The Largest Bitcoin Transaction Fee Ever Recorded Sparks Discussion
The crypto community is buzzing about the recent incident involving the largest Bitcoin transaction fee ever recorded. It has been revealed that crypto services provider Paxos is responsible for the massive fee of 19.89 BTC, equivalent to around $500,000 at the time, paid to move just 0.008 BTC.
Paxos Identified as the Culprit
Paxos has been identified as the entity behind this costly mistake. Initially, there were speculations that the transaction was linked to PayPal, but a spokesperson from Paxos confirmed that the company overpaid the Bitcoin network fee on September 10, 2023.
“This only impacted Paxos corporate operations. Paxos clients and end users have not been affected and all customer funds are safe.”
A “Fat Finger” Mistake
This incident is being referred to as a “fat finger” mistake, which means it was a human error caused by pressing the wrong key when entering data on a computer. Paxos acknowledged that the high fee was due to a bug in a single transfer, which has since been fixed. The company is now in contact with the miner to recover the funds.
Refund or Distribution?
F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang expressed regret for agreeing to refund the 20 BTC and cited confusion with time zones. He conducted a poll asking the crypto community how he should handle the BTC in question. As of now, around 36% of respondents suggest distributing it to miners, while approximately 29% believe it should be refunded to Paxos.
Cosmos developer “chjango.cosmos” proposed a 50/50 split, with 50% going to the network miners and the other half returning to Paxos. They emphasized that Paxos should have known better than to make such a rookie mistake.
Hot Take: The Importance of Double-Checking
This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of double-checking before making transactions in the crypto world. Even experienced entities like Paxos can make costly errors due to human mistakes or technical bugs. It highlights the need for thorough quality control processes and continuous improvement in the industry.
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