In the world of cryptocurrency, it is extremely important to keep on top of the news and stay informed about the latest development updates within any invested projects. Cryptocurrency projects are constantly evolving, so development teams are always making updates to the code, which sometimes requires users to take action in order to keep their tokens updated. These include hard forks and mainnet launches, where the previous tokens are swapped for newly updated tokens.

However, it is impossible to keep on top of all developments for every project, and sometimes uninformed cryptocurrency users can end up losing their cryptocurrency.

One such cryptocurrency user recently posted an overview of their latest troubles experienced with the Tron token swap.

Learn: What is Tron (TRX)

Another Deadline Missed

Reddit user, Poldi-1, created a post recently to explain his ordeal with the TRX token migration, which he had apparently missed. The story begins in May 2018, when he had heard about an upcoming mainnet swap that he wanted to be a part of. Poldi-1 created an account on the Tron.Network wallet, an online TRX wallet, and received a 2FA backup code but no private seeds. This is no surprise, as Tron.network is an online wallet that will hold your private seeds for you.

The user then proceeded to buy TRX on an exchange and sent them over to his Tron.Network wallet. He then decided to leave his TRX tokens in this wallet, as he believed he had done his due diligence in securing his tokens for the migration. Why would Tron.Network not automatically migrate his tokens for him?

However, as it turned out, Poldi-1 was gravely mistaken. After logging into his wallet a couple of weeks ago, he was shocked to notice a message stating that the token swap deadline was in December 2018 and he had missed the deadline by a few months. After contacting the TRX support team and users on Telegram, he came to understand that he had missed the TRX swap deadline, and his TRX tokens had vanished.

A Valuable Lesson

This can be seen as a cautionary tale, teaching users to treat their investments with care. The majority of cryptocurrency users invest in cryptocurrency and leave their assets in cold storage for extended periods of time. This is fine for a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, which rarely has major upgrades requiring users to take action. However, with projects such as Tron and the TRX token, that are still in development, it appears this is not an entirely possible solution.

As an investor in cryptocurrency assets, it is the user’s responsibility to make sure that their investments are safe. It is also the user’s responsibility to keep on top of the developments in their investment projects to make sure there are no upcoming hard forks or token swaps.

Typically, project development teams will plan months in advance if there is a token swap or hard fork incoming, and will send out development update emails to warn users to take action. However, in the case of Poldi-1, no emails were sent to his registered email address.

Split Opinions

There is an overwhelming consensus that the user has the right to feel “scammed” by the turnout of events. This is apparent from the 85% plus upvote rate on the Reddit topic itself:

Many users believe that token swaps are a bad thing for cryptocurrency. Reddit user HODL_monk had this to say;

“These mainnet swaps are one of the worst things in crypto. You have to put them in on time, and then take them out on time, or they just vanish, but sometimes people are not paying attention to this or that fantasy internet money, and it just goes poof on them. If I hear that something like this is coming for a bag of mine, I’ll just dump it. Why take even a 10 % chance of f*****g something up, when you can swap over to a real coin that works, and doesn’t wink…”

However, not all opinions are in sync with each other. Reddit user d4ngerm0use had this to say:

“So you:

Left your coins in an online wallet. (That’s why you didn’t get a seed…are you new to crypto or??)

Knew about the main net swap but failed to research it properly (are you new to crypto?)

Ignored all emails & notifications about the deadline.

Remember you need to treat crypto as a monetary asset and you need to manage it as such. Take this as a lesson and learn from it.”

Conclusion

This is an extremely important lesson for users to take note of to make sure it doesn’t happen within their own investments. Although everyone wants to leave their coins in cold storage during bear markets and “forget about them,” this is not the responsible route to take.

It is important for users to stay on top of the Tron news and general cryptocurrency news (which we are serving daily) as much as possible. The majority of upcoming token swaps will give users weeks to prepare, so long as the user is on top of the news. At the very least, a user should be checking their emails (and spam) for any development updates within their crypto projects from time to time.

Do you agree that Poldi-1 was scammed by Tron? Should they be reimbursed? Or should they have been paying more attention all along? Let us know in the comments!