Highlights:

A Binance user requested to withdraw their BTC from one address and the platform sent it to another.

Binance claimed it was not their mistake, but after insisting with the claim, it recanted.

Yesterday, BitcoinStackExchange moderator Murch alerted on Twitter that a Binance user had lost their bitcoins (BTC) by requesting the withdrawal of their funds from the platform to a Taproot address.

Journalist Tagged Changpeng Zhao for Solution to Bitcoin Loss Incidentbecause Binance’s customer support team replied to the user that it was not their mistake. Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”) is the founder and director of Binance.

CriptoNoticias was able to verify that the person concerned was Mario Duarte and said in a Telegram group: “unbelievable that CZ did not comment with this tweet”. The Twitter post also details what happened, according to the alleged victim warning the community on the bitcoin StackExchange forum.

“Here’s what supposedly happened: 1) @binance announces that they will be supporting Taproot. 2) User requests withdrawal at P2TR address, Binance creates P2WSH exit instead, burning funds. 3) @BinanceHelpDesk accuses user of mistake, no refund. “

Murchandamus, Bitcoin Core developer and moderator of the StackExchange bitcoin forum.

First, Binance does not take care of the error of transferring BTC to another address

User claiming to have lost their BTC posted on the forum: “I complained in Binance’s support chat and they told me that Taproot is not supported and their system is transforming or shutting down. automatically converts to a BC1Q (native segwit) address “.

Although Binance announced a month ago that it had enabled compatibility with the latest Taproot update, the customer service team hinted to the user that this was not the case.

As seen in the screenshot the victim took from the chat with the support, Binance specifically replied, “Unfortunately, like BC1P’s addresses [código con el que empiezan las direcciones de Taproot] are not supported for BTC withdrawals (you see a warning message when you try to withdraw BC1P), BC1P will be converted to a supported address of BC1Q ”.

Ledger and the bitcoiner community help Mario Duarte recover his BTC on Binance

Binance support told the user who lost their BTC that the Platform is not making withdrawals to BC1P addresses. Source: @murchandamus / twitter.com

“Of course it’s something beyond the usual and they’re trying to convince me it’s my mistake while I continue to fight for them to take responsibility,” the user said. In addition, Binance suggested contacting support for Ledger, maker of the hardware wallet of crypto-currencies de Duarte, to see if they could help him get his bitcoin back, which he did without finding a solution.

Still, he managed to get the attention of Charles Guillemet, Ledger’s chief technology officer, on Twitter, where he replied in amazement: “This story is crazy.”

Pieter Wuille, Blockstream Engineer and Bitcoin Core Developer, told the alleged victim on the forum: “It is not your fault and you must demand that your bitcoins be returned to you. P2TR addresses (like all addresses) have a checksum, and this checksum algorithm was even changed for the introduction of Taproot. The fact that they accepted this address (even ignoring the misinterpretation like P2WSH) shows extreme incompetence on the part of the sender. ‘

On the bitcoin StackExchange forum, Samuel Dobson, a recently retired Bitcoin Core maintainer, also responded. He told her: “I totally agree that your mistake will be fully reimbursed; websites should never change the address provided to them. “

In view of this, Pieter Wuille explained on Twitter: “P2TR outputs contain a public key. P2WSH outputs contain a script hash. If you take a valid P2TR output, but use version 0 instead of 1, it will be interpreted according to P2WSH rules. To pass, you now need a script whose hash is equal to the P2TR key. If it is possible, SHA256 is broken. “

Finally, Binance takes the mistake and promises to refund the BTC

After insisting on the matter, a day after what happened, Binance withdrew what it said in the first place and ensured it would pay back its bitcoins, according to the victim impact statement. Mario Duarte revealed to CriptoNoticias that on December 27, support responded that Binance’s tech team was able to verify there was an error with the withdrawal.

Despite initially denying any responsibility, Binance eventually admitted its mistake and promised to return the money to the party concerned. Source: Capture that Mario Duarte sent us at CriptoNoticias.

“The latest news I have from them is that they are supposed to pay me back but I have to wait patiently,” he told us. In the screenshot of the conversation he shared with us, you can see that Binance told him, “We are working on the necessary reimbursement for this incident.” “We really apologize for the inconvenience caused,” he continued.

Mario Duarte explains: “It was the last interaction we had. I am still waiting. How much time left? No idea. ”So the protagonist of this unfortunate story was supposed to let us know when, indeed, Binance will make the repayment, something he doesn’t know when it will be.

Faced with this result, the person concerned posted in a bitcoin group called “BTC Andrés” on Telegram which CriptoNoticias could access: “We made it brother. They were never going to answer. They had already told me no, to understand Ledger. There are a lot of people who give up quickly. But we are ready to come to the end of the fart. I’ll sing the victory anyway when they actually pay me back ”.

Mario Duarte also acknowledged the support he had from the bitcoiner community with a final awareness message: “We must show solidarity and massify these problems because we cannot remain alone in the face of these giants. I saved myself that the problem was technical and so poorly handled that the developers gave me a hard blow and the rest of us fell behind. “