• Over $1 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) has been lost due to software bugs and human error.
• The report from Coinbase revealed that 636,000 ETH or 0.5% of total circulating supply is now inaccessible.
• Most of the losses were due to smart contract bugs, wallet issues and user errors.
Lost Ether Worth $1.15 Billion
A study by Conor Grogan, Coinbase’s director of product strategy and business operations, revealed that over $1 billion worth of ether (ETH) has been permanently lost due to software bugs and human error. This amount accounts for 636,000 ETH, or 0.5% of total ETH supply in circulation.
Cause Of Losses
Most of the losses were caused by a 2017 Parity wallet issue which resulted in 513,746 ETH becoming inaccessible due to a user triggered flaw at the time when it was worth approximately $280 million. Additionally 85,000 ETH were lost due to buggy smart contracts and 24,000 ETH were sent to an Ethereum burn address with no one having access to its private key. The remaining amount was distributed among various other bugs and mishandled transactions.
Security And User Education
Human error is still responsible for most cryptocurrency losses despite advances in wallet software and user education on the issue. Vitalik Buterin co-founder of Ethereum has called for better security measures as well as more user-friendly tools developed for users in order to prevent such losses in the future. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have made some progress but there is still much work needing done since hackers stole over $6 billion from various DeFi protocols last year alone according to reports from 2022 .
Ethereum Price
As of March 21st 2021 ether is trading at $1,802 with a market capitalization of $220 billion up 3.75% within one week’s time period according to CoinMarketCap data .
Conclusion
It appears that human error remains a significant factor in cryptocurrency loss despite technological advancements in wallets sofware and user education on the matter . To prevent any more loss additional security measures need implemented along with greater development into more user-friendly tools programmed on blockchain networks like Ethereum .