Accuracy and attention when transferring cryptocurrencies.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Bad news again about errors when transferring cryptocurrency. The trader sent money to the wrong address, resulting in a loss of $1 million in cryptocurrency. He made a mistake when entering the wallet address, and instead of the necessary transferred money to the address of the smart contract.

https://decrypt.co/45537/user-loses-1-1-million-in-aave-due-to-mistake

How often does this happen? And what you need to do in order not to find yourself in such situations.
A few simple rules to keep in mind.
When transferring your funds, you must very carefully check all the data. The coins being transferred must be the same. That is, if you transfer Ethereum to a bitcoin wallet address, you can lose your funds. Although today you can already see a warning when withdrawing funds that an error has been entered into the wallet, care must be taken in this case. Correct and complete copying, including checking of both addresses, can protect the user from loss. There are a lot of malicious programs on the network that replace the clipboard, as a result when sending, you can send funds to someone else's wallet.

Stories like today's were,  repeated 9 times in October. Why is this happening? How to avoid this? I propose to discuss this topic today since errors in cryptocurrency transfers happen quite often. It can also be a beginner's guide, reminding everyone to never rush and check everything a few times.

[jackg]

For bitcoin addresses I'd recommend checking the first 5 and last 5 and another 5 in the middle.

Typing out addresses is quite impractical and prone to mistake. I'm not entirely sure how they managed to send to the smart contract address using a normal wallet (surely you'd pay more attention with such amounts)?

Also for larger amounts, I like to send a few hundred bucks as a test to ensure I can transfer the funds in both directions a few times first...

[Charles-Tim]

From the OP link: https://decrypt.co/45537/user-loses-1-1-million-in-aave-due-to-mistake

All may not be lost for the luckless AAVE holder, however. A number of members of the AAVE community have contributed to a thread in the project's governance forum suggesting that a formal proposal be made to restore the funds to the user in question.

For some reason, the sender of 28,050 AAVE didn’t take into account that they were transferring tokens not to their own wallet, but to the address of the AAVE token smart contract. As a result, more than $1 million in digital assets got permanently locked on the blockchain. “The key here being that the AAVE was transferred to the address of the contract itself, and not another account,”

I hope this is clear, so far the transaction was a mistake and sent to AAVE smart contract address, AAVE can send back the fund and should send back the fund to the owner.

While DeFi is on the rise lately, its potentially high yields are often fraught with even greater risks. For example, while launching its token swap service, Crypto.com has recently stressed the dangers of DeFi assets, naming “Partial or total loss of virtual assets” and “Collapse in liquidity with respect to virtual assets” among the many things that could go wrong.

We need to be careful of DeFi projects, studying it very well before making any move. A lot of people have gained from it but many more people have lost from it too, even some DeFi are scam. Learning about it very well is recommended before starting at all.

[FastSha]

Save addresses and seed phrase at own secured notes or pass keeper.
Use only reliable wallets and make an allies to contacts you use.
Send small amount of coins for testing asset transfer.
make a secured and paper copy of importand info.

use this practic every time and all be ok with your assets)

Its interesting how are you keep important info like passes and secret keys and what program do you use for that?

[hosseinimr93]

I hope this is clear, so far the transaction was a mistake and sent to AAVE smart contract address, AAVE can send back the fund and should send back the fund to the owner.

It's impossible to send tokens from a smart contract unless the required function (something like the code below) has been defined when writing the contract. Tokens sent to smart contracts are usually lost forever.

Code:

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Owner can transfer out any accidentally sent ERC20 tokens
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
function transferAnyERC20Token(address tokenAddress, uint tokens) public onlyOwner returns (bool success) {
    return ERC20Interface(tokenAddress).transfer(owner, tokens);

Source: Fixed Supply Token  (Line 219)

Since such function is missing in Aave smart contract, I don't think they can move those tokens.

[Coyster]

I propose to discuss this topic today since errors in cryptocurrency transfers happen quite often. It can also be a beginner's guide, reminding everyone to never rush and check everything a few times.

Checking and double/triple checking addresses before sending will solve this issue, and tbh, I don't see a reason users should rush when sending funds out of their wallets, knowing fully well that the transaction is irreversible and if sent to wallet that doesn't support the coins, the support team will most likely not help you recover your stuck coins.

We need to be careful of DeFi projects, studying it very well before making any move. A lot of people have gained from it but many more people have lost from it too, even some DeFi are scam. Learning about it very well is recommended before starting at all.

Many investors are not learning or researching about this DeFi or even anything they invest in, they only put their money where the hype is and expect ROI, since DeFi started alluring investors, quite a lot of people have been losing money on it, and we've experienced most of the projects plunge in value quickly, investors still putting money into into DeFi atm, I believe are fully aware of the risks in it.

[GreatArkansas]

This is extremely risky and difficult especially when some exchanges using a smart contract as their deposit address (just like coins.ph, a Philippines-based cryptocurrency exchange). There are also some users who reported that losing some of their Ethereum or tokens, by using the exchange's smart contract for receiving address or deposit address.

By the way, the sent AAVE is totally gone so, my thoughts here is, it will be kinda a donation then, it will like to reduce the supply of said token, just like what Satoshi Nakamoto said;

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

[Harlot]

This was very unfortunate to see and I can't blame anyone aside from the sender itself but I think the AAVE devs could have done better to prevent this kind of mistake where they would personally block or deny the smart contract address on the wallet so they avoid sending it back to a irreversible address. If they did it the future users who will do the same mistake will avoid the same fate that user had. Other than that I think you should follow the advice from the previous posts in this thread as they are right on pointing out on double checking the address before sending pressing send.

[tranthidung]

How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V

That thread is for Bitcoin transactions but the tutorial can be applied for any crypto transactions. People don't pay attention on advise and beware of risks from carelessness so they afford their losses. I am sorry to say this but it is.

Reminders for people who have still not yet lost their crypto from carelessness:

• Check a ticker of the crypto with which you want to make transactions.
• Choose the correct chain for both sending and receiving destinations. They need to be matched on the same chain. Pay attention and time to read the warning of platform when you make withdrawal/ deposit.
• Check the address (apply the tutorial of above thread)
• For some cryptocurrency, make sure to include Tag, Meme (as the warning reminds you). Check Tag, Meme's correctness as well.
• Above are first checking-round. Now let's do you double or tripple checking-rounds.
• Double checking-round: Check details in email confirmation (check all details above again for the second time)
• Tripple checking-round: some platforms ask another confirmation for all details after you click on confirmation link in email. Do this round carefully. It is your last chance to avoid losses from typoes.

Others are (but I personally would not go with it)

• Try with small amout to make sure receiver give your correct receiving address (if you are not both sender and receiver). Sometimes receiver gives you wrong address.
• On exchanges, you can add one address to your bookmark (with labels, names, etc.).
  
  • This step is as same as when you do your bank transfer. Remember even with labels, names, you also must to check correctness of receiver's details (crypto addresses, tags, memes, etc.)
  • Blindly rely on labels, names in your account's bookmarks is bad.
    
  • Privacy concern is another reason I don't use this approach

[yazher]

If you see, this is the easiest thing of all you just copy the address you wanna send your cryptocurrencies to and carefully check if its really the right address. usually it took my like two minutes to see if the transaction details are right to avoid errors. It may take some time but does not really matter when the result is a hundred percent sure we can send our crypto assets successfully. 

[libert19]

If ethereum wallets can give error like, 'you are transferring funds to a smart contract, your funds might get lost permanently' that would be great.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Personally I don't understand why wallet service providers allow users to complete a transaction to an unknown blockchain that isn't associated with the wallet they opened or an address that funds sent there aren't recoverable. The pop up warnings would go a long way to help with this situation. I second the suggestion by @libert19, with those messages and probably another insisting you confirm your address again can reduce the rate of this mistakes because it's becoming a norm that occurs regularly.

Assuming there was a warning indicating the users was about interacting with a smart contract, the story today might have been different. We also have to contribute in our own ways, learn how the wallets and blockchain system we patronize works.

I bet you not many knew funds sent to smart contract aren't reversible unless there's a command to execute such transaction like in contract used in crowdfunding that sent back all funds sent to the contract after the sales are over or coins have been sold out.

[20kevin20]

Honestly, I check the addresses, hashes, amounts, fees etc multiple times every time I initiate a transaction - be it ten bucks or a thousand. Is being in a hurry a priority over properly checking tx details?

With my Ledger, I usually write down on a paper the first and last 5 chars of the address I have to send BTC to, then I open up Electrum, then the website/app where the deposit address is shown and finally initiate the tx. When the confirmation appears on my Ledger, I check it multiple times from 4 sources: Ledger's display, Electrum, the website and my paper.

I would've spent even 10 damn minutes on an address check before sending a friggin' million! It's just silly.

[hatshepsut93]

I would never ever send such huge amounts of money in one single transaction, that's a recipe for disaster. Even when I send or withdraw moderate amounts of crypto from services, I'll often do it in 2-3 transactions, even if it means paying more in fees, though generally I look for times when fees are low. If you're splitting your transactions, at worst you will lose only a part of your value to mistakes rather than all of it. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is a wisdom as old as the world.

[erikoy]

<snip>

nice suggestion, all of the points are good and  definitely we can learn to it.

It is difficult to encode the characters of btc address when sending due to its nature where there are many characters had been provided. I agree that encoding it will really be prone to mistakes and that you funds will be sent to someone or it will remain floating in the chain that no one can confirm it unless you make another transaction with higher fees to cancel the first transaction being made if not yet being confirm by the miners.

[Trinx01]

II am always nervous whenever I am going to transfer my funds to another wallet, I always do double-check the recipient's wallet address, I always check the last, first characters of the wallet address and some characters in the middle of the wallet address and always check if the wallet address is the same to the currency that I will send example I will send BTC then double-check if you copy the wallet address.

Simple things you do but it will make you comfortable that you are doing the right thing, double-checking takes only a few minutes why not spending our time to secure our funds.

[Findingnemo]

One million in one transaction then how much attention should give to all the details of the receiver you entered into the cryptocurrency wallet, probably checking thrice or more than that will.save sich mistakes.Some people are paying too much for simple lessons.

[rhomelmabini]

It was hell of an expensive lesson for this AAVE holder and I wonder if this guy was just new in the crypto space considering the transactions on his/her address was just only for a month. There are too many ways to secure your transaction but this guy surely isn't paying attention for a large amount he was trying to transfer. There's CTRL + F on windows to search if he really got the exact address of his/her receiver (I just don't know what's the same value of it on MAC or Linux) and checking the last or first characters of the address as suggested by jackg.

I think this isn't just that he got the wrong address maybe he was so sure that it was the right address he wanted to send to but he/she isn't paying attention that it was the smart contract address of a token he was sending to. I assume that it was the scenario but too late it's irreversible and already locked. There are users who propose to restore it but I think it doesn't been paid much of an attention and it even displayed on the "Off-topic" board of the AAVE governance forum. The thread was still new maybe it will be discussed furthermore since the not so good event of this AAVE holder was noticed just recently.