🚨 Replay Attack: How I Lost My BCH After 10 Years! 🚨
After a decade, I finally remembered the password to my old Bitcoin wallet! 🎉 Since I had held Bitcoin for so long, I also owned its forks like Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) and eCash ($XEC). Naturally, I wanted to consolidate everything into a multi-platform wallet.
I sent my XEC from Electrum ABC to Binance—everything seemed fine… until 10 minutes later, when my BCH balance in Electron Cash vanished! 😱💸
What Happened? A Classic Replay Attack! 🔁
1️⃣ Forked Chains Share History – When Bitcoin split into Bitcoin Cash, both chains shared the same transaction history. 📜
2️⃣ No Replay Protection – Some transactions valid on one chain can be "replayed" on the other if protections aren’t in place.
3️⃣ Same Transaction, Different Chain – My XEC transaction was broadcasted on the BCH chain as well, unknowingly sending my BCH to an unintended address! 😓
💔 The Aftermath
Binance support couldn’t recover my BCH because the recipient address wasn’t under their control. Luckily, it was just $1 worth, but imagine if it were thousands!
🔥 How to Protect Yourself from Replay Attacks
✅ Split your coins properly before transacting using tools like "coin splitting" in forked wallets.
✅ Use separate wallets for different chains.
✅ Check for replay protection mechanisms before sending assets across forked blockchains.
Even though I doubt there's a way to reverse it, I’d love to hear from crypto experts—is there ANY way to recover my BCH? Let me know! 👇
