Good day everyone,
I am very delighted to be part of this wonderful lecture and on the topic on Blockchain wallet. I will like to thank our noble professor @sapwood for that wonderful lecture. I really enjoyed and learnt a lot so am kindly here to present to you my work.
Below is my submission for the homework task.
How do you store/restore your keys?What are the difference forms of private keys(Example/screenshot)? Download & Install TronLink wallet (Android/iOS/Extension)? How do you store the key (Hint- write it down on a notepad, demonstrate it with examples)? Which form of the key are you comfortable with to handle your TronLink Wallet? Include screenshots & hide/blur the sensitive information.
To all those who had the opportunity to complete task 3, you will get to know that it was based on some security tips and that was on how one can keep his or her keys safely to avoid hackers or bad people from accessing ones account. As we all know Steemit keys cannot be stored in an individuals head that will be very difficult because it is a long key which contains alphabets and numbers. So that is why one is advised to store it somewhere and whenever you want to login you then copy and paste. Normally this is done for all platforms which act like Steemit or which provides its users to with keys. The disadvantage part of these keys are that when you loose them that’s all for you your account will no longer be able to login unless you create a new one.
This keys we talking about is the users everything because without the keys you can’t have access to your account talkless of you trying to make any transaction. So it takes every reason to place it a very safety place.
Below are some of the ways a user can store his or her keys:
Writing the keys clearly in a notebook: I know a lot of users will say it is very difficult to write it down because the keys are long. But trust me if you try your possible best and do that your keys will be saved. It really helps a lot because your keys will be offline and even if hackers try to get in touch with your account, your keys wouldn’t be seen.
Storing the keys on a personal computer: Keys as said early on is the only gate to your account and to make it safe I will encourage users to safe it offline on thier computers as in creating a private folder for them.
Storing keys on a Gmail account: With Gmail anywhere you go your you can just login if only you have internet connection and then access to your account. So I will say storing it on your Gmail is also the best.
Storing keys on a google drive: This is one of the best ways I think we should store our keys on. With this google drive there is no way you will loose your keys because as we all know it backs up any information on it all the time.
We have only three types of private keys and below are they:
- Private key
- Keystore file key
- Mnemonic key
I will like to throw more light on each one of them.Let me kindly start with private key.
Private key is a key which contains both letters and numbers and even symbols for its password creation. This key must be taken with extra care because when you loose it, you won’t be able to have access to your wallet and this simply means that you won’t be able to make any transaction with your account. This actually makes this private key so important. Below is one of the examples of private keys.
Mnemonic key is more unless like a phrase which contains about 24 letters. The purpose of this key is to help recover an individuals account or to get back a missing account. At the very moment you create your account, you will be given the mnemonic key there by whenever you loose your password you will be asked of it and when you enter your mnemonic key you will recover your account. Below is an example of mnemonic key.
Keystore file key is more unless like the private key but the difference is that the security in the Keystore file key is higher than that of the private key. Am saying this because even for you to have access to your account, you have to login with a unique password given to you before it opens. The password to a Keystore file key involves numbers and letters but very extraordinary. And mostly you will be told not to use a simple password but a strong one. Below is an example of a Keystore file key.
As part of one of the duties cam assigned to do, I will like to clearly show how TronLink is downloaded and installed using an iPhones that’s the IOS system.
- You start all this by locating and opening your App Store..Then you search for TronLink.
- Kindly click on the get option to download the TronLink app and install as well.
- After it’s been downloaded and installed, you now click on it on your phone and the app will open. You then click on create account.
- Click on accept to agree to the users terms and conditions.
- After that you can now type in any name of your choice.
- Next is just to set your password and click on next.
- You again enter your password to confirm.
- You will be given the mnemonic keys to write it on a note book or a paper and not to take a screenshot and then after that you can now back it up.
- Finally after all those steps your account will be created.
Although there are lot of different forms of keys, and some of them are the mnemonic key and the private key. But for me personally the one I am comfortable with to handle my TronLink wallet is mnemonic key. I am vividly choosing the mnemonic key because I see it to be the best in a sense that It will not be difficult for me to memorize it into my head because they are only 12 letters but as compared to the private key the user cannot because the password is a combination of numbers and letters and more to the point very long for one to memorize. And what we know is that the moment you are not able to get your key then it simply means you are going to loose your asset.
Also there is no big deal about this, even before the completion of creation of you account you will be asked to write it on a paper. This makes you to store it safely and go crosscheck whenever you are in need of it. Although you can do same for the private key but by the time you are done writing, you might even mix them.So this is the very reason why I chose the mnemonic key.
Nowadays as we all know many people are yearning to invest into assets and also get profit from it at the end, this is the same way other people are also looking for peoples assets to steal and they are those we call the hackers. This is very simple by you keeping your keys at a very safer place and try not to keep your keys online because that’s when they will get everything simpler to hack into your account. So I will advice you to always store them offline that’s on a paper, In your notebook on your phone or even create a folder and store it on your computer.
Thank you very much professor @sapwood for that wonderful lecture and May the good Lord be with us and bless us all.