Newbies Initiative Task3: Importance of hive keys, use and how to keep them safe

Hello everyone , welcome once again to my blog,
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it's another week, which means another newbie initiative task given, over the weekend, we were lectured about hive keys and why we need to keep them safe, thanks to @samostically and @starstrings for the very detailed lecture, I'm sure a lot of us must have come across or know what a Hive key means since we all have an account here already, for the sake of those that don't know or still intending to create an account, when your hive account is created, we are given a sets of keys/passwords which are long filled with mostly numbers and figures, known as the Hive keys,
they are very important and needs to be kept safe, because you could lose your account as well as your earnings you've worked so hard for, just so you know, hive has no recover your password option as most apps do, in this post, i will be answering some questions about hive keys and how to keep them safe, also in cases whereby you can't have access to your account, what do you do?, all these will be answered as my task 3 given by the newbie-hive initiative.

What are the best ways of keeping your hive keys safe

• Trusted person
  you could give your hive keys to someone you trust offline wholeheartedly to safe keep for you, it can be in written form also, keep some copies for yourself also give the person, it's not compulsory if the person knows about hive or not, as long as he or she is trusted to keeps it safe and give you when needed.

• Email
  You could also save your keys in your personal email that's not compromised, this is self explanatory, you could save it as draft

• Google drive
  You can upload your keys to Google cloud or any you drive you feel is well protected from hackers. Although this is not mostly advisable as a Google drive can easily be hacked

• Trustee account
  This is someone you trust here on the hive platform, it can also be someone you know personally and you trust them not to tamper with your keys, when you set them as your account trustee, you share your keys with them
  
  How do you check your recovery account and what process is needed to recover an account.
  

To check your recovery account is very easy, for this post, i will be using my peakd front-end

First, click on the three dots, next to the settings on your personal blog page,

Some options will get displayed immediately, among the options, click on the keys and permission

Yet, another sub-option, click on the recovery account

Mine has been set as OCDB, mostly the Dapp used in opening your account are always set as your account trustee, but can always be changed whenever you feel the need to, just use the blue or purple button below and follow up on the prompt given.

Scroll down on the new page, and there you will see your recovery account displayed.

To recover your account, you need to contact your account trustee, who will inturn use the this link https://reazuliqbal.com/HiveAccountRecovery/
To help in recovering your account, all he or she needs to do is just follow the instructions given in the screenshot below

whom did you choose as your account trustee and why

As seen above in the second question, my account trustee is set as OCDB, this is because, they are well known on this hive platform to be trusted and my keys are also safe with them, if peradventure I happen to lose access to my account in the future, i can easily contact them on the dicord server, and some layed down secured procedures will be followed to help me in recovering my account.

** List the various types of keys and state their use cases.**

There are five types of hive keys, each has it's uniqueness and uses, they are;

• Memo keys
• Posting keys
• Active keys
• Master keys
• Owners keys

Memo Keys
Are mostly used for encrypting and decrypting private messages, it's the least used keys of all, it's also like a tag/label as it helps in tracing your account, this key can be likened to your account number which can only be used for your benefit and cannot be used to hack into your account.

Posting Keys

This is the most used keys, you've probably cone across using this key often, because it's the key that allows you stay active on hive by helping you

• post comment
• upvote a post
• downvotes a post
• publish/edit a post/comments
• reblog a post
• follow a user
  In Conclusion, i will say overall engagement the hive blockchain is made possible with the posting key.

Active keys
This should be one of your favourite and most secured keys because , all financial transaction done on the hive blockchain is only possible with the help of the active keys, some one who has access to this keys can easily move your funds from your account, basically, what the active key does are as follows

• transfer tokens
• power your hive up or down
• convert your HBDs etc just think of anything financially related or wallet related is done through the help of the active key.

Master keys
Is also a very important key because it works as the owner key, it can be used to change all other keys when you feel your keys are compromised, and also can be used to recover your account. This key is mostly sent as a mail unlike other keys. Another name for the master key is 'RECOVERY KEY'.

Owners keys
Like I stated before, the owner key is a very powerful key as it can be used to change all other keys, the memo, posting and active keys
It can also be used to recover your account.

Appreciation
My appreciation once again goes to @starstrings01 and @samostically for the enlightening lecture given, also all other members of the @newbie hive initiative team @aliento @theycallmedan @projectmamabg for tgeir constant support and guidance, it is well noticed, also my awesome group leader @Vickoly who never seizes to be there whenever we need him, thank you sir, please permit me to mention @hopestylist and @nkemakonam89, I love you all.

Thank you too to all my readers and supporters❤❤

Glorydee

All images used in this post were screenshot from my peakd account and reazuliqbal site, the first as stated beneath was designed by @projectmamabg