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Oops! NFT collector accidentally burns rare CryptoPunk
A rare CryptoPunk owner’s worst nightmare became a reality over the weekend. Brandon Riley accidentally sent his precious PFP to a burn address, and lost it forever. How did this monumental mistake happen?
Image credit: CryptoTimes.io
Why did someone burn a rare CryptoPunk?
Punk holder Brandon Riley bought CryptoPunk #685 for 77 eth just two weeks ago. He then decided to use the NFT lending platform NFTfi.com to secure a 7% loan against the digital asset. Unfortunately, Riley made a mistake during the “wrapping” process required to use the NFTfi.com service with a CryptoPunk. As a result, he accidentally sent his punk to a burning address.
Riley immediately took ownership of the mistake. He tweeted that he’s not a developer or particularly tech-savvy, and that he shouldn’t have attempted the wrapping process himself. There was one step in the packaging instructions that confused him. Since Riley lost his punk, the set of instructions he followed were updated to clarify the procedure and prevent future mistakes.
Why do people wrap CryptoPunks?
Larva Labs created CryptoPunks before the ERC-721 standard was adopted. As a result, they are incompatible with many Web3 marketplaces and protocols. By wrapping a punk, holders can create a new digital token to prove ownership of the assets and use previously incompatible platforms.
Image credit; LarvaLabs.com
The wrapping process involves interacting with the token at the contract level. It’s not particularly user-friendly, and the popular wrapping site WrappedPunks.com warns, “We strongly advise against wrapping Cryptopunk unless you are familiar with how to interact with smart contracts via etherscan.io. If you decide to wrap CryptoPunk, you will interact with the Ethereum blockchain so that any transaction is irreversible.”
Punk #685 is lost forever, and with it Brandon Riley also lost a third of his net worth. This situation highlights the double-edged nature of blockchain technology. We gain the benefits of eliminating middlemen, but must also suffer the consequences.
This dichotomy, Riley observes, is “both the beauty and the curse of self-defense.”
