Following on from my "HELP!" post, I finally got it all sorted out. My network keys are not lost, and I am able to access my Hive funds.

I'd almost resigned myself to losing the Hive in my account (which was a considerable amount, as I'd invested in Steemit). But what I hadn't realised was, the network keys for my Hive account are the same as the ones for my Steemit account.

Doh! But what were the keys that I was trying to use?

When I came over to Hive from Steemit, I got a set of four network keys, and a Keystore password for Hivesigner. These four keys were the ones I was trying to use. I'm still quite confused as to what they are for!

I then launched a new account on Hive, called Hive account@imaginingfreedom. I'll write more about that account later. I had quite a few technological issues setting up the new account, and that took my attention away from my Hive account@natubat account.

When I went back to my Hive account@natubat account, that's when I discovered that the network keys didn't work. It took a lot of investigation and lots of help from Hive account@thekittygirl and @ew at Hive Discord before I worked out that the Hive keys for my account were the same as my Steemit keys.

And thanks to Hive account@slobberchops, because I jumped on his post and started asking for advice, because by that stage I was really starting to panic!

Aha! moment

It was when I stumbled across a post by Hive account@reazuliqbal called Hive Account Recovery that the "aha!" moment happened. I was about to start the account recovery process, when reading some of the comments, I realised that my Steemit keys might work.

The keys for my Hive account@imaginingfreedom account all seem to work, although I don't seem to have a master password, which Hive account@thekittygirl tells me should be a series of words.

I know I'm mostly to blame for all this. I can be quite dense in some situations – I often don't notice things when they're right in front of me. Actually this is quite a common trait in a world that is full of distractions, so a "Start Here" page with lots of basic info, FAQ, and where to go for help if you're stuck would, I think, be a great help for onboarding newbies.

Hivepeople

And now I've found the Hive account@hivepeople account, which is really helpful – maybe it could be signposted for further info under FAQ?

When I first heard about Hive I'd been away from Steemit for a few months, as my mum sadly had a stroke and then passed away at Christmas. Then there was the chaos of contacting all Mum's friends and relatives, and arranging the funeral.

When I finally got back to Steemit, I spent a while catching up with the takeover news. I found out about Hive, but I didn't know how to access it. I did an online search and found hive.co.uk, which is a UK book delivery service, a local alternative to Amazon.

I'm really glad I found that!

Further research finally led me to Hive.io, and I was able to get my Natubat account up and running using Peakd.

I think Hive is a much better name than Steemit, but it's not so easy to find online because there are many things called Hive. However, if I google "hive blog", hive.blog is first on the list. So when I tell other people about Hive, I'll say "Have you heard about the Hive blog?"

Once I got on to Hive, I encountered a few technological issues that took a lot of time to sort out. I couldn't find any way of getting help or advice on these. I wasn't aware of the Hive Discord, and when I went onto Discord and did a search for Hive and DSound (because I wanted to upload podcasts) there were no results.

https://discord.gg/kpb8pM

https://discord.gg/hSsBw3b

I've posted these links because it can be difficult to find Discord links.

I was already a member of the 3Speak Discord, so I was able to contact them about an issue I had paying the $2 fee to sign up for my other account. The problem was that I paid in Ether, but because of the gas charge there was a shortfall in the payment – however, the error message didn't tell me how much the shortfall was, or how I could pay the difference.

3Speak said it was a small amount, and they were kind enough to let me join anyway.

I think these issues could really deter people who are joining the platform for the first time, especially if they are not adept at using crypto. Most of my friends and relatives do not have a clue about using crypto. I'm a technological whizz kid compared to them – which is saying something!

I don't want to sound critical, because I'm massively impressed by all these platforms and by the creation of Hive, which is a much more decentralised platform whose value lies in its developers and creators.

Actually I am in total awe.

But I feel that this experience has allowed me to see things through the eyes of a Hive newbie.