Account Recovery

Account Recovery on Hive

Recovering a Hive account is possible, but only if you retained your previous owner key and your recovery account can vouch for you. Use this playbook the moment you suspect a compromise.

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🔎 Quick Triage

• Did you lose access to keys but still have the previous owner key? → Go to Reset keys with your owner key.
• Were your keys changed without permission in the last 30 days? → Go to Request a recovery.
• Has it been more than 30 days since the keys changed? → Recovery is no longer possible; create a new account and move any funds you can still access.

Keep your owner key offline. Never paste it into chats or screenshots.

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✅ Reset keys with your owner key

If you still have your owner key, you can rotate all other keys immediately:

1. Open the Ecency Permissions page (replace username).
2. Click Change Keys.
3. Paste your current owner key when prompted.
4. Generate new posting, active, and memo keys.
5. Confirm the transaction.
6. Back up the new keys in at least two safe places.

This restores control and invalidates any compromised keys.

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🆘 Request a recovery (within 30 days)

If an attacker changed your keys and you still have the previous owner key:

1. Contact your recovery account (the account that created yours, often ecency, appreciator, or a friend/business).
2. Provide your username, the date/time you lost control, and state that you still possess the previous owner key.
3. The recovery account submits a recovery request on-chain.
4. Ecency will prompt you to confirm the request with your previous owner key.
5. On confirmation, generate new posting/active/memo keys and store them securely.

You have 30 days from the unauthorized key change to complete this process. After that, the blockchain rejects recovery attempts.

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🧾 Verifying ownership (what to expect)

Recovery accounts may ask for:

• Proof that you control email or socials previously linked to the account.
• Transaction history only you would know (recent transfers, memos).
• The previous owner key (entered in a secure form, never in chat).

This protects against fraudulent recovery attempts.

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🧹 After regaining access

• Rotate keys again from the Permissions page to ensure only the new set remains valid.
• Review recent activity in your wallet and notifications; revoke any active delegations or power-downs you did not start.
• Change passwords on any third-party sites that stored your keys.
• Consider updating your recovery account to a trusted contact you can reach quickly.

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🛡️ Prevention checklist

• Store the owner key offline (hardware or paper) and never use it for daily actions.
• Use Hive Keychain or the Ecency mobile app to avoid pasting keys into browsers.
• Keep a record of your recovery account and how to contact them.
• Enable two-factor security on email and devices tied to your Hive activity.
• Periodically test that you can locate your backups.

If you cannot meet the 30-day window, create a new account via the account creation guide and secure it with the practices above.