How does it work? I understand it is bound to your account, but can you say lose one of the hats if you are not careful? If I drop a hat, and don't realize it, or sell it, or give it to someone else.. will I lose the hat? Can another player take my hat from a PVP duel?
Your hat is safe until the game goes into production. After that if you lose it or give it away it's gone forever
Yes it is tied to your account, when you get it you can go to your account page, scroll almost to the bottom and find it listed. Nope you cannot lose it during pre-alpha, alpha or beta. This since every time there is a wipe it will be restored like any other item in your account (like pledges). The only time you can actually "lose" those hats are after the final/real release of the game to the public. Then it finally becomes a "real" object which can be lost. Right now though it seems that reward items will not be a part of PvP looting, so that should include the hat rewards. But we will see closer to release in the betas.