Ethereum’s 0x0 address currently holds over $2M worth of ether and $15M worth of tokens. Largely sent by accident, the cryptocurrencies are likely lost forever.
Ethereum’s 0x0 address is one of the most infamous ‘lost addresses’ and is sometimes used for burning tokens. However, it also happens to be the address most often mistakenly used to send Ethereum (ETH). Over the course of the past few years, over $2M worth of ether has been sent to this address — never to be recovered, again.
Due to the address being only zeros, funds have been commonly sent to the address by mistake. However, in the early days of Ethereum, it was also common for miners to mistakenly send funds there if they forgot to specify an address. Thus, the black hole called ‘address 0x0’ became more and more valuable as time went on — and it’s only growing.
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Today, the 0x0 address holds over $15M in tokens and $2M in ETH — and there are still transactions coming in. Today, the address is also used as a ‘burner address’ where users can send tokens if they want to get rid of them, permanently.
The 0x0 address is associated with the genesis block — mined by nobody and, therefore, inaccessible. It’s unlikely that the funds will ever be recovered. So, that’s 7,672 ETH (and counting) permanently gone forever.
DID YOU KNOW: The Ethereum 0X0 address, composed entirely of 0s, holds over $1 M in ETH from people sending it there by accident or mining blocks without specifying an address for the reward during Ethereum’s early days. This ETH is probably lost forever. #WednesdayWisdom 💡 pic.twitter.com/5xWJD7MnnY
— Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) June 12, 2019
Right now, the 0x0 address is something of a piñata for quantum computers. If anyone is ever able to develop the computational power to crack an encrypted private key on Ethereum, then the spoils of 0x0 are theirs. However, as of right now, it’s a computational impossibility.
Do you think the 0x0 genesis address will ever be cracked or are the funds lost forever? Have you ever sent Ethereum (ETH) or another cryptocurrency to the wrong address by mistake? Let us know in the comments below!
