THE DAY I LOST MY STEEM MASTER KEY: HOW TO AVOID IT NOT TO HAPPEN?

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Yep. You’re right. I just lost my Steem owner key four days ago and that leaves my heart broken. If you are steeming, the owner key is as important as your cellphone that became part of your basic needs. As important as a money because we earn through posting and all our rewards are inside of your Steem account. Since I lost the owner key, I lose control also with my account. From August 2017 I didn’t not collect my rewards and when I’m planning to do so, that’s the only time I realize how important the owner key was. Unfortunately, I can’t access my funds which made me feel like totally doomed. This only means…. BYE BYE Rewards!

Anyways, it’s not the money that bothers me a lot. It’s my effort I put in it. The posting I made, the friends I gained from my followers to those people I followed. It’s the value and attachment to my account that made me feel broken.
So, to remind EVERYONE who has Steem account, I will share some key points how important the keys are and how you can avoid losing your account.

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Steem has five different keys or passwords associated with accounts. Four of these are used with typical accounts and the fifth is used by witnesses. They are: owner, active, posting, memo, and signing keys. Each has its own set of functions and limits.

OWNER KEY
This is the most important key since it gives you full control of your Steem account. The owner can use it for posting, voting, vote for witness, transferring funds or even changing all keys. The owner should not expose this password to others to avoid accessing your account by someone else.

ACTIVE KEY
This key can perform almost all functions except “changing the owner key”. It can be use also in transferring a fund, trading, powering up/powering down of Steem power, voting and witnesses.

POSTING KEY
It allows you to post, comment, vote or follow other accounts. The Posting Key will restrict Users from moving any funds from your Account such as moving any assets from your wallet or engaging in internal Market to trade. Posting Key is restricted from changing Permission keys, making the ideal key to use with non-official Steemit Services.

MEMO KEY
This is the only key specifically used for private messaging. Though the feature is still in the making, it is foreseeable future that will allow user to make use of encrypted private communication. It does not have much purpose as of now as it’s soon thought to be used for communication only.

SIGNING KEY
It can be used by witnesses to sign block and set with the “update_witness” transaction signed using an active or owner key.

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Steem has seven rules for changing password.

Change Password

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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.

To sum up these rules, it only reflects one thing, DO NOT LOOSE YOUR PASSWORD. Yes, I admit I have some negligence. I did not secure my password accordingly and now it cost me a lot. I saved only one copy in my online note and another in my Iphone note. The question is, why it wasn’t in my back-up files? I already searched in my onedrive file, dropbox and icloud. When my phone got reformatted, I lost everything. I believe all my files are all sync together, but it looks like not. I checked also the password manager in google chrome, unfortunately, it was included in the “Never save password” list. I’m so stupid, am I? Why I didn’t send it to my email? Why I didn’t print a copy? Honestly, I thought it’s just as easy when you want to change your email password. I thought there is a “forgot password” button. I didn’t read the full terms and condition. Period.

So here’s my major list for you to keep your password intact:

1. Send a copy in your personal email. A person can have two, three or as many email as they have, make sure to send to each email and marked “Star” so it’s easy for you to find when you needed to.
2. Save a copy in your personal computer or phone. Make sure all your devices are backed-up or sync them together so whatever happens to your devices you can still access the files online.
3. Right it down in your diary or planner but do not expose. You can make a sign that this combination letters and number is your password. Example, put an * or highlight it with pen. Anything that only you can understand.
4. Save a copy to external hard drive, usb, or cd (if it still exsist ^_^)
5. Send a copy to a trusted person like your partner, best friend, family or relative. Make sure you’ll send it to someone who is close to you.
6. Memorize your password. Hahaha if you have photographic memory why not. But having a long password, I bet this will be your last option.
7. Save the password to your trusted computer. This is only applicable if you have personal desktop or laptop. Google chrome can make it easy for you, just click the “save the password” button that will appear at the right side of the monitor, and it will be save forever.
   
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My best friend who used to do steeming as well told me just take it as “Charge to Experience”. Well, there is nothing I can do, I also have negligence so I have to accept it. Anyways, I created a new account in Steem, this time around I will make sure I will secure my password, as in super duper secure! Thank you for all the people who showed support when they found out what happened. Thank you for all my steem UAE family for helping me retrieving my account. Thank you for all the never ending advises, I’m really touched.

I hope and looking forward to get the same support and followers, definitely I’ll do the same. There are some things happen that we can’t control but at least we learned something from it. Just like the popular quotes we keep hearing, “Accept what is, let go of what was and have faith in what will be.”

Keep steeming until the end!