I was discussing Hive's usability with another user I follow a few days ago. He discussed onboarding someone and took the time to show them around the most difficult aspect of the chain: key storage. I believe this is difficult because once they are lost, they are permanently lost, and the account is no longer accessible.
Unlike in web2, you can easily click "forget password" and reset it via email or phone number. On the surface, this appears to be very rigid and lacks sophistication. A person may believe that because web3 is an advancement of web2, they can lose anything and recover it any way they want.
In the case of Hive, it is more about security than crudeness.
How?
If a person's account is easily retrievable, hackers will target the accounts of people like theycallmedan in order to gain access to them and steal their funds.
On web2, for example, people are hacking into the accounts of people with IP addresses in Serbia and Russia, and these web2 accounts have no monetary value. In reality, we cannot make compromises. Blockchain technology has not advanced to the point where it is easy to access and recover accounts while making it difficult for a potential hacker to do so.
There are no fingerprint logins or face unlocks for web3 accounts; while this technology is theoretically possible, it is not currently feasible. We cannot have both simplicity and crudeness in the same technology; it must be either difficult to access but not prone to hacking, or easy to access and simple to hack. There is no way to compromise security because, in the end, we will always prefer to be safe than sorry.
Personally, I keep my keys stored and written down somewhere because I do not trust my devices enough to believe they will save my keys, which is why I took precautions.
Was it uncomfortable to do so? Yes. Do I regret it? No.
I believe it is critical to understand that web2 cannot be web3. We can only try so hard to replicate web2's simplicity and accessibility, but web3 technology is designed to be sophisticated and complex, and cannot be any simpler.
The user I was speaking with suggested that web3 may require its own population rather than the population from web2, but I quickly responded that while he may be correct, there are potential web2ers who would make excellent web3 population if they were actually onboarded.
I believe that the majority of web3 users did not start out as savvy. Most of us underwent extensive remodeling, which is how we learned how it works. I do not believe web3 is designed to have its own population; rather, it is intended to migrate individuals from web2.
In Conclusion
Unfortunately we cannot onboard everyone, as truly not everyone will be determined enough to do it. However, while we have done an excellent job in terms of usability and accessibility, we are unable to compromise on the issue of keys.
We have different keys on Hive for accessibility, and the owner key is actually the most important key. I know you may be thinking "But why can not we just have one key for everything?" However, the issue of security will suffice once again. We cannot overemphasize the importance of privacy, security, and ownership.
These are some of the key components of web3. It is true that the average web2 user is not particularly interested in all of this, but I believe it is only a matter of time.
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I do wonder if we have too many keys on Hive though. Most of the population are not ready to move from a service where they are the product, to their content is the product and v4v. I guess it goes part in parcel with the fiat world and however long that has left. At some point, everyone will be on web3 and it will be seen as mainstream and normal. Web2 will look as odd and weird as when you remind covid believers that they followed arrows on the floor around supermarkets, something they have quickly forgotten about.
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We tend to indulge anyone who thinks the keys are too much by agreeing that the keys are truly too much indeed. I think we tend to do these to create a form of justification. Just like you've mentioned, web3 is supposed to be progress that's normal rather than one alien stuff that's deemed abnormal.
It's inevitable. It's just that people, some people don't seem to think it's worth it to be their own value and create it for themselves. It's probably the mindset.
Thanks for the curation.
We have the right amount of keys! Take Nostr(social on bitcoin) for example they have only a public and a private key. Your private gets leaked and your account is compromised for good. Say goodbye to everything you have collected because you can't change your keys. The benefits of Hive is if a key gets leaked you have a chance to recover your account and change your keys. Having separate keys keeps your funds safer. If your posting key gets compromised you will not lose your funds because you don't use that key to make transfers. If Hive keychain gets compromised you still have the ability to recover your account because they don't store your master password. And if someone gets your master password because you didn't keep it safe, you still have a chance to recover your account through the recover account. I don't know of any blockchain that offers you that level of security or even the ability to recover your account. So make sure you keep your master password secure and that your recovery account is set to someone you trust. It may be a lot of work to keep track of but it is worth it knowing its not easy for the hacker to gain access to my account.
Yeah I see what you mean, but it could be reduced to say 2 maybe? Also account recovery is a very useful feature unique to Hive too.
You wouldn't want to to that since it is used to encrypted your private massages in your hive wallet. Inleo also uses it for their subscription services. You need both the memo key and active key to send an encrypted message.
Greetings @josediccus ,
I hope you are well.
Appreciate this post..so true....and well said.
We do desire security, thank you for taking the time to explain what will be different when it comes to our keys.
Kind Regards,
Bleujay
Thanks a million. We indeed desire see security, and I think sometimes security should normally come at a cost and it's okay to do.
Thanks for the comment.
It's been a while
That's one of the strong points of web3, it's unhackability. Unfortunately it also presents a weak point, the irretrievability of accounts when keys are lost. The best way is to securely store the keys upon creating an account. I think on a platform like hive, this should be one of the most important things that should be told people we are onboarding: Only you can hold the keys and by that no one else can access your account but if you lose them no one can help you recover them. I think it's better if web3 remains that way.
You're right. The advantage presents a downside as well. However there can never be a perfect web, this I've always pointed out. Web3 sells security and privacy and that's its strongest suit. Although it tends to want to make people extra careful and I think that's the price to pay.
One time, Google told me that many sites kind of had my password. Apparently, that "Sign in using Google" that never asks me to login casues it. If some hacker did some data scraping, my acct would have been a goner. That's the problem with web2 and someone else managing my account password. If web2 people think of their accounts like our cars, they'd prefer to keep their keys the same way.
I think it's not a lot of web2 people that actually knows all these. You need to actually be a combination of web2 and web3 person to actually understand. I think I got that message sometimes that many sites has my password. For Google to even have a combination of sensitive passwords created across many platforms is mind-blowing and imagine having all that power and control.
Web3 seems difficult because web2 first surfaced. Inasmuch as there is a need for simplicity, security is key.
Businesses are now done online, account ownership will soon become an eye opener making businesses and influencers to shift grounds. It's a matter of time.
Yes, thanks for reiterating. I think security cannot be compromised for ease, I think that's just it.
We all started as Web 2-ers. Maybe future generations will be "born" on Web 3, however they may look like in the future, but that's a long time to wait for it to happen. In the meantime, a migration is what we can hope for.
Immigration is very much possible and it is happening massively as we count down. You are right, most of the present generation only understand what's web2 is. I think going forward it can only get easier
You have to safeguard those keys, otherwise you can lose access to your funds. Plain and simple. I agree with you, never trust your device to store those keys. Always have them written down somewhere safe, very smart move!
!hiqvote
Yeah, but I hear people making the argument that the chain should be simpler and they cannot do with all that keys. They forget that security of their account is paramount and more important than any freedom there is to have. I have mine written and I did that even more than 4 years ago.
It's a different beast and I agree that keys in crypto are different. I backup the keys on different devices and backup. I don't write down my keys but maybe I should.
I think you should write them down, it's very important.
Exactly web 2 has more security than web3 if you misplaced ur keys thats the end
Yes, it's perk is that you have security.
Yah I thought so
Reading through your write up my boss, I feel what you've penned down goes fine.
It's often said safety first and for the sake of Web3 security, it's has to to modified in a more complicated way. For me, I feel in Web2, privacy is never completely private, and that's why one can actually have access to their forgotten private data. But in Web3, I feel whatever is termed private is absolutely private and by losing such data, everything it controls is lost as well.
That's what I feel.
Thanks for sharing boss, enjoy your weekend.
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