There is no tax refund for Ape Taxes

Ape filing its tax return

# TL;DR

I mistakenly sent my precious SDT token to the SDT contract.

Transaction details:
Read on if you want to see how I paid my share of Ape Tax.

# Introduction

Becoming proficient in the crypto world is no easy task. Just like any other technology, a lot of practice, patience, and dedication is required before one feels comfortable and navigate safely in the ruthless web 3.0 ocean.

And sometimes, despite all the precautions one can think of, we have to mess up to learn our lesson. This is where Ape Tax enters the field.

# StakeDAO

StakeDAO is a new and quite amazing DeFi tool, allowing newcomers to the DeFi world to use a large set of finance tools with a very low entry threshold, notably because you can create your wallet just by filling your email address, and directly top-up your account with ETH (or any other available on-ramp cryptocurrency) from your Fiat Money.

The User Interface is welcoming and offers a lot of explanations to help new users discover the different parts of the website.

# Airdrop

As the website went live, an airdrop took place, distributing Stake DAO Token (SDT) to active members of related projects.

# The mistake

As I was eligible for the airdrop, I connected to the website and claimed my precious Token.

I desired to keep the token and become a Liquidity Provider, but the User Interface was not quite ready yet and I was quite impatient.

However I knew that I could do some transactions via uniswap, but I first needed to transfer my token to another wallet configured without StakeDAO, and use MetaMask to connect and validate the transaction.

It was approximately 3AM at this moment, and, although I thought my mind was clear, the end of this story proved me wrong, because I clearly failed to correctly perform even the most basic double checking before validating my transaction:

I opened MetaMask. Clicked on my address. Metamask showed me the "Copied!" message indicating I successfully copied my address.

I went back to StakeDAO immediately (or maybe not. Maybe I found something else to do. Maybe I checked some stuff on etherscan in between. Who knows. I didn't want to accept it, but I was half asleep at the time). I Cliked on the "send" button. Entered the amount of SDT I desired to transfer. Pasted my address in the appropriate field. validated.

I didn't realize it immediately, but I had already #Rekt myself.

After several minutes, my token still had not arrived in my wallet. I tried to understand why it was taking so long, and then I noticed. The address I entered as the destination was not my MetaMask address. It was the StakeDAO contract's address.

My tired and impatient mind did not allow me to properly think before I clicked, the FOMO was too strong. Thus I caused my own misery, and paid the consequence: the Ape Tax.

SDT contract's ERC20 transactions. last line shows my transaction.

A contract does not have a private key. A contract cannot sign transactions. A contract cannot send back tokens. Which feels quite ironic, since it's that same contract that is responsible for handling all the SDT transactions. But not quite this way.

My tokens are stuck. Forever. The blockchain is powerful. In the blockchain, everything is openly visible, distributed, and extremely secured. My tokens are irremediably, very very securely, owned by the SDT contract.

Ape (me) hopelessly trying to reach for a banana (SDT) behind a windshield (the blockchain)

The sour feeling of shame was only starting, my ego was badly hurt, since I could only blame myself. It was 3AM and I was obviously not fully aware of what I was doing, and obviously I copied the contract address somehow between the moment I copied my MetaMask wallet and the moment I filled the form to send the tokens.

How ?
I spent several hours thinking about it, and I am still unsure of how exactly I managed to mess up.

Me trying to figure out how I messed up so badly.

The next day, I discovered I was not the only one paying Ape Tax:

Tweet sent by Julien Bouteloup reminding people to avoid paying ape tax.

I sometimes wonder what are the stories of the other wallets who generously deposited their tokens as I did :) .

# Conclusion

DeFi is a quite exiting world, with an enormous ability of empowering people to manage their assets by themselves. But, as we know, with great power comes great responsibility, and at the very least, the responsibility to turn on your brain when you are performing transactions on the blockchain.

I have at least learned a few things:

Let's hope I will be a good ape, and I'll remember this lesson. If this post can prevent anyone from doing the same mistake, it won't have been in vain at least =)