The unsung heroes of Bitcointalk

[Pmalek]

Since it is the start of a new year, I thought it would be a good time to remember some exemplary behaviour by members of the Bitcointalk community throughout the years. The below examples show how some of our members acted when they received money that didn't belong to them. It shows how they performed in situations where they could have taken advantage of someone else's mistakes.

The list is not based on my personal ranking of best to worse, I just posted the examples as I came across them. 


1.

In April 2014, the user johoe discovered a bug that allowed to expose private keys for specific addresses. He informed the community and blockchain.info about his findings and saved many users from losing money

You can get more info on this particular case here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.0

He made a list of addresses here and here that got exposed and asked the members who owned the coins on those addresses to prove their ownership so he could send them back.

Hello,

there were a large bunch of new broken addresses today (several 100s in one day).  I took the liberty of saving some funds before they got swiped by others.  If you can convince me that they belong to you (signing a message with the address is obviously not enough; the private key is already known),  I will send the funds back.

Look into the file http://johoe.mooo.com/bitcoin/broken.txt, to see whether your address was broken.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9774894#msg9774894

johoe returned the 255 bitcoins he swept to blockchain.info. Their users were affected by the bug, and he instructed them to contact the platform for refunds.

The money has been returned to blockchain.info.  Please write to blockchain support to claim refund.

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9791998#msg9791998

In total, johoe posted that he swept over 870 bitcoins to his own wallet to save the funds from being stolen by someone else who discovered the same vulnerability.

I wanted to do a little after-math of how much money was moved by whom.  It is hard to get exact numbers.  Often I have no way to know whether a transaction is legitimate or if someone is stealing money from weak addresses.  I think every item on the following list is correct but there may be more.

870.7 BTC saved by me (they went through 15tXHJCjehqCEL6zRCkGwvuDY6YzZV5sKP)
105.9 BTC stolen by 1M77fUCzQrmY8jHRRgpzDVPAK5eQ31bwxZ
53.0 BTC saved by Blockchain.info
36.2 BTC stolen by various 1xy and 1aa addresses.
3.7 BTC saved by bithernet (1PGfLgFtRHgdgvPNvmHMjtsWwF4fyG1jvh), not yet returned
0.24 + 0.084 + 0.016 BTC stolen by 1824bso2XgKTm7XThA75A2gdMpt3jSxW5M, 15hM4CMs7JZ3JjQHmvGhS4NKSsqhKMsQXu, and 1MKSWH9pShsLdV54cRLDQ9JKarsjXK4ms5

That's about 1070 BTC total.

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg9888800#msg9888800

johoe deserves special recognition for his actions.


2.

In December 2012, the user TheButterZone, received almost 520 bitcoins in a few different transactions to one of his addresses by mistake. He made a thread on Bitcointalk to try and find who sent him the money. He even thought someone was trying to set him up for a crime. Even a collision was mentioned as a reason the bitcoins were accidentally sent to him.

TheButterZone moved some of his own bitcoins that he kept at the same address. The 520 accidentally received bitcoins were transferred to a paper wallet for added protection. In his post, he asks the sender(s) to prove ownership of the coins by signing a message, after which he will send them back to the original owner.

The whole story is available on the link below. 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133122.0

“…the 519.70399999 has been moved to the paper wallet http://blockchain.info/address/1D58NtxrZF4iUnGAFojnqNpPuGi9rrcyVf . I am operating under the conclusion (even if mistaken) that 1TBZjmXho6mdGhoESaMV2svtqJXYtWfEp had a collision and somebody/some computer didn't realize (or care) that it was already in use. SO, if you also have the private key for 1TBZjmXho6mdGhoESaMV2svtqJXYtWfEp, sign with it and I will verify it matches mine, then send your BTC to the new address of your choosing.”

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133122.0

I am not sure how this saga concluded, but his intention to inform the community and give back what doesn’t belong to him deserves every praise.


3.

In June 2010, Gavin Andreasen announced his bitcoin faucet on Bitcointalk. He was giving away 5 bitcoins per user to spread the word and give new users a chance to test out bitcoin.

It didn’t take long for someone to find a way to abuse the system. Luckily, it was wobber who had no intentions of keeping the claimed coins and gave them back. He only wanted to test if it could be abused.

gavinandersen

I've been able to drawn 50 BTC in minutes using Tor. Please add some address filter too, so the same address can't be used twice. I'll also provide a Tor blacklist if you'd like.
PS: I've paid back those BTCs.

It's out job to disarm thieves so this currency won't be subjected to the same atrocities as in real world.
This currency shall not be used for one to be rich and in control and others poor and under control.

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183.msg1533#msg1533

He suggested that one address shouldn’t be able to claim coins more than once. Gavin took note of his proposal and changed the configuration so that an address can only use the faucet once.

I am going to add a one-donation-per-bitcoin address rule to make it a teeny-tiny bit harder to cheat. 

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183.msg1541#msg1541

The amounts wobber claimed from the faucet, might not have been a lot at the time, but his actions reminded me of simpler times when people were decent. That’s why I think he deserves mention in this thread.


4.

The next case doesn’t involve a user from Bitcointalk. It involves the companies Bitmain and BitGo. Due to a bug in BitGo’s recovery tool, a user ended up paying over 85 bitcoins in transaction fees for a 16 BTC transaction he sent in April 2015. You can view the transaction id here.

The user who was affected contacted BitGo and Bitmain and explained what happened. The transaction got mined by AntPool.

This is BitGo’s reply on the incident that led to these enormous fees:

We (BitGo) have investigated this issue and determined it to be a bug introduced over a year ago in our fork of bitcoinjs-lib. The exact line of the cause is here: https://github.com/BitGo/bitcoinjs-lib/blob/744b0f76803b8fa233ee3b221364b42bdbf9b7f1/src/util.js#L142

We had since fixed this bug in April 22, 2014 (a month later) here: https://github.com/BitGo/bitcoinjs-lib/commit/fbc7377dbfb3da0fd911f2740c18cfcd41becc1b. However, we missed updating the reference to this fix in the legacy recovery tool.

The root cause of the problem occurred during the output value serialization step when the redeem transaction was constructed. During the process of converting the number into bytes for use in the transaction, bitwise operators were used in this old version of the code, which converted the output value (in satoshis) to a 32 bit int, causing an integer overflow and truncating the output of 10227087437 satoshis (102.27 btc) to 1637152845 satoshis (16.37 btc). Kudos to the other members of the public who discovered this as well.

We would like to thank rstn for his patience and we are in private communication with him to ensure he achieves full restitution of funds.

Source

After they realised what happened, the mining pool returned the entire sum to the original owner.
Hats off to Bitmain, AntPool, and BitGo for acting professionally. OP’s confirmation that he received a full refund and his comments can be seen on reddit here.


5.

The last case of exemplary community behaviour comes from BitcoinFX in 2010. This is connected to Gavin’s faucet that I talked about in example #3. When BitcoinFX saw Gavin’s request for someone to refill the faucet, BitcoinFX made a donation of 500 bitcoins.

Here is that post and the hash of the transaction.

500 BTC Donation incoming to the Faucet !   

~ Only original Bitcoin users will ever understand the true economic value of Pizzas and Haircuts.   Bitcoin for ALL

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183.msg7536#msg7536

That’s all for today. I am sure there are many more examples where members did the right thing, but it’s hard to find. Feel free to share similar examples that you know of.

Happy New Year!

[1714616154]

1714616154

[Csmiami]

3.

In June 2010, Gavin Andreasen announced his bitcoin faucet on Bitcointalk. He was giving away 5 bitcoins per user to spread the word and give new users a chance to test out bitcoin.

----

I'm sorry, but Gavins' faucet can't be mentioned without giving a special shoutout to the Spanish Jerk Draining the Faucet. I know the thread is about heroes; but there's always an antiheroe in every story

[Pmalek]

I know the thread is about heroes; but there's always an antiheroe in every story

Unfortunately that is how things work in all segments of life. Because of some selfish individuals or groups, good initiatives have to be stopped or can't reach those they were initially meant for. Most people who see an old man fall on the street, will try to help and pick him up off the road. But there are also those who will reach into his pocket and run away with his wallet. It's because of those that measures and countermeasures have to be introduced.

[SFR10]

Feel free to share similar examples that you know of.

.#1.

• A bit similar to your 4th case, "btcxchg" sent 2.8BTC by mistake for a 0.0003BTC amount and "GHash.IO" mined that block ^[source].
  
  

  • Hi again community,
    I am very glad to inform you that GHash.IO are very good guys and have refund me the 2.8 btc.
    
    This is the CEX.IO support answer:
    
    

    Hi btcxchg,
    
    I'm glad to inform you that your issue has been successfully resolved.
    
    Please provide us with your BTC wallet address and we'll send you your funds.
    
    I'll be waiting for your reply. Thank you for your request.

    
    You can look the refund in the same address from where it was the sent
    https://blockchain.info/address/1MtGNGScWBTT4SVi2rKf9v9846PmYd57Qv
    
    Thanks a lot to all for your support!
    

  • Reading through that thread shows they've refunded a few other users in the past as well ^{[taken from their comments only]}.

.#2.

• "la_mocha" sent by accident 30BTC to bitmixer.io's donation address and luckily ^{[even though they didn't want to refund it initially]}, he/she managed to get it back in the end ^[source].
  ^{- They even sent him/her 5BTC as compensation.}
  
  
  • Written conversation

  • Hello. Gave up after reading the thread, but gladly this has been resolved.
    The Bitmixer support team sent me a mail which is "Sorry again for the issue, all admins were on vacations. I've transferred 30 + 5 btc as a compensation. Thank you.".
    They gave me a happy new year present
    
    Thank you.
    

  • TX ^[mistake].
  • TX ^[refund].

[arbiter5]

For some reason I was kind of expecting GameKyuubi(the HODL guy) to appear on your list. Nice thread nevertheless.

[Pmalek]

Snip

Thanks for your suggestions!
Yeah, I came across case number 1. But since it was very similar to one of those I already talked about and the amounts were significantly smaller (in amounts of bitcoin), I decided not to include it.

Case number 2 is new to me and I didn't see this thread in my initial research. Thanks for bringing it up!

For some reason I was kind of expecting GameKyuubi(the HODL guy) to appear on your list.

Based on the title I assume?  

[hugeblack]

my top two are @johoe and @jgarzik ---> Strange block 74638

The topic talks about a Bug that made it possible to generate more than 184 Billion BTC, after which a hard fork happens to the network.
I do not know what criteria for including people to your list, but the two examples above illustrate how the two accounts helped a group of people related to Bitcoin, not individual events.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Excellent choice for a thread, OP.  There have been times when I'd become so cynical and jaded that I was certain that there were no honest bitcoiners anymore, as I'd seen so much scamming--even by members who'd formerly been very trusted.  Sometimes it felt like I was searching for the last honest auto mechanic, if you know what I mean.

A thread like this sort of restores my faith in at least some members' fundamental honesty and integrity.  It hasn't exactly made me a non-cynical person, but a thread like this is like one of those Youtube videos that are meant to restore your faith in humanity, showing people doing altruistic deeds for no reward or recognition.

Happy new year and let's hope for a great year for bitcoin.

[GazetaBitcoin]

A thread like this sort of restores my faith in at least some members' fundamental honesty and integrity.

It is nice to see the examples of all those remarkable users mentioned in OP. I consider their gesture a behavior of honesty and dignity, something that all of us should do. Why benefit from the hard work of others, if they made a mistake?

Without considering myself a hero, as my example can not be compared to OP's examples even by far (regarding the amount of money involved), I can say that in November last year I was involved in a similar case.

I was hired by Little Mouse for a short English - Romanian translation. We agreed to a payment of 25.000 sats. During the translation I gave him my input about many typos, small errors, even in the English text, showing him that I am very meticulous and involved in my work. He was so pleased that he paid me double However, by mistake, after he sent me the payment, he sent another payment of 0.003 BTC which, at that time, represented about 70$. Obviously, I returned him the money sent by mistake (his feedback on this matter can be seen at my Trust section of the profile  at the Untrusted feedbacks). I did it because I am a honorable person, a correct individual and I didn't want to profit from his mistake. It was not right.

As I said above, my example is far, compared to the users mentioned in OP. But being honorable can be proven even with 1$, not just with hundreds if BTC. I encourage all to be fair, to be correct with others and others will be correct with you. In life, what goes around comes around. Don't let your greed take over you and profit from others' mistakes! Your conscience will never let you feel good afterwards!

[Little Mouse]

he sent another payment of 0.0003 BTC which, at that time, represented about 70$.

It’s 0.003 BTC 
I had mistakenly copied Gazeta's address while I was sending BTC to another person. I didn’t even notice that, was busy with another work, couldn’t check closely. So, I sent the BTC to Gazeta. When the receiver whom I wanted to send said he didn’t receive, I checked back and found the address was not same. At first thought, I felt like it was the copy paste malware which changed the address, I checked with explorer and was able to detect one tx. Then I checked Gazeta's address and got the mistake.
I contacted him and he sent me without any hesitantion.

[GazetaBitcoin]

It’s 0.003 BTC 

[...]

Then I checked Gazeta's address and got the mistake.
I contacted him and he sent me without any hesitantion.

Thank you for correcting me. Indeed, the amount was 0.003 BTC , not 0.0003 BTC. I also corrected it in my above post. Thank you also for confirming the story is true

[Pmalek]

@jgarzik ---> Strange block 74638

I didn't come across this case when I did my research, but you are right, it is another great example of praiseworthy conduct. I do remember the case and I read about it in the past. It led to a solution being found relatively quickly, in the space of just a few hours. 

Excellent choice for a thread, OP...

You are welcome mate. I am glad it was well received.

Snip

Some people don't have a conscience. But those who do, know what the right thing to do is. Good personal example there.

[Laudanum]

BitcoinFX just gave 500btc to help out? That's quite noteworthy. Yet I've seen people give him little respect here in recent times. Guy should be treated like royalty in retrospect.

[Pmalek]

BitcoinFX just gave 500btc to help out? That's quite noteworthy.

It sure is.

Yet I've seen people give him little respect here in recent times. Guy should be treated like royalty in retrospect.

I can't really remember a particular situation where he was disrespected recently, or am I not visiting the right boards and topics? Are you referring to a specific case where such a thing happened?

[mk4]

BitcoinFX just gave 500btc to help out? That's quite noteworthy. Yet I've seen people give him little respect here in recent times. Guy should be treated like royalty in retrospect.

Though I'm definitely NOT discrediting BitcoinFX here(because he surely deserves all the praise from his help), don't forget that 1 BTC was worth FAR far less back in 2010 compared to today. Still, huge huge props and all the respect to him for contributing to the early Bitcoin community!

[Pmalek]

Though I'm definitely NOT discrediting BitcoinFX here(because he surely deserves all the praise from his help), don't forget that 1 BTC was worth FAR far less back in 2010 compared to today.

All of the examples are from 2010-2014 and a time when bitcoin wasn't worth as much as it is today. I would have liked to include a few newer cases, but I didn't come across such examples during my search.

There is an ongoing discussion if 1 bitcoin is always 1 bitcoin. It started in the ChipMixer signature campaign thread and there is now a separate thread dedicated only for discussing if 1 BTC = 1 BTC or not. If we are going by the logic that 1 BTC is always 1 BTC, there shouldn't be any difference between a case from 2011 and one from 2020. If we consider the fiat values of the bitcoin involved, the difference is huge. 

[mk4]

Though I'm definitely NOT discrediting BitcoinFX here(because he surely deserves all the praise from his help), don't forget that 1 BTC was worth FAR far less back in 2010 compared to today.

All of the examples are from 2010-2014 and a time when bitcoin wasn't worth as much as it is today. I would have liked to include a few newer cases, but I didn't come across such examples during my search.

There is an ongoing discussion if 1 bitcoin is always 1 bitcoin. It started in the ChipMixer signature campaign thread and there is now a separate thread dedicated only for discussing if 1 BTC = 1 BTC or not. If we are going by the logic that 1 BTC is always 1 BTC, there shouldn't be any difference between a case from 2011 and one from 2020. If we consider the fiat values of the bitcoin involved, the difference is huge.  

Yea, totally aware of that interesting discussion(I even posted a link to that thread on the ChipMixer thread to stop the off-topic discussion). I actually thought twice with my response as I totally knew I was pretty much setting myself up with this reply of yours. 🤣 Still, kudos for creating a very nice thread nonetheless!

[amishmanish]

It is indeed inspiring to read these threads about people having chosen the better thing to do when faced with temptation and greed. OPs third example reminds of the lofty ideals that bitcoin started with. It can also be linked to the lofty idealism that young people generally have before jobs and having realized the power of money.

It's out job to disarm thieves so this currency won't be subjected to the same atrocities as in real world.
This currency shall not be used for one to be rich and in control and others poor and under control.

The above quote is reminiscent of the way young people think that the world is BAD the way it is and they need to overthrow it. People gradually realize that there are no easy solutions when it comes to the problems of the world. It is easy to blame the establishment but it is a dangerous game when you do not have a working alternative. It is also prudent to ask then if bitcoin has become enough of an alternative to change the existing power structure?

[examplens]

I remember this when the Bitsler admin accidentally sent much more BTC than it should to signature manager @yahoo62278, but he still got them back.
a great example of how to gain a reputation here.

Baryom

2018-11-03

I sent him 39.4 BTC instead of 0.394 BTC for a signature campaign payment. (My mistake obviously) He returned me 39.005 BTC as soon as he saw that : https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/3a9248a8b02038e237569c3bab0faa674f11575de97bc0dee7ccb307e121b10f We are talking about $250,000. Thanks a lot.

[Pmalek]

Snip

That certainly deserves a special mention and I am glad you posted it. In terms of fiat value, the amount yahoo62278 returned is higher than the other examples I found. If someone can be trusted with money, the sums shouldn't matter, and this is a great example of that.