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You have something like a 1 in 4 billion chance of entering a valid bitcoin address if you made a typo, whether it's "one letter wrong" or some other combinatio

You have something like a 1 in 4 billion chance of entering a valid bitcoin address if you made a typo, whether it's "one letter wrong" or some other combination of changes (there's a 32 bit checksum). So actually this never happens.

dnomad 8y ago
This sort of thing happens all the time. Hackers routinely attack web sites and change wallet addresses [1]. They setup fake Twitter accounts, fake web sites, muck up exchanges with fake listings, and in some cases even hold fake investor meetings. By some estimates hackers have stolen $400m from ICOs [2]. All of this nonsense is possible precisely because crypto transactions are irreversible so the currency users have absolutely no recourse. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/17/coindash-website-hacked-7-million-stolen-in-ico.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/17/coindash-website-hacked-7-mi... [2] http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/ico-2018-coin-bitcoin-hack/ http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/ico-2018-coin-bitcoin-hack/
- dmurray 8y ago
  Yes, cryptocurrency institutions get hacked and their customers lose money (more often proportionately, it seems, than their dollar equivalents). I was replying, however, to the ill-founded claim that people lose money by mistyping a single wrong letter in a bitcoin address.
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
Does a BTC address that does not exist cause an error or does it go into oblivion until someone happens to generate a key that matches it?
- cdiddy2 8y ago
  Goes into oblivion. How would you send funds to a newly created address if that wasn't the case? The bitcoin network doesnt know which addresses are ready to be used on the network and which aren't since there isn't any setup the address does with the network prior to being operational.
s73v3r_ 8y ago
So the money goes into oblivion. In the meantime, I'm still out my month's pay, and I can't get it back.

dnomad 8y ago

This sort of thing happens all the time. Hackers routinely attack web sites and change wallet addresses [1]. They setup fake Twitter accounts, fake web sites, muck up exchanges with fake listings, and in some cases even hold fake investor meetings. By some estimates hackers have stolen $400m from ICOs [2]. All of this nonsense is possible precisely because crypto transactions are irreversible so the currency users have absolutely no recourse. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/17/coindash-website-hacked-7-million-stolen-in-ico.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/17/coindash-website-hacked-7-mi... [2] http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/ico-2018-coin-bitcoin-hack/ http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/ico-2018-coin-bitcoin-hack/

dmurray 8y ago
Yes, cryptocurrency institutions get hacked and their customers lose money (more often proportionately, it seems, than their dollar equivalents). I was replying, however, to the ill-founded claim that people lose money by mistyping a single wrong letter in a bitcoin address.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

Does a BTC address that does not exist cause an error or does it go into oblivion until someone happens to generate a key that matches it?

cdiddy2 8y ago
Goes into oblivion. How would you send funds to a newly created address if that wasn't the case? The bitcoin network doesnt know which addresses are ready to be used on the network and which aren't since there isn't any setup the address does with the network prior to being operational.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

So the money goes into oblivion. In the meantime, I'm still out my month's pay, and I can't get it back.