TL;DR

• On the Bitcoin Network, when you submit a transaction, a bunch of independently owned computers compete to win the right to process it. After it’s processed, the winning computer gets a 6.25 BTC reward plus a transaction fee.

• When you’re sending a transaction, you can offer a higher fee to try and get your transaction to process faster...and instead of offering a $5-$20 fee, like a normal person, an employee at the Paxos Crypto Exchange (accidentally) offered a cool $500,000.

• The miner responded in the most ​Web3​ way possible - put it to a vote (on Twitter/X).

• Want to see the results? ​Click here​.

Full Story

Imagine you’re buying a fancy new laptop. It’s $2,000.

You swipe your card, the payment goes through, you walk away happy.

But then you check your account, only to find out that your $2,000 transfer of funds came with a $500,000 fee.

A similar scenario just played out on the Bitcoin network.

Here’s the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of it all…

On the Bitcoin Network, when you submit a transaction, a bunch of independently owned computers compete to win the right to process it. After it’s processed, the winning computer gets a 6.25 BTC reward plus a transaction fee.

That last bit (the fee) is what’s important here.

See, when you’re sending a transaction, you can offer a higher fee to try and get your transaction to process faster...and instead of offering a $5-$20 fee, like a normal person, an employee at the Paxos Crypto Exchange (accidentally) offered a cool $500,000.

(Oooft!).

The miner who received the fee figured it was a mistake and made an offer in good faith, passing the vibe check by allowing 3 days for a total refund to be claimed.

…but the deadline passed without a claim.

In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday that Paxos caught the mistake and asked ‘hey, um, could we maybe, er, get an extension on that offer?

The miner responded in the most ​Web3​ way possible - put it to a vote (on Twitter/X).

They gave 4 options:

1. Refund Paxos 20 BTC as is

2. Distribute it to miners

3. Go fifty-fifty

4. Just freeze it

At the time of this writing, there’s three hours left on the clock - but by the time you’re reading this, it will have been decided.

Want to see the results? ​Click here​.