‘I was careful and followed instructions closely, but still lost my crypto’

The cryptocurrency trade was a bit fun for Tzoni Raykov, but losing $ 1,500 loved by an administrative error has left it with serious concerns about its treatment by the industry.

The oil engineer has celebrated a Revolution account for several years, using its application to divide invoices with friends after going to dinner or drinking. They would be paid by traditional currency, such as the sterling pound or the US dollar.

But after seeing the electronic money firm announcing its cryptocurrency services, he decided to try.

What Tzoni thought it would be a direct transfer of cryptocurrency coins has left the National Bulgaran angry and out of his pocket.

His experience highlights some of the frustrations that people have had using cryptocurrencies where many of the client’s safeguards that support bank transactions in standard line, some ordered by law, do not apply.

“When they treat you that way, it makes you feel that you can’t do anything,” he told BBC News. “As if you were helpless.”

While the cryptocurrency market is dominated by Bitcoin, there is a lot or other digital currencies, including USDC, which Tzoni had accumulated alreamy in a separate cryptographic account.

His frustrations were in February when he decided to transfer some of his USDC currencies to his revolutions.

As a precapity, which Revolution suggests doing, sent 10 of the coins, worth $ 10. It was a success and the funds were accredited to their revolution account.

Days later he tried to make a larger transfer than he thought it was 1,500 USDC. The transfer was complete but, this time, the funds were not accredited to their account.

Tzoni says the problem occurred because Revolution’s deposit instructions were not clear.

When it transfers the cryptocurrency from one account to another, you must select a network to send it, such as choosing which messaging service when sending a package.

Revolution’s deposit instructions say it will transfer USDC, you must use a network called Polygon. In his first, successful, deposit Tzoni selected one called “Polygon Pos”.

In the second deposit, when he tried to transfer USDC, selected a different network: “Polygon (bridge)”.

He thought it would work just as well, but says, instead, caused the coins to become USDC.E, a different cryptocurrency.

This is what Revolution turned. The company does not handle USDC.E.

After seeing that his Revolution account had not accredited his leg with the 1,500 coins, Tzoni contacted the Revolution support team.

In the messages seen by BBC News, they told him that the problem seemed to be with “the specific type of polygon network used, which led to conversion.”

In another, they said: “The application currently specifies the ‘polygon’ without differentiating between standard and bridge options. I will observe your comments for future improvements.”

Tzoni believes that if Revolution’s deposit instructions had been more specific, his problem would have avoided the bone.

When BBC News approaches this case, Revolution cools a difference response.

The firm said the problem was not because Tzoni had used the incorrect polygon network, which claimed to convert its coins into USDC.E.

The warehouse fault was “not because the network itself would have” converted “the token,” he said, without explaining why his support team had suggested Tzoni that it was.

Revolution told us that the deposit finally failed because the USDC.E coins were not backed by the company’s technology.

He said: “Like the standard industry due to the important technical challenges involved in supporting each combination of Token and Chain, the recovery of these non -compatible assets is not within the reach of Revolution.”

It means that the $ 1,500 coins have not accredited the tzoni account to the Tzoni account or sent back.

For Tzoni’s mind, this is not an acceptable treatment of a company the size and reputation of Revolution, which manages normal bank deposits, as well as cryptocurrencies, actions and basic products.

Revolut says he has 10 million users in the United Kingdom, while last year he was awarded a provisional banking license, racing the way to become a complete bank of the United Kingdom.

When using a street bank, a traditional currency fog transfer would be common with the money that is reversed to the client.

This was established in 2014 in a code of voluntary practice that most of the United Kingdom banks registered. There is no such equivalent in the cryptocurrency industry.

After the contact Revolut several times in recent weeks, Tzoni has been told that the coins are effectively lost.

“They are waiting for me to get bored and surrender to me, to accept that the money is gone. But I won,” Tzoni said, noting that the coins are in the Revolution system. “It’s ridiculous that they can be so.”

While the loss of tzoni cryptocurrency is significant for him, the sum is small compared to the size of the industry, which has increased abruptly in the last 18 months.

The global market reached its maximum point at $ 3.9TN last December, after the re -election of Donald Trump. Since then, it has fallen to $ 1.1TN, according to the Coingcko monitoring website.

Government policies in the US. And other countries are also changing to favor the cryptocurrency industry, just although it has suffered several scandals.

FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency firms, declared bankruptcy in 2022. Sam Bankman-Fried, its executive director, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year for defrauding customers of billions of dollars.

The researchers also found that FTX was using Quickbooks, a popular accounting software designed for individuals and small businesses, to administer the money.

John Ray III, a lawyer in charge of recovering FTX funds for defrauded clients, told a bankruptcy court: “I have never seen a complete failure of corporate controls and complete information here as information that occurred as occurreial information as information that occurred as information that occurred as information occurred as information that occurred as Western as information that occurs as it occurs.” Information occurred. “

Later he told an audience of the Congress: “Nothing against Quickbooks. It is a very good tool, but not for a multimillionaire company.”

A couple of months ago, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world for some estimates was cheated with coins worth $ 1.5 billion for the computer pirates that are believed to work for North Korea.

The firm had been using SAFE, a popular free digital storage software among people who wish to store cryptocurrencies on their own devices, as part of their commercial operations.

After the robbery, the Executive Director of Bybit said that “they should have been updated and away from Safe” before.

One of the problems with cryptocurrency companies, says Professor Mark Button, who investigates cyber crime, is that they can grow very fast, which means that they do not always keep up with the challenges of accounting and safety of so much money.

“For me, it illustrates that if we are going to be serious about cryptocurrencies in the future … there must be some son of regulation.”

In the case of Tzoni, it could have a bone for him to recover his cryptocurrency or be compensated if there were laws that indicate what companies must do if they are a currency they do not handle.

The highest standards in the industry could also have avoided making such a transaction first.

Mykhailo Tiutin is A AMLBOT technology director, a company that analyzes how risky cryptocurrency transactions.

Your service executes checks similar to those supported by the banks, where details for a transfer are verified, such as the name, the classification code and the Hollow account account number.

He says that cryptocurrency is safe enough for the average person to use, but that they must be careful with the products and services they chose. He says he has also lost the cryptocurrency after making an administrative mistake.

“You have to do your own research,” he told us. “Successes and losses are ultimately at their own risk.”