30s Summary

A “fat finger” error in the world of cryptocurrencies refers to human typing mistakes, causing mishaps like wrong transactions. Examples include an accidental transfer by Crypto.com of millions of dollars to an Australian couple, a $23.7m transfer fee paid due to a technical error at DeversiFi, and a bug in Compound Finance that let users claim vast amounts of COMP tokens. Crypto mistakes are challenging to rectify due to their immediate, irreversible, and anonymous nature and are publicly available on blockchains.

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The so-called “fat-finger” error is a stark reminder that even in the super futuristic world of crypto, silly human errors can still cause havoc.

So what’s a fat-finger error? Basically, it’s when you accidentally enter the wrong info when you’re doing something with your crypto, like sending it, selling it, or getting it. This usually happens because you’ve made a typing mistake and can result in big losses or miscalculations.

Typical blunders include adding an extra zero (or maybe even two!) or by accident sending all your savings to the wrong wallet. But this isn’t just something that happens in crypto. In 2018, Samsung Securities paid out way too much in dividends because of a fat-finger mistake.

But with crypto, there’s a key difference because all transactions are immediate, can’t be reversed and are anonymous. This means it’s hard to fix a mistake once you’ve made it. Plus, these embarrassing mistakes are visible to anyone on public blockchains.

Here are six famous examples of when a fat-finger blunder happened in the crypto world.

In 2021, Crypto.com accidentally sent over 10 million Australian dollars to an Australian couple entirely by mistake. The couple thought they’d won an online raffle and began living large until they were found guilty of theft, with one of them ending up with a prison sentence.

In 2021, a small trading platform known as DeversiFi (now known as Rhino.fi), ended up paying a $23.7 million fee for a transfer because of a technical error. But luckily, the miner who received the fee was kind-hearted and refunded the full amount.

Sadly, not all fat-finger incidents end happily. For instance, in 2021 a bug in a popular DeFi protocol called Compound Finance allowed users to claim millions of dollars worth of COMP tokens. Despite asking users to return the tokens, many just sold their loot instead.

Then, there was the time in 2021 when BlockFi, a digital asset lender, mistakenly paid out a promotion in Bitcoin instead of GUSD. Some users even received up to 700 BTC.

Sometimes fat-finger errors are suspiciously too good to be true and seem to have been done on purpose. There was a case in 2020 when an unknown user spent $90,000 in gas fees for a simple $2,200 Ether transfer. Some believe this could have been a sophisticated form of money laundering.

And lastly, while millionaire-making errors make the headlines, minor accidents occur all the time but just aren’t as newsworthy. For example, an NFT art collector called PrincePablos recently thought he bought an NFT for around $1,287 only to find out after the transaction that it had actually cost approximately $12,877!

Source: Cointelegraph