Attributes
- Author(s): StackingWei
- Recipient(s): The owner of the wallet who lost funds.
- Category: Reimbursement
- Fulfills: N/a.
- Related Installments: N/a
- Asking Amount: 4200Pokt
Summary
Hello Pokt Community,
Over the weekend my friend, who is new to crypto, tried staking Pokt in PoktPool for the first time, and even though he copy and pasted the pool address, one character was wrong (somehow). The funds still sent, even though the wallet did not exist. Meaning that when you send funds to a wallet that doesn’t exist - the wallet will be spun up, with no owner who can access the funds
I dont think this should be able to happen - if the address doesnt exist and have an owner, the transaction should fail?
I’ve included all details in the below tweet (tx hash, where the mistake occured etc):
You can see that there was a mistake of one character and that the account was created from that tx,
As there is no way to mediate this (no owner to contact), and no way of reversing the tx, I am requesting a donation from the DAO to get this new user back on their feet,
Some community members have already kindly donated, I have donated myself, and will be sweeping my rewards to help him too - but if the DAO could help out - it would be much appreciated
Motivation
This is a worthwhile donation as it found an area in the Pocket Network that can be improved, to improve UI for future users, by future users not losing funds to wallets that don’t exist. This has been raised as issue #338 by Poktblade
Needs Being Met
This has been raised as issue #338 by Poktblade. This will return the funds lost made possible by this gap, and improve user experience going forward.
Budget
All funds will be returned to the account that lost.
Rationale
This transaction should not have been able to occur (it should have failed). If a wallet does not exist you should not be able to send funds to it. There should be a fail safe ( a warning that the wallet does not exist) or if it does send even though the wallet doesn’t exist the tx should fail. It does not make sense that a wallet with no owner can be created and funds lost.
Dissenting Opinions
I understand that this is blockchain – but there can be ways and means to protect vulnerable users.
Deliverable(s)
As stated in issue #338 by PoktBlade:
‘We can have an additional check to query the address for any transactions and check if the address has received funds in the past. If not, then it can provide a warning. This can help with accident that occurred above’
‘This adds an additional overhead for people sending POKT to new nodes. I don’t think it will be an issue since 15,000 POKT is nothing to scoff at, and you should set up automated systems for sending to new nodes if you run at such a scale.’
Contributor(s)
Pocket Network Devs
Copyright
Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.