Steemit Basics | Keeping Your Account Safe !
I made a post 4 months ago on "Getting Started On Steemit" which I used to welcome some of the new Sports Bettors that joined and it really seemed to have helped at least a couple to kick start their journey on here. 4 Months is a long time and I learned a few new things I whish I had known when I just got started here. One of them is How all the Public and Private Keys Work and what to do to make everything as secure as possible so there is no need to worry about getting hacked losing your account and funds. In this post I will be breaking down all the important basics...
Cryptocurrency can be quite technical and confusing even to people who are into the IT Sector. The best way I got to understand how private keys work is by a practical example that can be seen as an analogy...
Imagine a closet with 10 drawers numbered 1 to 10. the drawers can be opened and closed but not locked and money can be placed into them. Putting money in would not be very secure because it can easily be stolen due to the fact that there are only 10 drawers.
Now imagine the closet is the size of a planet and each atom is a drawer. When picking a random locker and writing down it's location, I would be impossible for anyone to ever guess even the entire world was running a super computer searching for the location.
This is basically what a private key is (the location of your drawer). Everyone who knows your location can go and take the money you put into it. Steem is extra secure since it allows for account recovery even when you lose your private key.
Steemit works with multiple private keys that can be used to log in which each have different functions. The Public Keys (they don't really have practical use) and Private Keys can be found when going to the permissions tab in your wallet.
Private Posting Key: This is the key you want to use to login on Steemit, it grants your account access to make and upvote posts. The worst thing that can happen if this gets stolen or hacked is that it allows the one who stole it to do just that on your behalf. Posting keys can be shared when working in a group on the same blog.
Private Active Key: This is the key you need if you want to send Steem or SBD to other accounts, change your profile settings or vote for Witensses. The worst thing that can happen if this gets stolen or hacked is that your STEEM and SBD will be stolen. Everything that is locked up in STEEM POWER or Savings can't be touched for at least 3+ days.
Private Owner Key: This is also know as your Private Master Key, Master Password or Password and it's by far the most important Private Key. It has all functionalities of the other keys build in and more importantly allows you to change all your keys. It is possible to lose your entire account with all the funds in it if your Private Owner key Gets Stolen.
Private Memo Key: Steemit allows to send and receive private messages and the memo key is needed to decode them so only you are able to read them. The worst thing that can happen if this gets stolen or hacked is that it allows the one who stole it to read private messages you received.
The best thing your can do to avoid losing your account and funds in case you would get hacked is to keep your master password (Private Owner Key) offline at all times, written down on a paper and stored on an USB stick without it being connected to the internet. If you somehow lose or see your other keys get stolen, the master password will easily allow you to claim back your account and change all keys!
Steemit is probably the only blockchain that allows for an account recovery in case your Private Owner Key gets stolen and changed. This can only be done on the Stolen Account Recovery Page on Steemit and you need have access to the email address you signed up with
Thanks !
Yeah @costanza, you are definitely right. Maybe you can also include the steem delegation for your next post! Hurray! :)
Thanks for the tip, the delegation indeed also took quite some time to understand myself.
Yeah. That's why I suggested that because I experienced that lately. It pissed me off 100% :D
Why exactly did it piss you off ?
Another thing I have yet to write about is the dust treshold, every post or comment that gets upvotes below 0.02$ gets turned into dust after 7 days. This is implemented into the system to prevent spam
Nahh, its a long long story. That’s because of my curiosity and I don’t even know the process yet which will take about 7 days for the undelegation.
Now I know why my 0.01 value is like useless. Yeee!! I’m excited to read your blogs. ;-)