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I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

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Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#52
post #22
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dow breaking 30k isn’t Hacker News either, you can read about that stuff on CNN if you want focus on random numbers.

>Dow breaking 30k isn’t Hacker News either Not sure about dow specifically, but stories about stock market performance occasionally show up on the front page eg. Trading halted as U.S. stocks plummet (axios.com) S&P 500 Plunges 7%, Triggering Market-Wide Stock Trading Halt (bloomberg.com) both on https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2020-03-09

or every time Tesla does a thing: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&prefix=true&query=tesl...

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#53
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you did what with a bank? You can't accidentally send money to a black hole with a bank.

But you can? https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/how-to-avoid-invoice-theft-s... >Neither company explained to CNBC how they were able to recover the stolen funds. In most cases, they’re lost forever.

That isn't sending money to a black hole, that's sending money to a fraudster.

Granted, that is still losing money irreversibly, but it's not the same thing.

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#54
post #37
post #19

This is one of very few reasons why having centralised banks is going to be necessary. Whether the pros of having banks outweigh the cons decentralised currencies, is yet to be determined. Personally, I still don't believe they do. Anyway, the usual bank transaction care should still apply, especially _because_ there is no central authority to reverse charges. Normally when I send money to anyone, I check it first by…

Well, it is also possible to send money to the wrong account number by bank transfer. In that case the banks also generally say that they cannot do anything about it.

Wrong account is one of the three specific scenarios the National Automated Clearing House Association permits an ACH reversal for.

(The others are wrong amount and duplicate transactions.)

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#55
post #37
post #19

This is one of very few reasons why having centralised banks is going to be necessary. Whether the pros of having banks outweigh the cons decentralised currencies, is yet to be determined. Personally, I still don't believe they do. Anyway, the usual bank transaction care should still apply, especially _because_ there is no central authority to reverse charges. Normally when I send money to anyone, I check it first by…

Well, it is also possible to send money to the wrong account number by bank transfer. In that case the banks also generally say that they cannot do anything about it.

Generally they just fix it for you, actually.

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#57
post #46

Can someone ELI5 who has/owns the $50k worth of crypto now? (I don't know what the GHST staking contract means.)

Its in an account which isn’t owned by any person - the account of a “contract”, a computer program made to accept money and send it out based on a set of rules. Unfortunately for this person, the program’s rules don’t let it send back out the kind of currency he added. It’s like if you tried to drop off Euros at an American bank and instead of telling you they don’t accept Euros, they put it in the cash register and…

Thanks, I get it now. And because the contract is immutable, it won't ever give it back to you (unless there's a flaw/vulnerability in it).

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#58

The most downvoted comment in the Github issue seems totally right.. why did this guy put his life savings in a crypto? Even without making any mistake this seems like a dumb move.

> this seems like a dumb move. It is, until said crypto triples in value. Then not so much. Some people have been known to bet the farm on the red at roulette. That's a dumb move indeed, unless you win of course.

Obviously putting some % of your savings into it can be rational, but putting 100% of your savings in a volatile security just isn't wise.

>That's a dumb move indeed, unless you win of course.

No, betting everything you own on red when playing roulette is still a dumb move even if you win. Sometimes you can still be lucky while being dumb, but that's it. Similarly, it's dumb to wrestle a grizzly bear on a bet, even if you come out alive and win the bet.

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#59
post #30

The most downvoted comment in the Github issue seems totally right.. why did this guy put his life savings in a crypto? Even without making any mistake this seems like a dumb move.

It sounds dumb to you (and to me for that matter), but plenty of people have made a lot money like that (and plenty who have lost it). Regardless, neither me, you, or the down voted commenter are in a position to tell him he's dumb for doing it. Maybe there is good reason, maybe there isn't, it's not up to us to tell him he's right or wrong in this scenario.

Occasionally people get rich playing roulette, per a sibling comment. Occasional good luck doesn’t validate a bad decision making process.

Re: I lost all my savings in a mistaken Ethereum transaction

#60
post #37
post #19

This is one of very few reasons why having centralised banks is going to be necessary. Whether the pros of having banks outweigh the cons decentralised currencies, is yet to be determined. Personally, I still don't believe they do. Anyway, the usual bank transaction care should still apply, especially _because_ there is no central authority to reverse charges. Normally when I send money to anyone, I check it first by…

Well, it is also possible to send money to the wrong account number by bank transfer. In that case the banks also generally say that they cannot do anything about it.

I don't think this is true. I think usually an obvious error like a large sum sent to an incorrect account is reversible. Though certain specific transactions such as wires are harder to recover than others such as intrabank transfers.
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