How devastating can a single slip-up be? My own experience? Just $500,000. 🥲🥲🥲 Just now, I finally withdrew all the $SPA I mistakenly staked four years ago—back then worth $500,000; now it’s worth $5,500—a 99% loss. Four years later, I can still vividly recall that night. Every time I think about it, it feels like a thorn stuck deep in my heart. Back then, altcoins still had serious wealth-creation potential. I had quietly positioned myself early in the hot trend @SperaxUSD and scored an instant paper profit of $500,000. I was on the phone with a friend, giddy, brainstorming how to optimize my next move. At the time, $SPA’s staking feature had just launched. I figured the hype would last at least two to three weeks, so I decided to stake for just one week to earn some interest. But as I kept switching between calendar dates to check the interest rates, I didn’t notice that the sketchy DApp had silently changed the default staking duration to the maximum—four years—every time I switched views. In other words, I originally selected a one-week stake. But when I tried checking a two-week option before switching back, the UI had quietly defaulted the end date to four years in the future. The moment I clicked confirm, I realized my mistake and immediately reached out to the Sperax team. After days of back-and-forth, their engineer told me the contract was hardcoded—no exceptions, no fixes. I had no choice but to accept it. There was no way to hedge or reverse this. All I could do was watch the price plummet while team members from the project—mostly Chinese—gradually left one by one. Since then, I’ve barely used that wallet. Every time I look at it, my heart aches. Just now, while cleaning out my wallet, I suddenly realized four years had already passed. On April 9, the 2 million $SPA I’d staked became claimable. Time really flies. Finally, this thorn can be pulled out. It’s been an excruciating lesson. Next time I stake an altcoin? I’m cutting off my own hands.