Crypto is the reversal of the one-mistake-doctrine and that’s a terrible flaw

This one-mistake-doctrine is very interesting read. Thanks.

Crypto is much too complicated for the majority. Even setting up a wallet and doing basic transactions is complicated, but doing more complex things like interacting with smart contracts is only for heavy experts, and even they are always at risk to make mistakes. Non-tech people will probably only adopt when e.g. banks offer foolproof products, like crypto savings plans where they will do everything for you. This will only happen after strong regulation.

I’ve never heard of this principle before but it (unfortunately) does ring true. Hoping that some smart blockchain folks can help come up with solutions to help reverse the imbalance.. I’ve heard of some organizations doing trustless storage of your keys but it’s seemed way too risky to me.

This is why simplictiy is so important

This is why crypto will not be used in the mainstream for commerce or digital payments. It will be used for speculation and HODLing for prices to rise only.

DeFi and smart contracts are too technically complicated for most average people to use. Add in the fact that the user is responsible for their own funds and you got a recipe for disaster for a majority of people. Interacting with one bad smart contract can drain your entire wallet. And people will get lazy and obviously cold wallets will not prevent everything bad from happening. All it takes is one bad move and you are done.

Outside of this sub, most people and friends I know are deeply skeptical of crypto. All they hear about are scams and hacks and shit. How is that a good first impression for mainstream adoption?

Crypto’s biggest strength is also it’s biggest weakness

Huh – so this is what i’ll be thinking about on the toilet

I don’t trade my crypto and I check a thousand times before transferring to someone else. But still, mistakes can happen.

One day, when I was new to crypto, I made the mistake of selling instead of buying. And I’m lucky this is the worst that ever happened to me…

Maybe this will change in the future, who knows

Interoperability will bring ease of use and usher in mass adoption. Until then, yes, a little wild West, but, imo, it’s good to be a pioneer!

A few things wrong with this.

1. He had 200k on a hot wallet, and all in the same hot wallet, it should be much more spread out.

2. He wasn’t using any security extension like Pocket Universe that tells you the results of a transaction before you make it.

There are ways to be safer.

Ultimately there is a risk to this space. We are our own banks and we know the pros and cons. Education is key!

One mistake doctrine? You are misapplying it.

For example, did you hear of the guy who made one mistake with a loaded pistol and shot out a window? That was one mistake too. The whole window is gone! The other guy who shot himself by mistake, his whole life was gone.

The only difference between those two “one” mistakes is where the pistol was pointed. Good and bad have nothing to do with it.

When people make mistakes and lose something, they lose 100% of what they lose. It’s kind of that simple.

By cherry picking the numerator and denominator you can make any mistake “one” mistake, and forget about all the others if you like… but it’s specious.

A more obvious explanation of the mass-adoption issue facing crypto is that crypto demands perfection, and people just aren’t perfect by nature. Show me someone who scored 100% in every math test ever, and I’ll show you someone who can handle crypto [naturally]. The rest of us can’t.

Isn’t this true of all money, though? One could say the same about online banking or keeping money under your bed. As long as criminals exist (and they always will), as long as you fuck up just once (someone sees you enter your password at a Starbucks or you leave your front door unlocked), they’re gonna get you.

Don’t fuck up.

A man puts all his savings in his wallet, walks around in the crowded streets with it all day, and a pickpocket steals it. He lost all his savings.

Is it the dollar’s flaw?
Is it “one mistake”?

No. It’s just a man’s lack of common sense. Nobody should be doing this and there’s nothing specific to crypto here.
Everyone might get his wallet stolen, so you just dont put your whole savings in it.

🐱

Crypto is never about risk mitigation. Its more about the freedom and independence it brings which is valued differently for every individual

>that guy who lost 200k Dollars on his 25-word hard wallet

Anybody who knows what you’re talking about knows you that don’t.

You are mixing up things and you are misapplying the one mistake doctrine. I wonder where you got that idea but a criminal can make just as many mistakes and not get caught as an investigator can maker mistakes and still catch the criminal.

The “one mistake doctrine” is a legal term that applies specifically to criminal law and police work. It refers to the idea that a law enforcement officer is justified in using deadly force against a suspect who has committed a serious crime and is believed to pose an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others, even if the officer has made a single mistake in judgment.

True that, in crypto you only have to make a mistake once, and all your assets could be gone.

If crypto never evolves and developes an easy to use, forgiving UI, then I’m afraid we’ll never grow much more than where we already. Good catch up and properly phrased too!

the guy shouldnt have this kind of money in crypto if he is that naive and dumb to sign random contracts with a wallet that contains all his money.

Emerging fields always have teething problems as brutal as this may be, imo it won’t stop adoption.

That’s what happens when you don’t understand how security works.

I don’t think this is such a big deal, because it’s the same thing with the internet.
You can try to save your data, your email password, your SSN during tax season, etc all your life. And if you mess up once, it’s on the web. But hackers can try over and over again, as you said.

But our programs and operating systems are so easy, they have so many checks-and-balances in place, and they and handle all the complex stuff behind the curtain. Most people have no idea how DHCP, ports, DNS resolution, etc work, or why I can’t just access your Documents folder when you’re connected to the internet.

Eventually, crypto will be the same. Even if the blockchain is irreversible and complex, our programs and front-end interfaces will be sophisticated enough that it won’t matter for most people.

What we learned from this?

1 Putting your life savings in crypto is very risky. Never invest more than you are willing/able to lose

2 Never sign any smart contract you do not understand

I feel so bad for the man it is very sad what happened to him and I hope he is alright.


I don’t think crypto is one mistake doctrine, most of us made tens mistakes, but still are ok. Real difference is weight of those mistakes. Smart people don’t make one huge mistake, just more minor ones.

In real life you can lose everything by one little mistake too, most of us still didn’t made that kind of mistake, simply cause otherwise we would be in prison or cemetery… Simmilar in crypto, your wallet can get hacked, but if you have 5 wallets you will be just hurt, not totally finished. You exchange can went bankrupt, but if you keep most money in wallets you will be fine to. If someone lost everything in crypto cause of one mistake, most likely it wasn’t just one mistake, but multiple mistakes made over and over.

Dang. I had never thought about that. This was actually an informative and helpful post. Thank you.

Im curious if there is a way to implement 2fa on large crypto transactions. There should be a difference in sending $100 or $10000 to some address

Some things that solve this UX problem will be:

Name services, human readable names for every wallet, which is effectively an account abstraction, making the fuck up less likely to happen to begin with.

Immutability is a feature and a bug at the same time. So having application specific chains with select validator sets, or sequencers for something such as a “RollApp” on celestia, could allow for these fuck ups to be reversed through some level of democratic process. This is a service that could potentially be useful in the future, a democratic reversal process for a chain. This also could lead to additional censorship issues, but censorship with the requirement of democratic process. Also, the more centralized the chain or RollApp is, the more likely a transaction reversal can happen to make the person whole again.

Also, wallet UX and diligence will be extremely important to prevent these types of mistakes. Lastly, test transactions are still useful on blockchains, test transactions are the due diligence necessary to help prevent mistakes, at least until some of these other features can be implemented and improved upon.

I agree with you, but please don’t forget all the …

“[Dumb ways to die](https://youtu.be/IJNR2EpS0jw)”

There are plenty of one-mistakes everywhere in life.

i would compare it to the internet using this logic. most people didn’t have a clue how to use it for the first decade or two. we still have entire generations who have zero interest in computers or the internet at all. the children of crypto investors will be a lot more savvy.

That specific case sounds like an ETH problem

In general, the principle in the design of Bitcoin and similar coins is that they’re cash. If you wouldn’t put $200k cash in a safe, you wouldn’t hold your life savings in Bitcoin

As children, we’re taught to look after our things. That means anticipating that something can go wrong and evaluating the consequences. If the consequence is losing a quarter down the street drain, no stress. If the consequence of carrying $200k of $50 banknotes in a paper bag in a downpour is the loss of 4000 banknotes down the drain when the bag collapses, don’t do that

As designed, Bitcoin is for spending. Buy some, spend it immediately

A consequence of that design is that there are no protections for other uses. Don’t use crypto for life savings

Especially, don’t use smart contracts for large amounts

> because you are in a hurry or because you are distracted

No common sense? No self-control? All lizard brain? We’re humans. We’re above that. If the consequences of an error are serious, delay the job until the hurry or distraction has passed

If someone doesn’t consider the consequences, they’re deliberately choosing loss

Every challenge is an opportunity. People who are in the industry should work to improve the UX. This is not the end state.