‘ProudBitcoiner’, crypto-trader reached out for assistance through Reddit right after he accidentally paid $9,500 worth of transaction fee for a mere $120 Uniswap transaction. He said that he mixed up the gas limit and gas price fields, leading to an enormous transaction fee of 23.5 ETH.
ProudBitcoiner (his Reddit alias) used the prominent MetaMask wallet to process the transaction, allowing manual editing of the gas price and gas limit amounts. MetaMask normally auto-fills these numbers based on the regular gas price at the time, but users can modify the levels to whatever they want.
This capability to manually change the transaction on MetaMask is a double-edged sword – you can quickly execute a Uniswap trade and beat the crowd. It also means that you can make very, very, very expensive mistakes in your life:
Metamask didn’t fill the “Gas Limit” field with the correct amount in my previous transaction, and that transaction failed, so I decided to change it manually in the next transaction (this one), but instead of typing 200000 in “Gas Limit,” input field, I wrote it on the “Gas Price” input field, so I paid [sic] 200000 GWEI for this transaction and destroyed my life :/
Gone In (less than) 60 Seconds!
ProudBitcoiner mentioned that he contacted Ethermine, the miner who processed the block. The chances of getting anything back are almost zero unless Ethermine is feeling in a generous mood. Once a blockchain transaction has been concluded, it is impossible to stop or return them.
ProudBitcoineer’s MetaMask fault is a costly reminder. Everyone should remember that all the benefits of being your bank, having responsibility for your own money comes with the appropriate levels of responsibility.
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