So there has been an issue.
Kindly read with patience.
Last week something weird was happening all across the blockchain and various online wallet services.
People making a payment were suddenly loosing their payment history OR people receiving a payment were suddenly receiving another payment when the wallet is getting emptied out.
Basically the blockchain was duplicating some* transactions resulting in this double spend.
So last week, I was merrily spinning the wheel of luck all week on starsbit.com, and had made enough Satoshi's to receive the payment.
This was my first ever faucet claim and then this happened :
I got lucky, but not the usual way. The god of blockchain had decided to pay me twice for my 1st faucet claim.
At the time I thought it was a promo or something cuz I had no idea.
I went on to a second week of spinning the lucky wheels and starsbit.com but this time I also tried my luck at goldsday.com and coincollecting.ws
So by the time it was payout day I was pretty much expecting yet another double pay, instead I got this message from epay written in pinkish red, which basically stated that I was paid twice by mistake by some network wide blockchain error and they gave me an option to choose whether to allow them to deduct that double spend from my current balance.
Undoubtedly I hit No.
That was the end of it, my argument was simply, why should I pay for the mistakes of some random microwallet's site ? Maybe there wasnt a double spend from the network but rather a simple human error. Regardless I never got any more message about this issue again.
NOW the issue of double spend came back to bite me in the ass again but on a different site.
This time on
Unocoin.
Last week I did a small mobile recharge for some random guy in the Indian child board here. See my trust score and the ref link here :
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/need-a-mobile-recharge-of-250-3g-internet-airtel-will-pay-0015btc-921756I chose to receive the funds at Unocoin address because I was making a purchase of roughly $16 bucks worth of BTC on their site, I thought it'd be best if I were to combine the btc I got from the recharge and the one that I purchased and withdraw them together to another wallet. I did that and was done with it.
But then again I needed to purchase a bit more BTC by the end of the week and when I log in to check the rates I find that the 0.0182 BTC which I received for the mobile recharge is sitting alone in the wallet.
The first instinct was to check the previous transaction hash that I was provided by Unocoin
And this is where the link of that transaction hash takes me :
https://blockchain.info/tx-index/cd8ef5bf8e3978feb22b302ffb2ce8b772e9eb3ac10cdfd181405690a354ad8fAs you can see this worried me, and didnt look like the last double spend issue I faced. It simply looked like that the 0.0182 was left in my wallet due to some technical errors and I must re initiate a transfer.
I did that and chose to receive the funds in my cryptsy wallet and combined that amount with some left over btc which I had got by selling some Doges and then sent that to BTCJAM. Basically made sure that it doesnt get lost or linger away in any way in some unmonitored wallet of mine.
Transaction hash for my Cryptsy withdrawal :
Transaction hash for receiving it in my Cryptsy wallet
https://blockchain.info/address/1MBBLfntHMJJx8rQuSAGrJeyszKxrehaYVConfirmation of my Cryptsy withdrawal
I was done with this issue as far as it concerned me and it didnt occur to me that this could essentially be the same double spend issue that I faced on epay a week earlier and even if it was it'd be free money for me cuz I didnt screw up at any point, I withdrew my coins from my designated wallet, so whatever is there in my wallet is basically mine, right? NO, apparently some of you might have a different ethical explanation and so it seemed UNOCOIN did as well.
I was at work and suddenly this lady from Unocoin calls me up on Saturday to notify me that there has been a double spend on my account and if I liked I could repay them that extra 0.0182 which I withdrew from the account. I said, I'll get back to them after I have returned home and checked the issue.
I was jumbling up words and constantly kept saying 'sichu' instead of 'issue'. Kinda embarrassing.
Anyways, I got back home and thought why should I repay them? Not my fault that someone else screwed up! I have already invested that little 0.018xx on my btcjam profile, if I were to repay that I'd have to buy more coins. It also occurred to me that this might be a matter of choice where they have asked me if I'd like to repay them - just like epay did - and I had made up my mind that I wont.
So instead I made another purchase of $16 from Unocoin on Saturday midnight knowing that it'll be filled on Monday. I paid them through instant bank transfer and went to bed.
But on Monday morning (today) instead of filling up the order they decided to call me and give me an ultimatum.
Either allow them to deduct 0.0182 from my current order or my current order wont get filled.
I had added the CEO of Unocoin Dashingriddler on my skype when I signed up on their platform. I told the lady on the phone that I'll talk it out with Sathvik (Dashing) and asked them not to deduct anything from my order.
I have sent a message to Sathvik on skype but as the lady on the phone said that he's currently out of station for some business meeting.
So now I think it'd be best to bring this issue into the light of the community members and have a general sense of opinion.
I am not blaming anyone for screwing up at this point. But I dont want to pay for someone else's mistake.As expected, the general consensus is driven by more ethical reasons than logical.
Next question :Is it ok for them to hold my current order as hostage and demand to fulfill the debated amount?
Also
The price per coin has risen then, what should I pay them ?
260 bucks worth of Bitcoins at current rate of their site ?
or
The original 0.0182 ? Which would cost more as per current market value.
(I would have to resort to wire them the money, but which amount should I send them ?)
Conclusion :In the end Unocoin asked me to to wire the CURRENT value of 0.0182 BTC to their bank account.
The transaction is done from my part. They will create a custom buy order of 0.0182 BTC to reflect this INR transfer on the account.
Moral of the story is:When you open an account with all your personal details submitted to an exchange; when you get free money on what is supposedly YOUR wallet designated by that exchange; on a network which is marketed as an irreversible mode of payment; You are basically handing these exchanges a leash tied to your neck which they can pull whenever they want and make you pay for their mistakes.
Dashingriddler is gonna have one great story to read when he comes home from his business trip.
I thank everyone who has taken their time to respond here and have consoled me to believe that this was the
right thing to do.
I especially thank Danny and turvarya for assuming me to be an account stealer, a person with a despicable character, a thief, dishonest, unethical, immoral and a worthless customer and what not lol
So go on Bitcoin exchanges!! Keep screwing over your customers.On a serious note I do thank them for their valuable contribution towards resolving this issue and making me comply to do
the right thing to do. Dont construed my sarcasm to be anything other than just entertaining words.
I do not hold a grudge over this issue and
will continue to support Unocoin.