In an extensive blunder, the cryptocurrency platform Compound mistakenly paid out $90 million among its users. Right after the mistake, the platform’s founder start asking for the users to return the money – or else they would be reported to IRS, and potentially doxxed, alerted the founder.

Platform Upgrade Bug Splash Out $80 Million      

The Compound is an Ethereum-based money market set of rules that permits the users to earn interest or acquire assets against collateral. Bankers can facilitate assets to Compound’s liquidity pool and start earning compounding interest, with interest rates guided automatically by supply and demand.

In previous days, due to an unfounded upgrade process, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform ended up spilling out Ethereum assets worth $90 million to its users. Compound’s “Comptroller” contract’s transaction history shows where all the Ethereum tokens went. Compound’s founder Robert Leshner asked users who get these Compound tokens in error to return the assets to the platform’s Timelock contract. To encourage the users, Leshner stated that for their, “white-hat” behavior they may keep 10% as a reward.

“Otherwise, it’s being reported as income to the IRS, and most of you are doxxed,” threatened the founder in the same tweet.

And it was this last bit that may have rubbed some users the wrong way. “Wow… this is just embarrassing – a plea wrapped in a threat, fueled by the lack of privacy,” reacted blockchain engineer Assaf Morami to Leshner’s tweet.

“This is how to make people who would marginally be willing to help you out for your mistakes keep it out of spite,” said tech entrepreneur Ryan Lackey.

I Want a Refund!

From the $90-million-blunder, the value of Compound’s native token, COMP dropped by around 13% within 24 hours of Leshner’s tweet. Although, at the time of writing, the value is regularly rising the back up:

Realizing that the original wording of his tweet may not have sat well with many, Leshner revised his tone:

“I’m trying to do anything I can to help the community get some of its COMP back, and this was a bone-headed tweet / approach. That’s on me,” said Leshner. “Fortunately, the community is much more bigger, and smarter, than just me. I appreciate your ridicule and support.”

Although, you may be relieved to learn that user funds, supplied assets, borrowed assets, and positions are not impacted by this incident. “Users don’t have to worry about their funds; the only risk is that you (or another user) receives an unfairly large quantity of COMP,” explains Leshner.

Because the Compound protocol requires a seven-day governance process before any production changes can be made, Compound’s only option at this time is to wait on users, hoping they will return the assets. It remains yet to be seen how many users who erroneously received the crypto assets would be paying them to Compound. But, the odds look optimistic for the platform.

In two recent cryptocurrency heists, Poly Network’s attackers had delivered the $611 million stolen from the DeFi platform. SushiSwap’s MISO platform was also able to recover $3 million worth of coins stolen during an insider attack.

The severe difference being, both of these conflicts concerned criminal activity, supported by a successful recovery outcome. Whereas, in Compound’s case, the technical mistake has left the funds in the hands of honest users who, we hope, will remain honest.