Hive Account Recovery Update

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Several months ago, I introduced Hive Recovery, a service that runs continuously and autonomously to help you recover your account if it were to be compromised.

For more information, I invite you to read the introduction post.

Currently, many users have decided to define @hive.recovery as their recovery account and to date, none have yet had to use its services to recover it, which in itself is a good thing.

One service with several working pieces

The services provided by @hive.recovery consist of two components:

The front-end

The front-end is a static HTML page that helps users to configure @hive.recovery as their recovery account. The front-end also helps to request @hive.recovery to initiate the recovery process

The back-end

The back-end is a javascript service running on a server that, upon request will verify the identity of an account and initiate the recovery process.

Front-end improvements

I recently had to provide assistance to users who wanted to change their recovery account. No major issue, but it made me realize that there was still room for improvement, especially on the user interface part.

1. Better error and edge case management

I first improved the error handling and fixed some small bugs regarding their notification.

I also added additional validations, among them the verification of the user's HIVE balance because the change request requires to have at least 0.001 HIVE available.

2. New password and keys generator

I took the opportunity to add a feature intended for the recovery process itself: the possibility of generating a new password and keys.

Indeed, the recovery process requires you to provide your recovery account with the public owner key from a new password and keys set you previously generated for your account.

But to generate this new password and keys set, it was necessary to use an external service, and first to know where to find such a service. This is no longer necessary since this functionality is now directly integrated into the site.

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If you do not have already generated a new password and keys set, you can do it by clicking the "Generate new Password and Keys" button. It will display a new dialog with a new randomly generated password and its related keys.

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After confirming you have saved your new credentials and clicked on "Continue", it will automatically copy your new public owner key into the appropriate input field.

Of course, none of the displayed data is stored or transmitted. You can audit the source code that has been updated on github.

The Hive Recovery User Guide, which contains all the details about this service has also been updated.

Little things that make your life easier.