I admit it, I don't post as often as I did before. Most of my time is spent working on Gundam Plastic kits and is evident with the few video posts that I upload through 3speak. 

Last upload there was around October 14 and after that it seemed that 3speak just went off with most latest posts were 2 months ago. 

I would still regularly log in my account to claim rewards and interest from the savings on a monthly basis. I would usually power up and delegate to Hive PH. I may not be that active in posting but I still wanted to support the community by delegating most of my Hive Power to them. 

So December 3, 2024. I logged in as usual and was surprised. Log-in failed. It was so weird. I tried a different key. Log-in failed. I tried a different key again. Log-in failed.


![markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/maverickinvictus/23t6vWCYoXb1uwxSQ5GF7MFSyqSWsiTXpJQzmQ11H8aQm6x8oPvAmngyeMRHyKocK312k.jpg)

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Markus Spiske</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/matrix-movie-still-iar-afB0QQw?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>
      
I was scared. I checked the wallet. There it was a tell-tale sign that I lost my account. The outgoing transfer showed two transactions made to an account I was unfamiliar with. It even got my saving stash. 

I was at a loss and tried to change password using peaked. Failed. 
I tried an account recovery. Failed
I tried everything and was past 3am already when I felt there was no more hope. 

I welcomed my birthday with a heavy heart with the loss of my Hive Blog. A blog that I've had since the Steemit days.  

To just lose it like that was heartbreaking. 

I slept and was not looking forward to the rest of my birthday. Someone told me its just an online blog. No its not just a blog, it that has been a part of my identity, a repository of my thoughts and feelings for almost a decade.

I received a message. A ray of hope. A way to try to recover my account. 

Call it luck, call it a break in the bad things happening but I had set up another recovery way as I kept getting reminders to update my recovery account. For the longest time I just ignored it but somehow there was that one instance that I heeded the reminder and followed the instructions for [Hive Account Recovery - User Guide](https://peakd.com/hive/@hive.recovery/userguide)

Composed of two parts a front end that is user friendly 
https://tools.hivechain.app/recovery
![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/maverickinvictus/23tmmN8tjVxA9QmGHLHPNc3wFZzt6rZwr1zfZ1RfuW2gt6knGv4YmpVT7wXHPh33QApcL.png)

and a backend of a java script that will run and send a script that will verify the secret phrase and key. For more information on how it runs you can check the user guide and the associated Git Hub if you want to check the source code on how it runs. 

So the following lessons I learned through this ordeal: 

1. It is really important to keep your keys in a safe place. 
2. Update your security settings and make sure you have various authentication methods in place,
3. Set up your recovery account. Just because you had no problems for the past 7 years does not mean you might not become a victim someday. 

I have to thank @arcange for helping me out in recovering my account. This person not just created this recovery tool but also took the time to guide me through it and I am forever thankful for the help. 

This is the best Birthday gift that I have received and will be always grateful. 

If you have a Witness vote and you have not voted for @arcange yet please consider. 

I hope you never go through what I experienced in the last few days. Be safe in Hive.