While the world of blockchains and NFTs are very exciting and complex, those who deal within it are always warned and given certain safety precautions to keep in mind. One of these is to always double-check and be sure of what transactions they authorize. This is because blockchain-based transactions, once completed, cannot be reversed.
One NFT collector learned this the hard way after he lost over $150,000 worth of Ethereum after he placed a joke bid on an Ethereum Naming Service (ENS). Unfortunately for him, his ‘joke’ bid was accepted and he is now short of 100 ETH.
Details About the Sale
The first thing to understand is what exactly an ‘Ethereum Naming Service’ is. These services are domain names that are attached to a crypto wallet. You might have seen some people online have such names like John.eth. These are not only used as branding but offer an easy way to link one’s presence in web3.
Needless to say, Ethereum name services have become rather popular and while some people are paying decent amounts of money for them, others think they are silly. An NFT collector who goes by the name of ‘Frank’ online was one of these and wanted to troll the ENS-loving community in a move that ultimately backfired.
His plan was to register the domain name stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth and then place a bid on it himself. He explained to his Twitter followers that he would place a bid of 100 ETH on the domain name so that the ENS bot (a Twitter account that posts about ENSs that are for sale) would tweet out the domain name. The point of this was to poke fun at people who deal in these domain names and get a laugh out of it.
“What phrase or meme do you want me to have the ens bot tweet out as a .eth address with a 100 WETH bid? Lol I would have to mint the ENS address myself too,” he tweeted at the time.
Where it All Went Wrong
Unfortunately, his stunt backfired. First, the domain name that he registered was actually bought by someone for 1.9 ETH and he was initially happy about it. The issue came when he forgot to cancel his initial bid of 100 ETH which was still active. After buying the domain name, the new owner accepted his joke bid and his 100 ETH was automatically paid.
Frank soon realised his error and announced to his followers what had happened but seemed to take his mistake in stride.
“Oh no, I lost 100 ETH. I was celebrating my joke of a domain sale, sharing the spoils, but in a dream of greed, forgot to cancel my own bid of 100 ETH to buy it back. This will be the joke and bag fumble of the century. I deserve all of the jokes and criticism,” he tweeted.
Needless to say, this is yet another example of being careful with blockchain, especially when dealing with money.
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