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Investing.com – The following example, in which a user appears to have lost $500,000 worth of ether, shows how important it is to know exactly what you are doing when using cryptocurrencies like .
Ethereum lost for half a million dollars
On Reddit, a user described the mishap that happened to him. Until his contribution, he was hopeful that he was wrong and that the $500,000 hadn’t gone away after all, so he started his thread with the following question:
“Did I just lose half a million dollars because I sent WETH to the WETH Contract address?”.
He then explained in detail what had happened and what error of judgment he had allowed himself to be caught in.
“I sent ETH to the WETH Contract and received WETH back (after doing a bit of googling (NASDAQ:) I found that the Contract works like this). I assumed that it also worked in reverse and I returned WETH to the contract, however I did not receive any ethereum in return, obviously you have to use a frontend if you want to recover ether, so the ETH is lost to never”.
Along with the usual comments from those with at least some cryptocurrency experience laughing at the stupidity of the thread creator, there have also been many positive comments. He replied to these:
“Thank you, dear strangers. I am happy to find so many nice people in the comments and on the chat. One can lose a considerable amount of money, as it happened to me. I was stressed and I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I made an error in judgment with far-reaching consequences. But I’ll get over it too.”
Ether can’t reach the mainstream this way
Another user drew an interesting conclusion from the incident. As long as it’s possible to accidentally lose $500,000 worth of ether while using cryptocurrencies, the technology won’t take hold in the mainstream either.
“The direct use of private keys and smart contract addresses is big bullshit, to be honest. Mainstream crypto adoption requires smart wallets, social recovery, intuitive user interfaces, and (for the best and for worse) third-party solutions for conservation. There’s no way these kinds of irreversible errors will be accepted by an average citizen.”
So think carefully about what you are doing when working with Ethereum & Co. Inform yourself and do not make a decision based on guesswork, otherwise you will lose money sooner or later.
By Marco Oehrl
Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.