Hey all,

The Steem

ecosystem has been seeing astounding but steady growth over the months. As of now there are almost over 500,000 accounts sign ups, And we're seeing for the first time (at least around me) people who are not exposed to cryptocurrencies being curious as to "What is this crypto-blogging thing?" This platform is superior and empowering and we're beginning to see it enters the awareness of the public at large. More power to us!!

There is one tiny issue, most of us might not have the best knowledge with public/private key pairs, therefore will feel weird about how Steem's "password" works. And even those have experience with other blockchains might not be immediately aware of the nuances with the various keys that is available for a Steem wallet.

I'd like to focus on the Steem Blockchain passwords/keys to

1. put my understanding out there in hopes that more knowledgeable Steemians will read this and correct me where I'm wrong.
2. use it as a reference article for people myself or anyone else pulls in so that they dont need to manually type out this whole thing when they inevitably ask "How does "Passwords" work on Steemit?" (roll credits!!)

Preface

Before I start, I'd just like to quickly gloss through the terms that i will use and what it means, my terms may be incorrect (please correct me and cite the source if so) although it's what I've been using all this while. Steem may not be similar to the other blogging platforms you have used.

Wallet : Your account, it's what you sign into every time you come to Steemit.com. its where you can check your balances and steem power, send and receive payments, in fact technically its where you broadcast your upvotes, posts, follow, delegation et catera..

Public Key : How your account looks like to the blockchain. Imagine it like your "Steemail Address" of which if anyone wants to interact with your account (delegation, transfer etc.) it will be recorded as such on the blockchain.

Private Key : Your password, Steem is a blockchains and works using public/private key encryption in all its transactions. If you have bitcoin and knows how to use it, you'd be familiar with the term, Steem's "password" is the same thing, which is why its so important.. no one else knows the private, not Steemit.com, not Steemit inc. the company, no one..

Your coins are your private keys, your private keys are your coins. you have the private keys, you own the coins; someone has your private keys, someone owns your coins.

Blockchain : This whole thing, no, not just steemit.com, its the database that Steemit.com runs on. Whereas other Social Media has its own proprietary and hidden databases, Apps on Steem runs on a shared Decentralized database and network in that it's all built on top of the blockchains. All the transfers, all the steem's location, all the posts, all the data... all are recorded on the blockchain, it's the most bottom layer network that everything runs on. You can take a look at how the blockchain might look like at Steemd.com

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Now of course there will more terms you'll find around and i can't think of all of them now. Even if i did, I dont want to overwhelm anyone.

Lets go straight to the point!

There are more than one public/private keys to each Steem wallet

Yes, amazing right? while most blockchain only needs a single private key (in some case, 1 brain seed to multiple private keys) to gain full control of the wallet, Steem wallets has more than 1 keys with each keys governing different facets of the steem wallet's capability.

In fact there are 4 keys you should be aware of with it's each different functions. Steem has been designed in way that even if your keys are compromised, you still have a chance of gaining control of your wallet, only if you made the prior preparations.

So I'll get down to it straight, what are the different keys you can use to access your steem wallet?

(1). Master Password / Private Key

This is the master key (in case you didn't get the clue), When you first signed up on Steemit.com, you are given this key. IDEALLY, you should only use password twice. First time, when you first got the keys on Steemit.com where you copy paste into an encrypted .txt file, into your password manager, manually with a pen on a piece of paper stored safely, snapped as picture with a (preferably offline) camera. and Second time, either to change your password every now and then (if nothing bad happens) or to restore your wallet (if you got hacked).

Too paranoid? well maybe you are fine with doing two of the four, I did all four of course.. and more... like an insurance plan, it's unnecessary if nothing bad happens but absolutely essential if something bad happens.

Your Master Password will be the key from which all your other keys are generated. Protect it with your life!

You should not ever use it to log in to steemit regularly! Any veteran Steemian cannot stress this enough. Heed it, continue reading to see why and use what other keys instead.

Other than generate keys, your master password also has full access to your wallet. it can be used to view all your other keys, and will override the function of all the other keys. If a hacker grab hold of your private, It's pretty much Gone Game for your liquid steem and SBD, and if long enough, your Steem power too, not to mention they can use your account to do whatever they want. Imagine if that hacker uses your account to send a provocative memo to an angry whale, or worse, post content as you.... There are things worse than having your account wiped out.
With your Master Password, you can find out your other keys via going to Wallet > Permission.

(2). Posting Key

This is the key that is recommend to use for your daily Steem-ing. Posting keys only allows a person to post, comment, upvote, flag, follow and things of that nature, You can't do anything when it comes to moving steem/SBD and your steem power. 98% of your time on Steemit will be spent on writing posts, comments and things like that, And so it's much more prudent to only sign in using your posting keys every time you log on to Steemit.

If your posting keys are compromised, at least you can rest assure that hackers cannot steal your funds. This serves as an additional layer of protection for your wallet.

(3). Active Key

This is the key you will use to transfer your steem, to power up, to delegate, and use for Steem internal Market. Now Active keys are what hackers usually opt for if they cannot steal your Master Password outright. So be careful when using your active keys.. Never use your active keys on sketchy websites. ALWAYS CHECK THE URL!!!

Always think three times before doing something that requires your active keys. And because of the lack of an intuitive wallet that is user friendly (at least for us selfie-ing folks), I personally recommend only using your active keys on Steemit.com. Since it is the safest bet for us.

That's about it really

There are actually 2 more other keys but those work on the Blockchain level. As far as we are concerned, just save those keys too and keep it safe.

So you see, Another way to see it is that the Steem Blockchain offers "secondary" passwords which unlocks limited parts of your wallet for your daily needs. In truth, your Steem wallet has a very very wide and complicated fuctionality by design. Posting, voting, sending and receiving money are actually only the tip of the iceberg.

Steem Wallets are POWERFUL

Which is why personally I feel that the whole Steem Blockchain is like a sleeping dragon. From an investor perspective, there are so many vaporwave coins and ICO out that promises to do things Steem already can do. Good tech projects aren't usually marketed properly because the whole team are made of geeks, which focuses on what matters.

And it's certainly the case here for Steem. Where "marketing" is almost exclusively done by people that did not design the blockchain. A true Decentralization.

Title Photo by Bence Boros on Unsplash

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I'm @awesomianist

Stay Awesome