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Earlier quoted context omitted.
While that's a very valid question, it's not helpful to the OP.
Nitpicking slightly, but "OP" is whoever started the thread in the forum where it is being discussed, not whomever wrote the original article. Only saying this because it keeps getting misused here on HN.
Do we have a good word that covers both the author of the post or the OP of the linked thread?
This is a sad story and a good example of why the much-ballyhooed immutability of cryptocurrency transactions is an anti-feature for the vast majority of users.
If you did this with a bank you’d be up shit creek as well.
Banks are not perfect, but at least they pay up if you run into one of those imperfections. Usually.
Maybe the OP is trying to do some sort of indirect PSA on the dangers of crypto?
[edit]: in which case, here's another PSA: you can have freedom or safety. Having both is pretty darn hard. However, having the illusion that you have both is fairly commonplace.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you did this with a bank you’d be up shit creek as well.
Nope. Literally just wired money to a wrong account number (banker mistyped one digit). It was sent back. Sure, if you get tricked into wiring to a fraudster, they can keep your money. However, nothing in the banking system is like this unless you put your money as cash in a bag and burn it.
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.
While that's a very valid question, it's not helpful to the OP.
I do hope he gets his money back, but he deserves some chiding as well.
Bitcoin breaks $20k - HN keeps all posts off the front page, then promotes this one to the top. HN crypto hate never surprises me
Crypto was exiting and, a hundred desillusion later, is still interesting for most people here, but BTC breaking 20k is (at least for me) just boring. It was interesting to know it reached the previous peak at 18k, but 20k, 25k, 30k... Its deflationnary, so of course it will go up. You can't pay taxes with it, you can't loan it, you can't invest it on the primary market. It's boring money.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No you wouldn't. You could almost certainly recover the money. If you wire money to the wrong place, and that person won't return it, that's theft. Likewise, if someone suddenly receives an unexpected million dollars in the account, they should not consider spending it -- that would be a big mistake.
>If you wire money to the wrong place, and that person won't return it, that's theft. maybe, but good luck prosecuting/recovering it if it's outside your country's jurisdiction.
Over here, for a European transfer you need to fill in an IBAN number, which contains the country code of the destination. The transfer will fail as well if you don't provide the right name with the number.
For international transfers, you need to provide even more information like BIC numbers, etc.
With crypto, it's a random address. If you or someone else manipulates the address by even a single bit, it's gone.
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.
While that's a very valid question, it's not helpful to the OP.
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.