We cannot recover your password.
The fourth rule: If you can remember the password, it's not secure.
The fifth rule: Use only randomly-generated passwords.
The sixth rule: Do not tell anyone your password.
The seventh rule: Always back up your password.

When you first open your Steemit account, you are given a master password. This master password will start with "P5" and then will have many more numbers and letters in a secret combination. This is your master password.

You are also given 4 permissions including Posting, Active, Owner, and Memo. These are often referred to as "keys".

The master password is like Frodo’s ring in The Lord of the Rings—it is the password that rules them all.

Here is the very first thing Steemit says to do in the Introduction information:

1. Backup your password
   Unlike centralized web services, the Steem Blockchain has no account password recovery.
   You are entirely responsible for keeping your password, and keeping it secure.
   Save your master key and keep it somewhere safe.
   It is strongly recommended that you store an offline copy of your password somewhere safe in case of >a hard drive failure or other calamity. Consider digital offline storage, such as a flash drive or burned >CD, as well as printed paper. Use a safe deposit box for best redundancy.
   If your account is valuable, treat it like a valuable!

What does it mean to back up your password? It means to put it down on a piece of paper, on a flash drive, or burned on a CD (or maybe all three!) and then store the password somewhere safe. It might even be a good idea to keep two copies in separate locations in case of a disaster such as a fire destroying one copy.

Your keys on the other hand, allow for various levels of access to your account. I will address these in another one of my ABC posts. For now, let's just stay focused on your password.

TL;DR

If you didn't catch it yet, here is the most important thing you can remember:

KEEP YOUR PASSWORD SAFE!

Your password is worth exactly how much your account is worth. If you lose it, accidentally post it in a memo field, get hacked, or otherwise lose your password, it is most likely you just lost the entire account. The thief will change the password, lock you out, and probably enjoy spending your Steem.

So, whatever you do, make sure you have your password safely stored offline somewhere.

**All pictures used are labeled for reuse. They come from Pixabay

Follow @bigpanda for more ABC's of Steemit and for flash fiction.