Lost 70k USD (0.85BTC) due to Electrum RBF security breach. I'm devastated and don't know how to move forward
 | I'm a 10+year BTC enthusiat and user, with deep knowledge of the value propositiona and functionalities. Despite that, since I started accumalating BTC rather yound (over 10 year ago), I have always used a Electrum wallet that is considered "hot". Regardless, I have never had any security issues since I had every other precation to keep my keys etc. So the keys were mine, therefore the coins were also mine. On Oct 28, the first day of my vacation, I had a goal to myself to setup and Tails + Electrum cold wallet to keep on holding my BTCs - I never sell, only buy. Everything went smoothly, I made several tests before commiting to send the whole amount of BTC I had to the cold wallet - I tested sending funds to the watch wallet and then sending it back to the hot one, etc. No problems at all and it was fairly easy to do it myself. I was finally ready to sending the remaning BTC and move forward to enjoy my vacation. It was 0.85, roughtly 90% of what I had. I had both my watch wallet and the hot opened, expecting the moment I finished the transaction, it would be accounted in the watch wallet - I did not happen. I checked the adress multiple times, the watch address supposed to receive the BTC was: bc1qnjtc6qwqshq7s8swfh8ww0lv63pt4t6mku6537 I checked it multiple times and it was the correct one assinged in the hot wallet, as per the "failed" transaction: For some reason I can't explain, when I tried to execute the transaction, I reamined as "local" in the history. Trying to figure it out, I opened the transaction details, checked the address again (all correct), and got a message that the fee was too low and the network was not pushing it through. Therefore, since we were talking about my life long savings, I bumped the fee through Electrum RBF, clicked ok again and then....the receiving address changed it self without me realizing it (how could I after checking it multiple times???). It changed to one that ends exactly the same as the one I inteded to send. It took me a while to understand what had happened. I then went online and realized that this is a recent hack that was discovered. HOW COULD ELECTRUM NOT PUT DOWN HIS OLD VERSION AND LET THIS UNACCEPTABLE BREACH KEEP GOING? I lost over 10 years of diligent savings to a scammer, and electrum allowed that, even though they knew this could happen. THis shouldn't happen to a over 10 year user... but yet it did. After that, I still understand that FIAT is not viable, but how can BTC be if in a matter of seconds I lost my family's retirement plan? I don't know what to do... to be honest that is nothing I can do... Just wanted to share this sad sad story of a person that believed BTC and lost everything for that. EDIT 1: I am really touched and feeling better after all the supporting comments, thank you with all of my heart! I know 99% of the community is made out of good people trying to make a good and honest life for them and their family. Adressing some comments:
[link] [comments] |
