How to avoid transferring funds to a wrong address with KyberSwap

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KyberSwap

4 min readSep 3, 2020

All transactions, including token transfers on the Ethereum blockchain (known as on-chain transactions) are immutable and irreversible. Once the transaction is successfully completed, it can’t be changed.

KyberSwap trades are done fully on-chain on Ethereum, so all successful transactions are also irreversible. Here are two common questions asked by KyberSwap users in our KyberSwap official telegram group:

I sent my funds to a wrong address because I pasted the address wrongly on the transfer screen, How do I get my funds back?
I transferred my funds to a smart contract instead of a wallet address. Is there any way to get my funds back?

Due to the immutable nature of blockchain transactions, it is not possible to get your funds back to the original address if you accidentally sent them to an unknown address. But there are ways to avoid sending funds to a wrong address.

How to avoid sending funds to a wrong wallet address

On KyberSwap.com web version — Always confirm that your receiving address is accurate after pasting it on the ‘Transfer’ section. If you are in a rush, please check the first 8 and last 4 characters of the address at least.

Quick check first 8 chars and last 4 chars to make sure receiver address is correct

2. On the KyberSwap mobile app (iOS, Android) — If you frequently need to send funds to some wallets, our mobile app offers greater convenience. This is our preferred method for making sure we are transferring funds to the right address.

The KyberSwap Mobile app allows you to store any Ethereum address as a ‘Contact’. Just add a new contact once and you don’t have to paste/scan the address every time. Transfer tokens with a peace of mind!

Follow these steps to add an address in Contacts

Go to settings > Contacts. Click on + sign to add a new wallet address
Paste or scan the wallet address. Double check to make sure it is correct. Give it a name to quickly identify it later (this is a one time exercise). Click on the “Tick” mark to save it.
“Recent Contacts” option is provided at the transfer screen. Just click on the address and it auto-fills the address details for you.

You can add as many contacts as you want.

Four steps process to add a wallet address as a contact in mobile app. It helps to reduce the typo error while transferring funds

To add an extra layer of security, the contact list of addresses is stored locally on your mobile device (instead of KyberSwap servers), so it is not possible for anyone to tamper with this information (unless that someone has access to your phone).

How to avoid sending funds to a smart contract

Both smart contract address and a wallet address looks the same, so just by looking at an address, it is extremely difficult to tell whether it is a typical wallet or a smart contract address.

The simplest way to check whether an Ethereum address is a wallet or a smart contract is to check etherscan.

Here’s simple exercise.

A. Let’s check if “0x1fabb8cf927df47e3707cfe4ab847112e08e9057” is a wallet or smart contract. Go to etherscan and search for the specific address.

If it is a wallet:

You will see “Address” written at section #1
You won’t see “Contract” option in section #2

B. Now let’s do the same for “0xdd974d5c2e2928dea5f71b9825b8b646686bd200” .

If it is a smart contract:

You will see “Contract” written at section #1
You will see “Contract” option in section #2

Once again, whether it is a typical wallet or a smart contract address, ALWAYS make sure you check your receiving address before transferring funds on KyberSwap.

We hope this post gave you some insights on how to avoid sending your funds to a wrong address. Follow us for more exciting updates and tips regarding the Ethereum blockchain.