Hive Account

A **Hive account** is an identity on the [Hive blockchain](/wiki/Hive). Hive accounts allow people, bots, or third-party applications that are in possession of their [Private Keys](/wiki/Private-Key) to actively interact with the blockchain, i.e. to submit a [[transaction]]. From a technical point of view, a Hive account is a container for all the activity associated with a particular identity on the blockchain. This includes all their tokens, posts, comments, [upvotes](/wiki/Upvote), transfers, etc.^[1] Hive accounts must have between 3 and 16 characters in length and can contain letters of the English alphabet, digits, and several special characters.^[2] As a decentralized network, Hive does not apply any [KYC policy](/wiki/Kyc) or limit the number of accounts per person or legal entity. Any existing Hive account can create new accounts. Creating a new account on Hive costs zero to 3.49 [HIVE](/wiki/Hive-Cryptocurrency) (depending on the site, check [here](https://signup.hive.io/) for an overview of different ways to create an account), or an [[Account Creation Token]] which can be obtained by any existing account for [[Resource Credits]].^[3] New users typically use one of the third-party providers, dedicated account-creating services.^[4] [[Splinterlands]] has created more than 200,000 Hive accounts for players who have completed registration for the game.^[5]
## Examples of Hive Account Types by Purpose The hive has no hierarchy of accounts; all accounts are equal in terms of rights and permissions. However, account owners may reserve them for certain purposes, such are: * @godfish – a personal account of a single person * @propolis.wiki – a project account managed by the team members * @propolis.eng – a technical account accessed by multiple users * @curangel – a curating initiative * @smooth.witness – a dedicated Witness account * @hive-128464 – a community account * @cesky – a curation bot * @luvshares – a token-related bot * @aruchard89 – a gaming bot * @badge-646464 - A [[Peakd]] badge account ## Account Authorities Hive uses a weighted hierarchy of keys. It effectively allows community or project accounts to be governed by individuals with different levels of permissions, as demonstrated by [Propolis](/wiki/Welcome-To-Propolis-Wiki) Wikipedia. The four Hive Private Keys that every account has are: 1) Owner Key: Used for recovering accounts, regenerating other keys, and setting a new password. 2) Active Key: Used to transfer and manage funds, vote for witnesses, or approve DHF proposals. 3) Posting Key: Used to broadcast posting transactions and votes. 4) Memo Key: Used for decrypting encrypted messages sent via fund transfers in the wallet. Besides these keys, witnesses use their accounts to generate an additional key called a Signing Key. This key is unique for every witness. It indicates that a witness is available for block production.^[2] ## Account Recovery Due to the lack of central authority, Hive implements [[peer to peer]] recovery process. Every account can set up its [[Recovery account]] as a trustee. The creating account takes the role by default but can be replaced anytime. To recover a compromised account, its owner must have their original Private Owner Key that was used less than 30 days ago, or else the recovery cannot be performed.^[6] However, the process is less user-friendly than on centralized platforms and may not be available in all cases. Hive account owners should store their keys securely to prevent loss or compromise. ## References 1. ↑ Hive Developer Portal – Glossary https://developers.hive.io/glossary/#glossary-chain-basics 2. ↑ ↑ (2020) HIVE Whitepaper https://hive.io/whitepaper.pdf? 3. ↑ Hive Developer Portal – Account creation process https://developers.hive.io/tutorials-recipes/account-creation-process.html 4. ↑ https://signup.hive.io 5. ↑ @dalz (2024) Splinterlands Stats | Feb 2024 | Transactions, Games, Players and Price https://hive.blog/hive-13323/@dalz/splinterlands-stats-or-feb-2024-or-transactions-games-players-and-price 6. ↑ @arcange (2020) Introducing Hive Account Recovery https://hive.blog/hive/@arcange/introducing-hive-account-recovery ## Related Articles [[Transaction]] [[Account creation token]] [[Resource credits]] [[Splinterlands]] [[Peakd]] [[Peer to peer]] [[Recovery account]]