The Old Dog Explains: My Biggest Block Chain Blunder or How I Lost More Than $82,000!
"Measure twice cut once!" Back in the days when I was studying industrial design they taught us that saying when we would head to the wood, metal or plastics shops to build mock ups of our creations. Yes, one error could cost you time and money. It's better to take your time and double check before making a move as final as cutting a piece of material!
In the crypto universe one error can also cost you money, a lot of money, an ever increasing amount of money! Let me explain what happened to me and perhaps it will help you to avoid the same error!
My Biggest Block Chain Blunder
Many of you know that besides being active on Steemit I am also a big believer in the future of Bitshares and I've been a regular buyer of them.
Way back on March 27th 2017 I decided to buy 1 BTC worth of Bitshares in order to add to my holdings. While using blocktrades.us to enter the account to transfer the funds to I made the fatal error of entering the wrong account name! This resulted in my losing access to 206,032 Bitshares which have a value right now of over $82,000 dollars (if left in Bitcoin the value would be about $19,000). A value that I see increasing over time.
If you examine the account that I erroneously sent the funds to you'll see that the username is cu and that once the account was registered it has only been used to receive 2 deposits from me. Never before and never since! I have tried to contact the owner of the account but to no avail.
The second transfer of 2 bts that you see is my attempt to contact the owner of the account to let him/her know of my error. The transfer included a memo explaining what happened and offering a substantial reward for the return of the funds. I also made a similar announcement in the BitShares forum.
What Lessons Can We Learn?
First of all this error has nothing to do with blocktrades.us. Their service and customer support is excellent. The fault and the problem lay entirely with ME. In fact the owner of blocktrades wrote me that he had made an even bigger blunder and many other crypto users have related similar errors that they have made.
In summary, YOU are responsible for your own funds, your own security and your own errors. When making transfers always double check the name or the account number that you are sending to. Once you press send there is almost never a chance to turn back. You are, in essence your own bank and your own bank manager.
Be careful, be cautious, be alert and remember, "MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE"!
I hope that this information will help you to avoid costly block chain blunders. Stay safe, stay happy and Steem on!
What About You?
- Have you ever made a costly blunder?
- Are you super cautious when making transfers?
- What is the worst crypto blunder that you've ever heard of?
I hope that you enjoyed this article "My Biggest Block Chain Blunder or How I Lost More Than $82,000!"
Until next time,
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
I hope that everyone in the Universe (and a few of the other nearby ones) reads and pays heed to your message @kus-knee
Upvoted and resteemed!
Yes it is an important message!
Thank you for this post @kus-knee.
So sorry to hear of it......appreciate the reminder of the saying....'Measure twice and cut once.'
Yes...I will certainly be more careful after reading your story.
Happy Christ-mas to you and yours. Cheers.
Yes, this post was akin to a public service announcement. I'd love to have those more than 200,000 BitShares back but lesson learned!
damn, that guy certainly got lucky. Can't say the same for you :P
That account was probably set up by a bot during the early days of bitshares to try and scoop up thousands of account names (really short ones, or potentially valuable famous ones) in the hopes of selling the account later at a profit when bitshares became established. The person who ran the bot has probably never even checked individual accounts since. I am pretty sure he is totally unaware that he has @kus-knee's tokens.
The vulnerability to this abuse by bots was removed soon after the thousands of accounts were made.
But that is no solace to @kus-knee in his situation. He just has to say "live and learn" like I had to when I sent 1000 bitUSD to an account set up by someone to mimic another account by changing one letter. Same thing happened to me on steemit.com when I sent some funds to blocktradess (note the double "s" at the end) instead of to blocktrades with a single "s".
"Measure twice, cut once" indeed!
Wise words from a crypto sage!
Why did that happen?
You have lost an important amount
More than just you will be compensated for the work you deserve. @kus-knee
Thanks for your kindness!
you are welcome
You have me upvote and follow
Greetings. @kus-knee
Yes if he ever accesses them. The account sits unused!
Wow, that is a substantial error!
I haven't made a mistake I couldn't correct yet, only one so far... I knock on wood! I have had a great teacher, it helps me a lot and I hear his voice every time I am moving through a crux. Thanks @onceuponatime for this, it has been as smooth as can be.
Namaste :)
I'm very sorry for what happened to you dear friend @ kus-knee, it's a real shame and a lot of money lost, however, I assure you that in some other way you will recover your money again.
I tell you an anecdote, before knowing steemit, I worked in pages of ptc, faucet or mineries, all my savings went to a bitcoin account, the most tedious trbajao in these pages is to solve the chaps, that is why there are companies that provide a service of instant decoding of chaps, I trust one of them and I stole all my savings in bitcoin, today we were talking about something like 60,000 dollars, was demoralized and broke without money, a few days later I met steemit, there life gave me revenge and it gave me back the trust and a lot of the lost money.
Everything that happens there is somebody who sees, if you work in good faith, you will be rewarded, that I learned throughout my life. You are an excellent person, you will see that in less accounts you will have recovered all your money.
I wish you a wonderful day dear friend
You provide gracious, wise and comforting words. I am OK with what happened. The value at the time was only $1,000 so it did not cause me any hardships. I have been blessed with many times that with Steemit!
Check twice, thrice, but transact once! I couldn't sleep when i mistakenly transferred $100 worth of forgotten crypto back then, mistakes were made and valuable lessons are learned. Keep it up, press on! More power to you dawg! :)
Woof!
Thanks for the Woof!
Oooohhhhh...speechless....
I'm sorry for what happened... As they say, things that happens to the workers! Btw thanks for sharing this experience and for the advice. I personally try to pay attention when I transfer cryptos but I do realize that sometimes I do things to quick and this basically the good condition to make a mistake! Just a wrong letter and that's it! I think blocktrades and other services are good, but maybe they can improve by setting up a confirmation panel (as happens in my e-banking plattform), so to help people check twice....
You offer a good solution regarding the confirmation panel.
Ouch! Saved this for later to re-read as a reminder of what and what not to do......................
Yes i am the perfect example of what not to do!
So sad to here that :(