PEP-28: Donate to wallet that sent funds to inactive wallet

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.

1 Like

I added a UI improvement suggestion to the Web Wallet that might help with this problem: Add transaction checker for new wallets · Issue #338 · pokt-foundation/wallet · GitHub

1 Like

Hi @StackingWei, if you wish for the DAO to consider this proposal please edit your post to comply with the standard format below.

Attributes

  • Author(s):
  • Recipient(s): Who will receive the money? The proposal authors? Someone else? Is the reward to be posted as a bounty? Or is no reward being requested?
  • Category: Imbursement / Reimbursement / Bounty / Transfer / Relationship / CampaignNet
  • Fulfills: Link to other PIPs/PEPs
  • Related Installments: Link to other PEPs
  • Asking Amount: What is the sum of POKT being requested?

Summary

Layman-friendly overview.

Abstract

Longer description of the endowment being made or relationship being formed.

Motivation

Explain why the endowment/relationship is worthwhile. How will it benefit the Pocket Network ecosystem? What is the expected ROI?

Needs Being Met

Link to relevant Feature Requests and/or Proposal Requests from the Needs category in Discourse, which your proposal fulfills.

Budget

Outline in detail how the funds will be deployed. All funds must be accounted for or your proposal will not be permissible.

Rationale

Justify budgetary decisions and/or the reasoning behind the relationship.
Where relevant, acknowledge alternate budget options (e.g. cheaper tools/specifications) that were considered and explain why they were discarded.
If it exists, state the next-best cheaper alternative you would be willing to accept if your current proposal is viewed by the community to be too expensive.

Dissenting Opinions

Acknowledge all opinions which disagree with the rationale of this proposal.

Deliverable(s)

Define each measurable outcome that will result from the endowment/relationship, highlighting key results, deadlines, and milestones.

Contributor(s)

Provide details of the contributor(s) who will produce the above deliverables. How are they qualified?
Who is the lead that will take responsibility for the success of each deliverable, i.e. the achievement of key results within their deadlines?
Link to Project pages in Discourse if relevant.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

2 Likes

Hi Jackal,

Thanks for heads up - thats done now!

Awaiting further comment,

Kind regards
Stacking

This is an unfortunate mistake but I don’t think funds from the DAO should be used to refund a user.
So for this reason, I’m against this proposal.

1 Like

Usually I would agree, and while yes the typo was user error, I dont think it should be possible to send to a wallet that doesnt exist
Had the funds been sent to a wallet that did exist there would be no issue. However this flaw makes it possible for a newb to fat finger an address, and a wallet get spun up to match, where the owner can never even be attempted to contact as the owner doesnt exist.