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Ethereum is becoming extremely popular nowadays with the rise of "De-Fi" apps and stablecoins. Most people are just into it in order to make a lot of money in the shortest time possible. Since they're newcomers into crypto, they can easily make mistakes when sending coins from one address to another. Now, imagine if you check your wallet and it has 1 ETH sent to you by a mysterious address. At current rates, that would be an average of $400 (USD) in your pocket.

What will you do if someone accidentally or mistakenly sent you 1 ETH? Will you donate it to a charity? Will you send it back to its original owner? If it were me, I'd return it back to its original owner as long as he/she is able to provide a signed message with the address' private key proving the coin's ownership. But since crypto is widely unregulated, anyone can do as they please.

Thoughts? ???

I used to make a mistake that you said, at that time I only lost 0.4 ETH but at that time the value was very valuable to me, and at that time I always hoped that the owner of the wallet I sent would return the money because I really needed it, but all hope I was useless because he didn't return it. If that happens to me now then I will return it to that address because I'm afraid he will need money like I used to

How can this even be possible at the first place? Do you think anyone will make such a mistake of typing an address instead of copy paste? I do not think so. Anyway, I would send it back to the sender as I do not have any greed to other peoples property,  asset.
Anyway, why this thread? Have you faced the same recently by any mistake?

The chance of someone sending your wallet by mistake is really slim. Not unless someone had copy-pasted your address by mistake. With just one wrong character on the address, let's say you are writing your address manually which I hope no one is doing ;D,  your altcoin might end up being sent to a nonexistent or unowned wallet. You're very lucky  if this happens and I doubt if anyone would gladly return it especially if it's a huge amount.

We are all human and nobody is above mistakes but the problem would be the person to whom you mistakenly send the 1eth to, is that person honest enough to send your eth back to you or not! It has to do with honesty, if not then just count yourself unlucky, it is better not to make such a mistake in the first place and try to br extra careful, double check the wallet address severally before sending.

A random person would never send you coins by mistake, it can only happen if they for some reason take your address from a block explorer, but the chance of it happening is extremely low. It's impossible to mistype an address, because it would invalidate the checksum and a transaction will fail.

Sending coins back is a bad idea, because the address might belong to a custodian, and if this custodian will be uncooperative, the coins will be lost. I'd rather wait and see if someone approaches me. I'd also post that I received coins by mistake on this forum and reddit to see if anyone would come to claim, but I won't specify the date, amount and addresses of the transaction.

It could happen if you accidentally misspell an ENS domain name in your wallet.

This is for me the best option it's a big amount so I will wait for the sender to communicate with me because with that amount I'm sure he will take some time to look for you, we do not know what really happen we can only speculate, maybe it's an airdrop or payment from your bounty that is converted to Ethereum, the owner should come forward and send me details why he sent that amount to my address,
of course, I will send him back if he can prove he is the owner of the Eth and the reason why he sent it.

If, anyone sends me 1 ETH by mistaken or knowingly then it is no question arising for me that I will send back to that unknown address. And, this has the reason that in 2017 approx. $15,000 someone stolen from my Ethereum account. That time required a lot of money so I request in many channels in the Telegram and other media, also I request the project owner but non of the positive response. So, at any cost, I wouldn't have return back the ETH if I get from unknown.

Since I do know where the eth came from, I will find ways first to know why I received that. Cause maybe Ive joined some raffle or contest and got win. Someone will ptobably find me asking to return it but how do I believe its really him. I would return if its really done by mistake but I would asked for many details and proof that he is really the owner like signed message of the address.

as long as he can still prove it's his, I'll give it back. To be honest, I would probably hold back and wait for the person to confirm that he is the owner of the Ethereum. if possible, I want to return it. however, donating it to a charity is the last resort if no one feels lost to ethereum in a few weeks or months. Well, I do this if it is really the wrong ethereum submission.

Oh yes! This can significantly adds up to the persuading power of the tiny devil whispering on youtr left ear ;D. Well, I won't be surprised if many refuse to give it back because it's really tempting not only knowing that 1 eth is a huge money but also the fact you might not be traced personally.

However, being a good human in nature, you should practice what is right and just even without the eyes of others looking at you. So if I'm on that situation, I will send it back especially that we are all in these trying times. I ought to do it becaus se don't know how much 1 eth means to him.  Besides, I'm not desperate to have money in the first place lol.

I will send some back but not the whole amount. Fee for mistake

I will be honest if that has 1 ethereum ask me back with clear evidence because I believe good deeds will be reward in the future

The probability of finding you by the sender is too small because your ETH address has no detail attached that will point out to you. Beside that, it's only 1 ETH which I believe the owner will not gonna put too much effort on tracking the receiving address.

And also why do you need sign message for proof of ownership while you can just send it back to the owner if you really have the intention of giving it back. And also there is no airdrop that will give you 1 ETH even Elon Musk or Bill Gates.  ;D

Doing what you said you will do by asking the sender to sign a message will mean you need to be able to exchange mails with sender. Otherwise how do you make such a request get across to the sender. Do you include that in the address? So I think you are suggesting an impossible thing and that means you do not want to send it back. I will not send it back if someone mistakenly sends me ETH or any other token.

Finders keepers as they say, so i am keeping it there is nothing wrong with that maybe it's just a blessing in disguise, you never know it might happened in real life though chances are slim but it will take it.  ;D
In my part sending that amount i will be double checking it just to make sure i got the real address so that no regret will happen in the end and that scenario even new to crypto will also do the same for sure.

If ever that there is someone mistakenly sent 1 ETH to me, I would gladly hold it and wait for the right time to have another bull run and then I would sell it  in a higher price so it would more profitable and I will always look to that person as a blessing in disguise to me.

In the first place, how did you know that it was accidentally sent unless the sender reach out to you to let you know that he sent you Ethereum by mistakes, we must first establish who owns it and why it was sent to our address and if he has a valid reason then I will send it back it's very seldom to happen that you got free Ethereum there's always a reason behind it not just by mistake.

I will return it if he asks for his money back, of course if something goes wrong like that usually comes from a beginner, so I will understand the mistake he made, I will return it to his wallet address

If it's just a transaction to address, the sender would never know who the receiver are or how to contact them and the receiver also would not know that the transaction has been a mistake. They'll not know me and I'll not know them. The finders are keepers.
But if they really have made a trade with me in past or is know from somewhere specially this forum and got my attention from a post or direct contact, I'd return it to the sender if 1ETH is really important to him/her/it.

Id say thanks to what force in the universe gave that to my wallet really. I dont want to get into sorts of trouble, because what if its just another form of scam that finds root in your honesty. Ill just leave the coin be in my wallet thank you.

Well I will send it back to the address cos I don't believe in progressing without working for it, OK in respect for the person providing with you with his private key so as to return the Eth, personally I don't think its a wise decision as giving you the private key means giving you entirely everything he has in his wallet

If someone sends me ETH mistakenly and contacts me with the proof that he is the owner of the address then I will probably just return the ETH in question. After that, it would be his/her decision if they wanna pay me a finder fee or not.

Is this even possible, I don't think there will every be an avenue for such mistakes but in anyway that I received such, the best thing I wil do is send it back, why keep something that doesn't belong to me. But like I said earlier, am not such if such mistake can ever happen

Thats not mine so I will send it back to the owner.

However if he has many eth coins to his wallet I might change my mind and keep it.

I will just think that its a blessing.

I don't think this is possible as I've never made such mistake before, it's always a proper routine to check address very well before sending out your coins, I don't know how one can be this careless but if that happens if have to send it back since it's never mine and I never worked for it

With current gas fees ? What can one do, but to keep it in the wallet ? Specially if that 1 ETH comes from a DeFi smart contract, where additional fees can run up to $100


Link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/99-gas-fees-on-ethereum-are-crippling-defis-growth

But what if the sender is a criminal trying to send ETH to random wallets to create confusion for his trackers? You'll most likely be questioned because of this from the authority and if you happen to spend it and got tracked, you'll probably be in trouble. Well unless you really hid your wallet and your identity from the authority, it's finders keepers.

So yeah, for me I'll most likely hold unto it until I found enough reason to give it back or keep it to myself (since the wallet I'm using right now has undergone KYC or something similar to that which unless if the sender sent it to my secret wallet).

It will depend to the situation but in my case, I rather hold it and let it sit in that wallet as in the first place it is not my mistake why it reach to my wallet. Though it will be good if we are
going to send it back to the sender address.

Well everyone has their own opinion and decision to make. 1 ETH is not that big amount, what I want to say is I want to make it as their worst experience so they will not create the same mistake again.
Because who knows if you will return the money, they will not learn from their mistakes and they can repeat it using a big amount.

Some comments say they will but I doubt it. Anything that comes free wil be taken already. To be honest Im not so sure if I will get it as my own or return it. No ned for details on how to return it, cause you can just simply send it back to the wallet it came from.

Im guessing that out of 10 maybe 1 or 2 will have noble heart to return it. For this mistake this is a big sin to send on a different wallet like come one, copy paste is not hard and why would you messed up. I know newbies are understandable but this is way to easy task. To make error here means that someone is not careful enough.

I will return it if the owner tries to reach me out. Because who knows for what reason would that 1 ETH came into your wallet? I participate in giveaways and whenever I get one, I'd assume that is my prize. I will also check where the transaction came from and analyse the remaining balance. If the owner looks rich I would not return it, honestly.  ::) We have been warned that transactions are IRREVERSIBLE.

Wait, how would you even track the sender down? It's not like the sender can contact you when he doesn't know who you are. Personally i would consider it as a free airdrop That i've got from some free lottery i have most likely participated in the past. Unless the owner somehow could track me down and asked it back i would keep it.

I've never heard or seen someone who received crytocurrency by mistake. Most times we copy and paste wallet address and the possibility of errors is slim.
If I eventually receive ethereum I didn't expect, I'll hold it for a while and go through my social media handles to see if I was lucky or won from the games played previously without a record. If I'm convinced that I wasn't paid, then I'll make attempt to refund back to the sender.

It's the right thing to do, but if you are in this situation for sure you will think twice or find other reasons why you receive this amount.
with how valuable ETH now, it's nature to us thinking that it's a blessing, not sure if everyone will agree but this huge amount of assets
being delivered to your wallet. Not sure if you will not think about taking  it.

if this stranger sends at the address displayed on my bitcointalk profile, of course I will return his eth, because it is certain that the owner can track all social media accounts there if he tracks my address on search engine, but if the stranger not looking for me and not asking for his eth back, maybe some will I donate to charity program on bitcointalk and some I will use.

Honestly if someone mistakenly send me ETH, I will contact some people i think might be from them, without mentioning the amount and requesting for etherscan url as proof. If no one owns up, I'll definitely keep the ETH. Most people will count it as luck 🤞, to be candid.

I will probably wait within 1 day 24 hours, whether anyone feels lost or not by including proof of his wallet address. just match the return address to our wallet, if correct then return it. but if not and within 1 day 24 hours no one will contact, I will definitely sell.

Never have this situation, if someone mistakenly sent you ETH you can send them back if you want. Or you can take it too because it's a gift, you don't have to worry about it

It will be consider as stealing not returning it? I know thay money is one of the reason we need now to survive. Not because of its physical appearance but also to what could it do or buy. If it happens that someone mistakenly sent you an eth worth some dollars the best thing to do is sent it back to the original owner to which public address is visible on blockchain. Who knows that the money you sent back will be used for medical expenses especially now that we are in pandemic and we could deny the fact that most of us need money for emergency purposes or whatsoever for survival.

haha , why you dont sent back its ethereum to original owner. isn't it this is not yours and if we be honest man we must back sent it back. i know he will not know who is the receiver this ethereum. but imagine if this accident happen to you meanwhile you have many daily needs to fullfilled and we have no money at all.

I think the mistakes that people make in sending ETH to our wallet are very difficult to happen, because they will definitely copy and paste the wallet they are going to send, but if it happens to me (someone wrongly sent ETH to my wallet) then I will return it, because I don't want to see that person lose his money just because he wrongly sent ETH to my wallet.

A lot of people say they'll give it back to the original owner, but I wonder who would do it if it did. Most of the people here are bounty hunter and if there's a free amount like that, I believe they'll quickly sell it. ;D

When I checked my wallet it turned out that 1 ETH had entered, my first step would be to wait for several days if there were people
who contacted me and admitted to sending wrong address. Of course, on the condition that he must be able to prove the wallet
address is indeed his. If no one confesses, I count it as mine. And about 10% of it I will give for charity.

To be honest i probably would just keep it, except i know that this happened as a mistake and that guy would ask for help in a forum or something and i would see that i was the guy that he sended the ETH to.
Then i would send him the ETH back, because 1 ETH doesn't make me rich and i don't want to ruin someone elses experience. If that person can prove that he was the one who sent it though.

Well if he/she mistaken sending 1ETH maybe I should use it for gas or for trading also.
Because we all know they cannot get it back 1ETH mistaken, So I must use if and earn more profit in crypto.
And actually it was not my fault for being make a mistake it is fault to those person has not careful of his ETH.

I have read some comments above and I will say it's easier said than done as Ethereum has become the new hot cake of DEFI. I will do the same but wouldn't send exactly 1 ETH as you all aware that transaction fee is insane right now. I will use some as Gas fee and return the rest.
Crypto is tempting though especially when you receive high valued coin  :-* :-*

its actually hard to decided depend on your needs, its almost impossible  to happen that someone will accidentally send any amount to unknown address . Once you receive it even how much it is you can considered it as donation if you are affraid for the owner maybe he need it more than you ,you can check the address that send it to you if its really a big lost to him that he  send his ETH. By checking it you will have idea how much left the wallet address have.

It's free money, I would invest it to some low marketcap coin and hodl. 1 Eth is not that big but it can gain value, I might also hold just ethereum itself hoping it could rise same as its ATH before withdrawing it and buy a new gaming rig.

I never sell the coins which I earn in bounty campaigns. I always leave them in my wallet, I leave them until the moment when they grow by a large number of percent

Very little chance that this would ever happen. Hard to decide weather if you're giving it back or not but if this happens to me,i will invest it in some coin and once i gain high profit, i would share it with the needy.

I were to receive 1 ETH out of nowhere then I would probably keep it for sometime and wait for the owner to contact me.
If the owner contacts me and explains why and how he sent me the ETH then I would probably give it back to him after receiving a signed message.
If the owner doesn't contacts me then I would probably hold it as an investment for myself.

Yes. If I somehow sent ETH to someone's address by mistake, I think I'm done for and there is nothing I could do. No one would really nice to send back your ETH unless they're knowing you, OP. I also think there is a chance I got malware that switches my clipboard address and replaces it with their address too. We can talk all nicely in here but I know no one would give back ETH sent by mistake. Well, me too unless I know that person.

Very important in any case to double or triple check the address before sending your funds.

The chance of sending it back is too slim if I'll be the one that who's going to receive that asset, not unless the real owner
will do his part and tried to find me and contact me with the proof of transactions that he mistakenly made. That's the only
way that i'll be sending it back to him or her.

I will be shock to see 1 eth on my wallet accidentally especially when the wallet is practically empty, then i will be tempted, thinking if I should return it back to the owner, I know the person must be feeling bad and hopelessness, and guilt will not let me keep because I know it could be me and i would also hope someone will send it back to me of i was in this person shoe's,  but unfortunately people are not that honest.

   I would hold it for a long-term, as I hold my Ethereums. It would be just +1 on my amount in my wallet, waiting for the
far future and possible very high price.
   It would be a great feeling to have +1 ETH without needing to work for it, or to gamble with what you have.

will that even be possible? That person will be so crossed and the recipient will probably be happy, this is why i try to be extremely careful whenever am making transfer, check and double triple check if wallet is correct,  because it will a miracle to have good hearted person sending back your accidentally sent eth, it sound nearly impossible.

Why would anyone get your address? This is not possible unless someone has copied your address from somewhere. Chances are very low that something like this will happen here. But since you said think of newcomers, there is a possibility that something like this could happen. This is because newcomers have less experience and they get excited and make this kind of mistake.

However, if one day someone mistakenly sends Eth to my address, I will try and wait for return the fund to original owner.

Possible this or not possible in reality, let's Just imagine it, as the author suggests. If I saw eth in my wallet, of course, I wouldn't rush to send it back right away. I will wait for a message from a random sender and proof, and then, of course, I will return it.

If you receive money from an address you don’t know, it’s good to send it back, it is possible that it is a newbie that doesn’t know what they are doing and mistakenly sends money to your address, although I am still trying to understand how people make the mistake of sending money to wrong addresses, but we can all say that everyone is not the same, that you’re smart enough to avoid such mistake doesn’t mean others will be able to avoid it as well. And another thing to consider is that you never know if those people are in a very bad situation, that might be part of the little money they have.

good action, we should return only 1 ETH, because indeed it is not our property, we must not make things difficult for people and have to be kind,
because this can prove that the crypto currency community is also good for everyone

Is it part of Altcoins discussion? Whatever, we all send it back. But how do you know that he sent 1 Ethereum by mistake? In cryptocurrency history, I can't see this kind of uncommon situation. Actually you didn't think that we wouldn't send coins or token until we confirmed the right address. Actually, I'm using code scan options before making a new transaction.

 Although this kind of error is not  common because before sending Eth you copy a wallet  address, so if by mistake it happens i think it should be someone you have exchanged wallet address  before . So what i will do will be to go asking people i have been doing crypto business with and  announce in all crypto whats App groups i belong hopefully the person might come out. i wont feel comfortable keeping or using it.

Yes it will sell it because it is not your fault it send to your wallet to the someone mistake send it to her wallet.
Actually they did know who you are and cant PM in you so it was like accidentally have someone giving on us a free ETH.

Thankfully, you wanted to return the Ethereum to its owner. But I believe most will not. ;D
If someone wants to return the Ethereum they received from an unknown source, it is very easy for us to return it without having to know or prove their private key. Because they can ship to a base address. If Ethereum is accepted based on an exchange wallet, of course they don't have private key access. So it cannot be proven by a private key.

I prefer to return it, because maybe he really needs it. we can return to the sending address and it's very easy to do, 1 eth belongs to him is not mine. Not that yesterday there was something like this and if I'm not mistaken it was worth around a hundred thousand dollars and the recipient returned it.

If there’s no follow-up from the owner or no means of communication then I have no choice but to fully accept the free ETH that I’ve received and will do my best to multiply it.

A case like this is very rare so if I’m lucky enough to receive ETH, I will not spend it right away because I know its hard to earn money nowadays and the owner of the ETH might experiencing some problems, so I will wait for him to contact me.

If the owner approaches me and convinces me that he has sent this by mistake i will definitely return it back and i have done exactly that once when i received some eth by mistake of the sender.
But if it is just an anonymous transaction and no one approaches me i would think to keep it because i have also made many mistakes and loses in the crypto market so i will just take it as a feel good bonus.

I will return to the original owner, because it's their right and not ours. so it would be better than us using other people's assets and it is useless and does not provide any benefit.

so you mean bounty hunter have no honesty or empathy and generalize all them will sell it and get its money? i dont think so ,i believe there are many people that will sent it back although actually they need this money.

I don't think if this is possible but,

It depends, because there is no way to know the person who just mistakenly sent the 1 eth. How can I know if it is just a mistake or it is truly meant to be sent to my address. But if I know that it is just a mistake, I am willingly to return it, not my money, not for me to spend.

Such mistake to be committed is really very rare for we all know that every address is unique from one another so for a 1 ETH to be mistakenly sent to your address is a very large coincidence and a very big mistake on the sender himself. Well, if I would be the one to be accidentally the recipient of that 1 ETH, I would be glad to return it into the rightful owner for he owns it and that must be the appropriate thing to do for I do not expect any incoming ETH and he maybe have an important transaction on where he will supposedly send that amount. It is just right to return it to him and treat it as a social responsibility for many people are already getting stressed and depressed specially at this time so if this would be a great help to my co-crypto user, then I would return it for his sake. This must also be the action to be done by other crypto users even out of desperation because such amount belongs to a rightful owner and must not be taken it by our own.

of course it will never happen because when making a transaction it is very clear and consciously the sender when he wants to make a transaction must provide a very unique address and must check repeatedly to ensure that the sender makes transactions to the intended wallet.

If all you had was his address how would you contact him and ask to prove that he's the owner?

If somebody sends you some coins from an address he is usually the owner. :P

I'd take myself some finder's fee like 20% and send the rest back. I think it would be fair for both sides.

You can't blame him. Because when it comes to money, even a trusted user can take the money without returning it to its original owner. Especially if you don't know the sender, there is no way that the one who received it will actually send it back to its original owner.

The sender is very careless if it's true that he sent it by mistakes it was a newbie mistake of not double-checking if he really wants to get it back he will search who owns the receiver wallet and request that it is sent back, I will return if he can prove by changing the label of his address to something I requested, that will prove ownership of his address or a screenshot of his wallet dashboard.

If someone mistakenly sent 1 ETH to me. I will sent back to that person. 1 ETH is very worth now at the current market , so with empathy, i will return back to that person .  I believe that person will very happy.

Yeah right it's huge amount of money and if someone mistakenly send that to a wrong wallet it's a big loss for them.
Doing the same thing might be the first thing that will comes up inside my mind, as putting myself on this person's shoe
It's really depressing losing your hard earned money.

Very important in this time of crisis is to feel compassions knowing that everyone are trying to survive with this pandemic
humanity from people around should be taking place.

depends if the person who sent ethereum has many eth and assets of others in the wallet then I will not return ethereum it to the original owner because he already has a lot of different again if he really did not have any assets in the wallet then I will return ethereum to wallet may he desperately needed money to requirement and eth it could be very useful for him then I will return 100%.

I'd be so lucky if someone sent me ETH by random address, but it's kinda impossible that someone will have that kind of huge mistake.

Why you need the owner of the ETH should contact back to you and sign the message from the same address?
Isn't it better to send back to the same address from where you received the ETH.
Moreover 1 ETH is not a small amount, so it's our responsibility to return it to the original owner of it.
Who knows for what purpose he had transacted that 1 ETH?
That amount of money might help him in his life.
So if i would have got that 1 ETH then i will surely send back the money to the original owner.

If someone send me 1 ETH by mistake, I will contact the sender so I can return it. It is a big amount as of today and I believe he really work hard for that. I believe in karma.

Of course, we don't have to take what is not ours, I will also refund if someone wrongly sends her coins to me, We can feel restless if we send the wrong coins to another address, So we have no right to take it, because the current ETH price is over $ 400, losing $ 400 is very sad

Of course I will return it, because it is not impossible that the sender sent the wrong eth. It could be human error or something else.

Trust me whatever the nominal, I'm sure the owner really needs it. But sometimes there are people who don't send it back to the owner, I hope this doesn't happen.

First, it is not mine to donate and if it was "mistakenly" sent and someone announced it on a platform where I can read it then I will surely send the amount back minus the transaction fee.  The only problem I see in doing this is the what-if of the ETH coming from an exchange.  I have no intention of keeping it knowing that someone out there is in urgent need of the fund but mistakenly sent it to my address.

If this will happen to me I will wait for a month and if any person will contact me and if he proves ownership I will return it of course but if after a month and still no claims I might invest it in projects like defi and wait for a profit 1eth can bring you a lot of profit this bull market and if ever in the future the real owner comes I can immediately sent to him his eth and you also profited, yeah its a win win. 

If someone claims it to be their money and agrees to receive the money on the same address that they sent from, there would be no confusion about the ownership. But if someone claims the money and make excuses about not sending the money back on same route but a different one than you should not send them unless they provide a solid proof. But all of these could happen only if the sender and receiver know each other.

Honesty is the best so says an adage It better with utmost honesty to return it to the rightful owner with any contemplation and ulterior motive and send back the 1 ETH its is a mistake and nobody is above a mistake it can happen to anyone, however it is easier said than done I am doubting that only few people will stick to their stand by returning the coin, this is more of psychology.

the possibility of this scenario is almost 0.01%.. if I would be mistakenly receiving an ethereum, I would send it back to the senders wallet.. we don't know why it was sent mistakenly that's why I need to return it

I think the best thing to do is to send it back but then what if this person was just some whale trying to tip you for making a good contribution in this community or making a huge impact in the crypto space. OP talked about the signed message but if he signs this message where are you going to meet him supposing he is not in this forum for you to see the signed message. Anyway, I think the best thing to do is to send it back and if he/she returns then you definitely know is a gift.

Receiving ETH, BTC or any other altcoin by a mistake is pretty impossible because there are so many possible crypto addresses (billions of billions?). So he has to know your address and then send it to your wallet for example by copying wrong target address. And what I would do with it? Nothing, only if he contacts me for example by sending me a token with the name "Sendback" for example, I will return. ;) But you never know why you receive the transaction and what his intentions are.  ::)

Hold half, buy some BAT with the rest 😂

Too bad I have never received any free accidental money 😭

Well, for me I would rather return it, provided the ownership can be proved as you have rightly said.  I don't have interest in taking what another has acquired with sweat.  Anybody can make mistake whether accidental or thereabout and we should know that what goes around also comes around.

If the person sending me ETH by mistake is on my address list like how I on his address list then I would send it back to him because I know him. If it was an unknown stranger, I don't like how that stranger would do.

Depend on how the person mistakenly sent to me react. If he contacts me and asking to return it then I would give it back. Never want to sell my soul for just a few ETH rightfully from someone else.

As long as he can still provide proof of ETH ownership, I will gladly return to the owner. Honestly, to get 1 ETH is really hard, and it would be very sad if the assets we have just lost because of an accidental mistake. Prioritize honesty, then our life will feel peaceful.

how can we know that the 1 eth we received is mistake? how do you conclude that the etherium we receive is someone's fault when making a transaction? even a beginner in the crypto world will double-check the address before sending money.

and I will consider that ethereum that I received as a gift.  ;D

Interesting that not one person in this entire thread has looked at this morality question from an 180 degree perspective.

If YOU mistakenly sent 1 ETH - would you expect to get it back?

Answer = Nope.

Making mistakes is how we learn valuable life lessons.  In most cases, education isn't free.

maybe within 1-7 days I'll be waiting for news like social media or whatever. If the owner can provide proof of ownership then I will return it if within 7 days there is no legal owner then the 1 ETH will officially be mine :D
I now fantasize getting 1 ETH from an unfamiliar wallet :D, but that's impossible :'(

If someone find a way to find me and wrote me in some of social network, I will return him ETH because on somebody failure you can't build your happines, may be I will also try to find info about owner of the wallet from which transaction was sent.

I think there is a situation here that you need to figure out before you do anything. You should return it back, that is the ethical and moral thing to do, however you don't know where it is sent from, if you send it back you may actually cause people to lose it as well.

For example, someone might have withdrawn it from an exchange and mistakenly sent to you, now you might say how could someone send a withdrawal to you but how did they sent it to you in other ways as well, they are all sounding weird, so if it is like that and you send it back exchange gets it and not the person. So, you need to make sure somehow that person who sent it to you also receives it back, I don't know how but if you could do that somehow you could make sure that they get it back to the right address instead of sending it back to same address.

Why would I donate someone's money to the charity? To make me feel less guilty after spending other money without their consent? No, for 1 ETH, I would send it right back at the sender's address. I'm a bit superstitious so I believe in karma.

I don't think it will happen because this is not emailed that senders typed miss-spelling. Need to copy-paste, and send. If I receive I will try to find that member in the forum. But Definitely I will return the ETH to the sender address but I will not pay the GAS fee :D

Anything can happen in sending digital assets and I will just take it as a natural gift from God. I will hold it for long and see what I can do with it in assisting the less privileged.

I don't think people do such mistakes anymore, sometimes they give high gas fee and loss money! But yet if suddenly I see I have 1 Ethereum received from an unknown address, I will search that address in google to find out the guy, if it for the tip, I will accept that gladly! But if the sender verifies his mistake then I will give back to him! And I believe every human being should do that, otherwise, it will be cheating!

[/quote]
Right, I rather worry if someone got a hold on my ETH address and sent me 1 ETH out of random. You would never know how easily you could fall into someone's trail of "dirty ETH" if you sent it back. Me? I wouldn't send back 1 ETH unless I'm sure not falling into anyone's pawn.
[/quote]

Even though this ^ makes no sense, you're suspicious / jaded/ cautious AF - as you should be.  Trust no one.

I'd be keeping it too.

Just like everyone else that got started in crypto, we were all newbies at some point.  Wide-eyed & bushy tailed.    In early 2018, I got scammed trusting someone that wanted to "help" me.  It was an expensive lesson that I'll never forget.  Thing is, I owned it.  No one to blame except myself.  These days, people that have their crypto stolen blame the project and/or demand the devs "do something" to get their crypto back - instead of taking responsibility for their own actions (or inactions).

It's so nice to read dozens of posts that paint such a lovely picture about how honest and caring the world of crypto is.  Makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside.  The truth is at least 9/10 of the saints saying they'd send back that 1 ETH - wouldn't, and I'd expect nothing less / nothing more.  We make mistakes; and some of them are expensive.  Hopefully, we learn from them and move on.  That's just reality, folks.

Well i don't want to argue, how can anyone Making mistake. For me, i wouldn't hurry, sending back 1eth. I would rather try to find out the reason and source of that transaction. After verifying those thing properly, I'll take decision whether i should send back or not

By the way, Kudos to the OP.  I love thought provoking threads, especially ones that delve into the realm of morality. 

Yes, finding out first if it is really a mistake since there is no way to know who the sender is. The only thing we can do is to wait and verify first all the information needed then sending it back should be done. I know saying it is easier than done, but we all know to ourselves what is right.

Returning the 1 ETH is easier said than done. It takes a well disciplined and principled individual to return such fund. However, if one had ever been the one that made the mistake and really felt how it was to make such mistake with the hope of getting it back, I think good decision will become easy to make. But personally, I will return it. I had carelessly lost funds in the past. So, I know what the other person might be feeling.

the first one I will return because it's not my right. secondly, I think it's not easy and it's impossible because it's a fatal mistake. now we know if people are going to send tokens or coins it must be through careful checking because so there are no mistakes

Very difficult, but I think maybe I will use it all because the price of eth is quite high now I don't know I can use it for donations, but it's good to return it to the original owner of eth who knows he needs it to pay for something or it is cryptocurrency for investment.

It would be almost impossible to find out the reason and who the sender is as transaction are decentralized. Anyway, if you are not really waiting for a transaction on anything and you receive a certain amount of ETH on your wallet then that would probably mean someone made a transaction mistake or someone who knows your address probably sent you that ETH. Either way, it's up to you to decide whether to return it or not. Probably not and keep it secret as it is not your fault but people will think they'll return it as a goodwill kind of answer.

Because I participate in many bounty campaigns and airdrops, if I find 1 ETH in my wallet, I will not consider it a wrong send.
I would think that 1 ETH was paid for from the bounty, unless there was a message from someone to me admitting that he sent
1 ETH wrong address. Of course I will return it, if indeed that person can prove to be the owner of 1 ETH.

Believe it, you are just dreaming or want to test our legitmate. I know the real situation is always different than the dreaming situation. I don't want to lose my time in this dream. Almost 99.9% percent chance to have this Ethereum. One address can't be different from the others by only one number or letter.

if i have to imagine this, i will give the ETH back. it's not mine anyway. because i know the feels when some people lost their money. but i think it's impossible for people sending their ETH into wrong address. i mean it's about your assets, it's your money. of course they will double or triple check it before you send it.

I think the step you chose was a very wise move because it returns something that is not yours but unfortunately only a few people can be like you because most of them will take the money and make withdrawals because they think it belongs to them.

return 1 eth will be better than we should have problems later on, because 1 eth is not ours and we have to return. but it is impossible for someone to send to someone else's address by mistake, for that must be serious carelessness

Surely this is the most reasonable thing to do. We need to be nice to mankind. If a prove is provided or a honest contact is made if that is possible, then to return it is the right thing to follow


Such mistakes are highly possible mate depending on the wallet involved.

And how would he know to contact you if he mistakenly sent to your address? Are you just sending again the 1 eth to the address where it came from? The situation seems simple but it's not.

The situation is simple.  There are only two choices, no need to overthink it.   Keep it or send it back. 

A very brilliant idea, you can double the money you have for free. If you have benefited from that, would you like to send that 1 eth back to the existing address?

I don't think a smart guy would send a Eth to unknown address without double checking.

Mostly he is gonna copy paste the address anyway.

In case he sends it I think most people wouldn't send it back to him.

I agree most people wouldn't send it back. It similar to finding a lot of money on the streets. Who would honestly report it to the police? If you don't personally know the person that lost the money, humans tend to not bother about the misfortunate of a random stranger. Personally I would probably just keep it and wait what happens. It would be very hard to contact the sender with the huge anonymitiy in crpytos.  In the end I probably would exchange half of it into Bitcoins and keep the rest.

I expect you to send the Eth back since it's never yours, before running away with others money always think about been in others shoe, what if you are the one that mistakenly sent out the Eth in the first place? Won't you wish for a refund?

Since there is no legal binding on the crypto address so I think most people wouldn't give back 1 ETH mistakenly sent to them. Even irl, there are plenty of scoundrels using someone else lost credit card or not returns people's money so in crypto world would be the same. I'm different tho so I would give back that 1 ETH.

In general, it is not possible to know exactly who the sender is and if 1 ETH is of high value during that time, it will be very unlikely to return. I've never been in this situation, but I understand if I send it wrong it all ends and there is almost no hope of getting the money back. It is best for each person to be careful in the transaction and to check multiple times before deciding to send.

This is true! There is a sentence that I always remember "treat people like the way you want to be treated". Therefore, try to be in other situations and think about what should they expect! Let think what if the one who mistakenly sent you 1 ETH has to borrow money from the bank or something to invest in this market? What if 1 ETH is all they have left? I would send it back!

I and my friends have never had such situation, and therefore it is difficult to say what my friends would do in such a situation, but as soon as I would receive any amount in my wallet, I would immediately transfer the entire amount back.

I'll test him if he is knowledgeable in Cryptocurrency or just got in recently, a long time investor and trader will not commit this kind of error
if he is a newbie then I sent all to him if he is a long time investor I'll send half, he should never forget the basic of sending so it's a form of punishment  ;D

That would be stressful since receiving an Ethereum would really be a great way to invest on some Alternate Coins. It would be a fortunate situation for the receiver but an unfortunate event for the sender SINCE the sender cannot expect the exact amount of the Ethereum being returned because its gonna require gas. What if it was passed into an idle account, that would be a sadder situation.

It's hard to solve this problem, we can resend that address, or we can get it too. But it is better to return the owner of it, doing it will help us relax and that person will also be much happier.

Hey you can always buy some other token or coin with it , make profit and return the original amount to the sender . That way both are winners :)

I would not hesitate to return it back to the owner. Why? Would I believe that a random guy would send me 1 ETH for nothing? I don't think so. It's very rare for someone to return that kind of amount back to it's owner.

For me, it's not right to just simply receive it unexpectedly without telling me in advance (especially if I don't know the owner of that Ethereum wallet address). It's all about doing the right thing, even if that 1 ETH would help solve your financial problems.

And what if you lose that money? And will you never return it to its owner? It's better to send it back because it's not your money, and I believe you'll never successfully invest with someone else's money.

We are of the same thought. In my case, if it will ever happen, I am willing to send it back.
Though I would wait for the sender to at least reach out to me so I could send it back safely and to the rightful owner.
And I do believe that everyone is too careful to commit such mistake especially in this time.

I would post here on the forum and ask for the owner to sign a message from that wallet address, if he sign the message then I will happily return the money, but if not then it is going to be my money which an unknown person sent me as a tip.
Personal advice, always verify that the ethereum were not involved in any kind of hack or you may risk your money to be confiscated by the exchange on which you are trying to sell. There are a lot of people who were denied to get their money back because they ran those Crypto through a mixer and some darknet coins were mixed with their own in the incoming transaction, so ve wise and pay proper due diligence before send your coins anywhere.

I made the same mistake before, I entered the wrong ETH address and sent them 100 $. But there weren't any refunds coming from them, and they moved my money to Binance. It seems that they sold it or used it for trading, if you mistakenly send it to another address, no one will return it to you.

When you agree to send your crypto asset to another address and when you press send, the asset already belong to someone else without being able to cancel it again. Many people make the same mistake of not checking the address to which they are shipping to. You may not be able to do much if the recipient doesnt want to send the asset back. Surrender  ;)

I will do make mistake sometime and if somebody do that mistake if he or she try to reach me i will send back that ethereum back
If not i will wait and send it back to the wallet address i feel them who make that mistake must be panic and maybe a newbie and first time to send ethereum
Thats my opinion

You can not send ETH to a wrong address cause everyone is just copying and paste so it is very unlikely you got a wrong address. Wrong contact address maybe. If that was a case then I would send it right back since he have to know me.

Rather than mistyping the address, the person could simply send coins to another address on the Blockchain. This issue usually applies to ETC as I've seen some cases where people send ETH to ETC addresses. I think that this is due to lack of education, not knowing to separate a forked project from the original one. With QR codes and NFC tags available today, sending coins by mistake will no longer be an issue. I doubt anyone would want to type a whole ETH address manually, unless a computer without a webcam is being used (for scanning QR codes).

Nonetheless, the chances of someone sending you ETH by mistake are very little. I hope that as developers improve user experience on ETH wallets, people will be able to make better use of it. The combination of checksums, QR codes, and NFC tags could make the process of sending ETH easier. In case someone sends you 1 ETH by mistake, you can either hold onto it (as the crypto space is still widely unregulated) or simply send it back to its original owner. But I'm sure most people will choose the first option since they have no obligation of returning the coins due to the fact that the Blockchain is decentralized. As long as you put the "free coins" you've received to good use, there should be nothing to worry about. Just my thoughts ;D

What are the possible ways that the person can contact you?


Even if you realize about your mistakes just after transaction, even before the transaction got verified there will be no option to stop it and that will be more frustrating. 

And it could also happen that while trying to be the nice guy and sending the ETH back, you made similar mistake and sent to the wrong address. Just when you had sent, you got a mail pleading wit you to send back the coin. What will you do?

I would also love to return the rewards which received mistakenly because I know the pain of losing money due to some silly mistakes. Here the most difficult thing is to identify the person who sent that transaction and even then to know if it's done by mistake from him/her or the account was hacked.

Ill wait few days for the right owner to contact me, and if no one on it, i am probably use it as gas transaction on me, and donate it to someone else who may need it. we know the gas transaction fee bow high sometimes, and i have some friends who need the fee badly since they don not have that much. i think it was wise  ::)

But how to contact on you they dont know anything about your info and its only an address only that can use. Any information from you are always hidden so must better to use it for gas or trade than to wait for the owner. And we cant tell that he/she have mistake send it because it was directly to your wallet.

This is the more reason why you need to be extremely sure you are sending back the ETH to the rightful owner. Best thing to do is not disclose the amount of ETH you received and then request for the transaction hash, this way you can easily catch an impostor.

we don't know who the real owner's contact information is, sometimes we are blocked by information who owns the coin. so there's nothing we can do but use it to trade or sell

in crypto we don't know whose wallet is and if we announce anywhere there will be thousands of people who will admit that it's theirs, one of the best ways is to take the eth and use it to trade

its impossible i think but let's say someone transfer me accidentally his 1 ethereum well if he manages to contact me then maybe we could talk and literally i would ask him to give me some ethereum and i will send back to him but if he didn't managed to contact me or where to contact me i think i should keep the ethereum.

I don't think it's possible for an unknown person to send me that amount, most times it may be someone you've traded with in the past who mistakenly copied your wallet address. In a situation like that, I'll give it back because its unfair to walk away with such an amount.

Exactly. One must be careful when sending the coins back to someone else. Besides requesting a transaction hash, you can also request a signed message from the public address where the transaction originated. This will give you undeniable proof that the person claiming the ETH is the original owner. While this is a form of courtesy, there's no obligation since crypto is widely unregulated. Due to the Blockchain's decentralized model, the funds are technically yours once fully confirmed by the network. You can put the 1 ETH to good use by donating it to a charity of your choice. Or you can decide to "hodl" it for the long term.

In order for people to avoid mistakes when sending coins to another address on the Blockchain, it's best to copy and paste a public address or simply scan the provided QR code. Mistakes are only made if the person types the address manually on the wallet. But it's an oddity these days, since most (if not all) wallets have a built-in QR code scanner and a text box you can easily paste a copied address into. As I was told before, ETH has a checksum mechanism which verifies the address is typed correctly by the user. This should reduce the number of mistakes made by newcomers into cryptocurrency.

Nonetheless, it's your decision whenever you want to send the 1 ETH back to its original owner or keep it for the long term. Things would've been different if it was a credit/debit card transaction or payment through a traditional payment processor like PayPal. This is largely because these methods are centralized, where you're obliged to comply with regulations. But since crypto is still unregulated these days, anyone can do whatever they want with it (sort of). Just my thoughts ;D

You could just post on several Crypto Exchange Telegrams, and say you want to give back 1 ETH you received by accident.  I'm guessing you just might get a response.  :)
 

I've actually not seen or heard of anyone sending ethereum to a wrong address. If I eventually get to see any ethereum in my wallet, I'll see it as a gift, unless I'm informed that it was sent by mistake. I really don't think anyone would be able to write down the address, most cases the address is copied and unless the person copied my address, it would be impossible to send me by mistake.

So many people overthinking this fun morality question.  There are only two choices:

1.)  Keep it.
2.)  Send it back.

I chose to return the money / ETH, I will definitely return it if he can provide proof that it belongs to him, someone must have committed unwanted negligence, it would be nice for us to give the rights he has over the ETH.

This is not good way of giving back to real owner because its not easy and good way just try to catch with sender address hopefully you have some reply or wait for few days then if you will not receive any reply then use this because now its your property and if you want send them back on sender address this option is also available but this is also not easy way because many time we have more then one sender address.

I was joking.

Some would do this:

https://media.giphy.com/media/7P9QObZM3NmGk/giphy.gif or https://media.giphy.com/media/3oFyCVxsQn6RBa0r5u/giphy.gif


Some would return it and be like this:

https://media.giphy.com/media/43g7hyj8d8NEY/giphy.gif or https://media.giphy.com/media/3oKIPf3C7HqqYBVcCk/giphy.gif

And the truth it this:

https://media.giphy.com/media/TILOn96nwOb4j4ILfe/giphy.gif

It's not everyday that you get tot receive 1 eth to your wallet and there could be a reason since this is no small amount will try to trace the owner and thank him for sending it to me, and if he says he wants it back and was sent by mistake I will just send the half this is to teach him a lesson that he must always check the address and for the time and effort I spent looking for him.

LOL, what if he wanted it to sent to you in full because he will going to use it for medications. Are you still going to send the half of it?

In my case I will negotiate with the one to teach him a lesson to double check first before going into transaction. If he has no good reason for him to get back the eth to him then i will send 80% only and 20% is to teach him a lesson. This I think the better way than having it 50% which is relatively high and  of course due to pandemic we all need finances but this could not be the reason to own money mistakenly sent by you.

It's pretty common when someone sent you something by mistake and in this case cryptos. People make mistakes such as that but it never happened to me before. I mean, I might send them back to the sender's address. Or maybe the rightful owner will make some announcement saying they want their money back and they can provide proof that it's theirs and accidentally sent to the wrong address. Nonetheless to say, some might just keep them in their waller lmao. Well, your call.

Sending Crypto has no chargeback you are sending Crypto out of confidence in the receiver, I will just let it remain in my wallet until such time it's free to own it if the sender takes effort to look for the answer and find me maybe will split because it's his mistakes, not mine everyone should know the basic of sending and failure to do will result to big penalty or bad consequences.

This is the reason why you have to be extremely careful when it comes to cryptocurrency and you have to be in the right state of mind before you make any transaction. i always cross check the address im sending to over and over again before i finalize the transaction to make sure there is no error.

We all know you wont do that.

If someone sends me 1 ETH, I would hold it. But I will keep monitoring https://etherscan.io/ comments section of my address. Maybe someone will write something there, that he accidentally sent me funds and after some negotiations, I would send them back. But honestly, I would take this 1 ETH as a gift.

Original post should be about Warning people to check wallet address very well before making transactions, I've never did the mistake once and I've made countless transactions in the past, sending to wrong address is stupidity to me

I have often imagined this, and never happened. lol
If someday someone wrongly sends ETH to my personal wallet. So I will use it for trading, maybe somewhat evil. But in my opinion it is lucky for me, because there is no fault from me. all purely the fault of someone else sending to the wrong address.

It all depends on the circumstances. But I'm inclined to just keep this 1ETH - and call it the " stupidity tax." If I received one coin from a stranger it means that he made a mistake and it will not hurt to teach him a lesson so that in the future he was more careful. It is better for this person to lose 1 ETH in my favor than to lose 100 ETH in the future if they fall into the clutches of scammers. This is an honest payment for a useful lesson.

if it happens to me accidentally then I will voluntarily return it back to the original owner. but I think it's impossible, I haven't even heard of any mistakes in transactions eth, I mean without exception the wallet keys are known to your closest people.

This is not good statement from you as we don't no what will happen because its everyone's personal view what will he do I know many persons those send back big amounts without any problem even they need this all but they never like to have any penny from others as happen things like this.

I will do the same thing as you if on my address there are no comments about 1 eth that I receive, I will give at least 1 week if not 1 ETH I will use it for trading.

Well, you can say that in an ideal world. In the real world full of poverty and greedy people (amidst the beauty and the goodness of the world of course), you will find people who have a finders keepers attitude. You made the mistake of sending a big amount of ETH then good luck. That is what it is, sorry to be the bringer of the bad news but that is how I find people nowadays, a mixture of good and greedy. Good samaritans and One eyed pirates. If you lost something good luck who will pick the thing and pray it goes back to you.

Honest to goodness opinion right here. Some call this real talk, finders keepers, and stupidity. Definitely many of us will choose that route. What if you received 100 ETH then I doubt many will return it, unless you will be afraid somebody might research and try to find who owns the said ETH address which is near impossible to trace, unless you wrote it on the internet that you own the wallet. Anyway, the scenario is somewhat possible though in different ways, like a businessman losing his case inside a taxi and the briefcase has 40,000 dollars on it - 100 ETH. Life is cruel if you are not careful.

Only newbies will do that if it's a newbie then I will give it back to him but if he is holders for a very long time I want to know the exact reason why this things happen, I always double check the the first three and the last three of the character before I sent it and the biggest question is how did he got my wallet, if he has a good reason then I will send it back if not only half of the amount.

Well, I also thought he would never do that. If someone sends him some ETH, he will take it and buy what he needs. Very few people can ever return this money to the sender, unless he has too much money  ;D

i think it will also depend on the financial situation of a person. i do not speak for myself by the way.it is logical that if you are in a financial bad situation, its tempting to keep funds that you accidentally receive, because it is not a bank transfer but crypto, which gives much more anonymity. the sender should be more careful it think. but that is an ethical discussion.

It's more ethical discussion than anything else, and I agree with you, will someone return money or not will depend on financial situation of that person. Who has financial problems will take that money and cash it out quickly, who is has no financial worries will do the right thing. And we can't blame anyone here, sender who made a mistake should learn from that and if he is lucky maybe someone will return money to him, but if that doesn't happen he shouldn't blame anyone for his own mistake.

If it is 100 ETH then it is a different question. 1 ETH to lose is unpleasant but not critical when the loss of the same 100 ETH due to a stupid mistake is no longer a joke.
If the question was about such numbers, then I would return the money with a deduction of my fee (the "tax on stupidity") in the amount of 2-5%, depending on the politeness and friendliness of this person. Yes, you can return the entire amount in full, but then it will not teach a person anything (and will not be profitable for you). And so he will remember such a mistake and pain for the rest of his life but will thank fate and you for the fact that his money returned to him with little fee.

I will definitely invest it into other altcoins more likely defi projects cause thier price can go up in a short period of time. I hope someone will truly give me 1 eth as gift.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen many acts of kindness from cab drivers in our town. The 15 minutes of fame on TV where the media reports their kindness, and the sweet promise of rewards from local authorities. So I guess many will do the same deed of kindness like the cab drivers. But human nature also gives us people who has like I argued before the finders keepers attitude. More like they do not want to return the money thinking that it is the stupidity of those who send. But what the heck, this is the crypto and I don't think people will be careless enough to send money accidentally to an incorrect address.

Everyone will be very happy if someone gives 1 ETH prize, and it feels like a dream come true. But the OP discussed about the wrong ETH delivery, here is very clear, wrong delivery and Gift has a different case. If something goes wrong sending ETH to your wallet, will you consider the ETH that goes to your wallet as a gift?

If that ever happened to me. How I wish. I will definitely find sleeper coins/tokens, low cap coins, since there's no way but up because the coin that I am going to buy are on the floor already. For example, if I buy 1 sat coins/tokens, and it became 2 sats, it only means that I double my money. What if it because 10 sats? But of course, I will find good fundamentals coins/tokens not just shit coins.

If someone has mistakenly sent me a 1 ETH, I would instead return it to the original owner because I bet the owner will have regrets and anger to himself. I also made a mistake back then, but I only accidentally sent an amount of 0.003 BTC, and the person that I accidentally sent didn't return my bitcoin. So don't do something to other people that don't want to do to you.

I will advice to send the Eth back to the rightful owner because what goes around comes back around, there is nemesis for every moves we make in our lives, what good can 1 ETH bring to your life if I may ask? Better let go since you never work for it

It's true, there's no one good enough to be able to pay you back for. In 2017 I mistakenly sent more than 5 ETH to a strange address, and in the end they never returned it to me. Instead they moved it to Cryptopia and sold them, that's my mistake and we need to take responsibility for it.

This is so hilarious though, okay, this is a very rare thing to happen. I can never make such mistake as for me, and perhaps when such mistake happens, I will gladly return it back to the owner, that's the best thing, One day I will loose something more too.

Newcomers into crypto usually make mistakes because of their lack of education. With many wallets adopting a user-friendly interface, mistakes are often a rarity these days. The only way someone would mistakenly send you 1 ETH is if the address has been typed manually. Scanning QR codes or NFC tags avoids this problem. But for reasons unknown, some people prefer to type in addresses manually for sending coins across the Blockchain. If you receive free ETH by mistake, you can either keep it yourself or send it back to its original owner. The fact that crypto/Blockchain tech is decentralized, allows anyone to do as they wish with funds confirmed on-chain. That's not the case with centralized payment processors like PayPal or Skrill.

As long as you put the coins to good use, nothing else matters. I'd personally donate the 1 ETH to a charity of my choice by exchanging it to Fiat. If you're planning to send coins back to its original owner, then ask for a transaction hash along with a signed message from the address where the funds originated from to prove ownership. It'll be quite challenging for the owner to contact you directly since addresses have no identities linked to them. But if you publicly disclose your addresses along with your contact info, it'll be much easier for the owner to claim the funds back from you. Whatever you do with the coins receive by mistake, it's your call. Just my thoughts ;D