Oops! User Pays $172,000 BTC Transaction Fee

In a costly Bitcoin blunder, a user mistakenly paid a staggering $172,000 transaction fee, dwarfing the actual amount sent. The transaction, overpaid by 133%, highlights the risks of mishandling UTXOs and the importance of cautious consolidation.

Costly Blockchain Mistake 

Blockchain data reveals an unknown user paid an excessive 4 BTC ($172,000) as a transaction fee, significantly surpassing the 2.9 BTC sent to the intended recipient. This astonishing error resulted in the fee being 29,992 times the standard transaction size, reaching 1,800,890 satoshis per vByte, while the average transaction paid around 60 sat/vB.

Tomer Strolight, editor-in-chief for Swan Bitcoin, warned against turning a UTXO consolidation into an inadvertent fee, emphasizing the importance of proper consolidation practices.

Understanding UTXO and its Pitfalls

UTXO, or Unspent Transaction Output, represents individual BTC transfers within a user's wallet. Attempting to consolidate UTXOs is a common practice to avoid increased transaction fees when sending larger amounts later. Dividing BTC into multiple small UTXOs can escalate transaction costs, as fees must be paid for each UTXO moved.

Will the User Recover the Bitcoin?

While Bitcoin transactions and fees are technically irreversible, instances of overpaid fees being reimbursed by miners are not uncommon. In the past, mining pools, such as F2Pool and Antpool, returned excessive fees to users who made similar mistakes, offering a glimmer of hope for the user in this latest blunder.

It remains to be seen whether the fortunate miner will receive restitution for the colossal fee paid in this transaction, adding another chapter to the intriguing tales of cryptocurrency mishaps.