You risk losing your money forever: Five tips on how NOT to mess up your crypto transaction

It is impossible to cancel a blockchain operation that has been sent. So, if you make a mistake in a transaction, your funds will be lost forever. However, there are still a few ways to get it back and techniques to reduce the possibility of losing money to zero. They were described in detail on Reddit by a crypto enthusiast with nine years’ experience under the nickname fan_of_hakiksexydays.

Is it possible to cancel a coin transaction in a blockchain?

In most cases, the answer to the question posed will be “no.” The fact is that digital assets imply a p2p system of electronic payments without intermediaries that affect the funds’ transfer, so any action in the network is irreversible. In other words, once a miner has added a transaction to a block contained in the blockchain, it cannot be undone or displaced.

What also complicates returns is that blocks are mined very quickly (~few seconds) and don’t stay in the transaction pool for long. That’s why there is not enough time to abolish the transaction after it is done. However, we have one exception. There are times when transactions can wait hours or even days for mining. So, if your transaction is stuck, you can replace it with a new transaction, but it’s a matter of luck.

This is not the only way you can try (yes, just try) to get a transaction back, but there is no guarantee that it will work. Let’s talk about the others below. 

How to return your coins?

If it is theoretically possible to get the transaction back, how can we do it? Let’s look at the most common options that increase the chance of success.

Request a refund

Immediately after a user has withdrawn coins from their account, the system sends the transaction to the blockchain. Miners do not instantly confirm the payment, it takes time, and the exchange does not influence how long it will last. Therefore, if the user changes his mind about withdrawing his money during this time, he can cancel the transaction. To do this, go to the appropriate section and click “Cancel.” If there is now such an option, your funds are already in the blockchain and are processed by the miners. 

Finding the wallet owner

Transactions can be tracked, and the address of any digital asset can be traced. All account activity is recorded in the public blockchain, so the personalities of transactors can be identified.

If someone shared his wallet address on a forum or his nickname appeared in some publications on social networks, it makes it much easier to find the owner. Also, his email may be stored online. By contacting the person to whom you accidentally sent funds, you can ask for their return.

Hanging transactions

When transfers are on hold, it means that miners are adding transactions with higher fees to blocks. If the nodes do not confirm the transaction, the sender’s funds will not reach the recipient’s address. Hanging transactions are accelerated based on the wallet’s features to send offers.

Most wallets support dynamic fees. However, if the operation hangs up, there is a chance to get the funds back to the wallet. To do this, you need to do the following steps:

• go to the wallet and find the sending address.
• copy the private key of this account. It can be found through the command dumpprivkey <address>, where <address> is the sending account.
• copy the private code.
• close the wallet and delete the program.
• re-install the application.
• import the private key of the sending address into the new wallet (you can use the importprivkey <privkey> command, where <privkey> is the private key of the bitcoin account).

The blocked funds in the network will become available and be reflected in the wallet balance.

Yes, it is not enough to press a couple of buttons to get your funds back this way; at least you will have to understand the structure of your wallet a little bit. So let’s look at the correct option in this situation.

How to make sure you never mess up a transaction?

It would be nice to just always send funds correctly, to the exact address, so that you don’t have to look for ways to get your money back later, wouldn’t you? Yes, you have to consider the human factor. Still, if you follow specific methodologies, i.e., if you make transactions based on some plan, you can reduce the possibility of a failure to zero.

• Check that you are using the correct currency. Yes, many people have fallen for it. For example, it is possible to confuse BTC and BCH. It’s a simple issue of double-checking. Don’t underestimate it.
• Don’t type any address, copy and paste, or QR code it. It eliminates a lot of the errors users make.
• Double-check the first few and last characters. You don’t even have to examine the whole address. You have the complete address if you have the beginning and the end. If anything got removed, it would typically be the end.
• Do a small test transaction first for important transactions. You may not have the safety net of a bank in between, but you can make your safety net. For most crypto, the cost will be minimal. But if you transfer significant amounts, it’s safer to do a test first, especially on a new wallet.
• For some coins, you may have extra steps, in the same way when you do a wire transfer. Those may be things like a network you have to select or having a note/memo to get to the right account. That’s something you would see more on exchanges. In most cases, what you need to do is explained, and it’s still simple enough. If you’re transferring a new coin, always double-check that there are no extras like this, especially if you send funds to an exchange.

That’s all. It is quite possible not to lose your money, even considering the human factor. The main thing to remember is that we are talking about your savings, which you can lose forever, and even though you can get them back, it will cost you an incredible amount of effort and luck. Treat cryptocurrency transactions the same way you would a bank transfer, and everything will be fine.