Transaction 778cff3037af9f6c574913384498cc4fc902117777f9dc5af50005817d28f4e1

Block #294741

2014-04-08 04:25:23 +0000 UTC (~10 years, 4 months ago)

BTC Burned: 🔥0.00001 BTC🔥

Inputs

1E52MhrAHfembUjzpgVK4v6sofx9scXKyZ

OP_DUP OP_HASH160 8f5c6e88ff28062edbbffdcbe424593ae22268fc OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG pubkeyhash

Outputs

1KPQyGq9jzTBVchfcaZibmT5Ytrk16NoC

OP_DUP OP_HASH160 037a326d031f8a698ac0f5e1290f02af231e0579 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG pubkeyhash

1AdHAc4kYrMzwijP75b4qp4xqP3ZRuFqL1

OP_DUP OP_HASH160 699599dda59d7f4b73ffa23da578e96da9baff85 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG pubkeyhash

How did this transaction burn BTC?

Multibit’s Corrupted Blockchain.info import

In 2014, a user imported a Blockchain.info wallet into MultiBit. At the time, HD wallets were in their infancy, so each wallet was essentially a bundle of private keys.

After making a transaction, the user realized that the change output was sent to an address listed in the Multibit wallet, but the wallet did not appear to contain a private key for it¹.

After some investigation by Mike Hearn, an early Bitcoin developer, it was discovered that during the import process, one of the keys was corrupted². It remains unknown if this was caused by a bad blockchain.info export or a bug in Multibit.

View revision history

Lost Keys

The majority of Bitcoin is secured through the use of private keys. Wallet applications generate public and private keypairs, which are used to generate an address.

Modern wallets use deterministic systems such as BIP39¹ to generate a root key which is used to derive every subsequent key. Thus, ensuring you have a reliable, safe backup of the root key, typically a 12 or 24 word mnemonic phrase, is sufficient to recover access to your funds.

Before such systems were developed, most wallets stored each keypair individually. This resulted in a number of additional ways to lose access to your coins - old backups wouldn’t be able to recover any keys for addresses generated after the backup was taken, for instance.

Over the years, wallet applications have also had a number of bugs, leading to unstable key production, bad encryption, and other cases which inadvertently resulted in funds being directed to addresses without known keys.

Even if the wallets work perfectly, users do still lose access to their keys by neglecting to make backups or other mistakes. burned.money’s lost_keys group tracks cases for which there is a reasonable degree of confidence that the keys are genuinely and truly lost.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/bc520fade5cc838d5c6e9b72d2fc12b691c80125/bip-0039.mediawiki

View revision history

Raw Transaction

{
  "txid": "778cff3037af9f6c574913384498cc4fc902117777f9dc5af50005817d28f4e1",
  "hash": "778cff3037af9f6c574913384498cc4fc902117777f9dc5af50005817d28f4e1",
  "version": 1,
  "size": 226,
  "vsize": 226,
  "weight": 904,
  "locktime": 0,
  "vin": [
    {
      "txid": "8d5e090acfa3547df2a7f2960ac3334db19252c888a483e8d98cec87acb38daf",
      "vout": 1,
      "scriptSig": {
        "asm": "3045022100c02d0b912924542b31242d8f31e6e228d13ebd15d84609d0d622158ae6fc414102201751f9fefd1c1a050dc5e85846227ff3c9c0d0ff21e604fb16d377e2babaa91f[ALL] 03b534538441f501aa2f8fc13ecc7679769869ae25f6d052e58a272cb8db2b5a2f",
        "hex": "483045022100c02d0b912924542b31242d8f31e6e228d13ebd15d84609d0d622158ae6fc414102201751f9fefd1c1a050dc5e85846227ff3c9c0d0ff21e604fb16d377e2babaa91f012103b534538441f501aa2f8fc13ecc7679769869ae25f6d052e58a272cb8db2b5a2f"
      },
      "prevout": {
        "generated": false,
        "height": 294741,
        "value": "0.00099905",
        "scriptPubKey": {
          "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 8f5c6e88ff28062edbbffdcbe424593ae22268fc OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
          "desc": "addr(1E52MhrAHfembUjzpgVK4v6sofx9scXKyZ)#a7qkray3",
          "hex": "76a9148f5c6e88ff28062edbbffdcbe424593ae22268fc88ac",
          "address": "1E52MhrAHfembUjzpgVK4v6sofx9scXKyZ",
          "type": "pubkeyhash"
        }
      },
      "sequence": 4294967295
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": "0.00088905",
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 037a326d031f8a698ac0f5e1290f02af231e0579 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "desc": "addr(1KPQyGq9jzTBVchfcaZibmT5Ytrk16NoC)#w9986gw6",
        "hex": "76a914037a326d031f8a698ac0f5e1290f02af231e057988ac",
        "address": "1KPQyGq9jzTBVchfcaZibmT5Ytrk16NoC",
        "type": "pubkeyhash"
      }
    },
    {
      "value": "0.00001000",
      "n": 1,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 699599dda59d7f4b73ffa23da578e96da9baff85 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "desc": "addr(1AdHAc4kYrMzwijP75b4qp4xqP3ZRuFqL1)#kdcf9udw",
        "hex": "76a914699599dda59d7f4b73ffa23da578e96da9baff8588ac",
        "address": "1AdHAc4kYrMzwijP75b4qp4xqP3ZRuFqL1",
        "type": "pubkeyhash"
      }
    }
  ],
  "fee": "0.00010000",
  "hex": "0100000001af8db3ac87ec8cd9e883a488c85292b14d33c30a96f2a7f27d54a3cf0a095e8d010000006b483045022100c02d0b912924542b31242d8f31e6e228d13ebd15d84609d0d622158ae6fc414102201751f9fefd1c1a050dc5e85846227ff3c9c0d0ff21e604fb16d377e2babaa91f012103b534538441f501aa2f8fc13ecc7679769869ae25f6d052e58a272cb8db2b5a2fffffffff02495b0100000000001976a914037a326d031f8a698ac0f5e1290f02af231e057988ace8030000000000001976a914699599dda59d7f4b73ffa23da578e96da9baff8588ac00000000",
  "blockhash": "000000000000000075abf4bc51fb8b4e91668e0115e40336438f7837198e6200",
  "time": 1396931123,
  "blocktime": 1396931123
}