Stellar explorers picked up alleged huge movements of XLM tokens on the network. To be more precise, multiple $16 billion transactions accompanied with weird messages “dump it :bog::bog::bog”. This incited some silly discussions about possible huge dump of XLM, “traders and experts” calling for doomsday scenario for XLM etc.
No FUD, but what's up with Stellar? Seeing multiple $16B transactions with weird memo text on multiple explorers. This one says "DUMP IT :BOG::BOG::BOG:" – https://t.co/jEr8a12Aiu // https://t.co/0mXHiuTAE0
— Stefan ⚡️ (@thecryptostefan) November 30, 2018
However, the whole drama took place because of the lack of knowledge about how Stellar network works. This is something you can do on Stellar network. Take a look at this discussion and explanation from Stellar’s official GitHub:
”
While testing our wallets yesterday we noticed that an address is able to ‘send’ itself more XLM than the current total supply limit, ex: 105 Billion XLM. Although the net result is simply paying a transaction fee as the account is debited/credited at the same time, the transaction does appear on explorers.
Reference Address: GA2HB3PRIKRDHJPJE54MLC5MCSRSHUPIKF2XIAOD4UIXQWGTWTIPHFB7
See the above transaction, showing 105 Billion XLM. Although the impact is low as the user is not creating anything new.. should this be allowed as it could potentially mislead services that track network statistics (average transaction size etc). Thoughts?”
Interestingly enough, the answer to this question, among other users, came from David Schwartz, present CTO of Ripple:
“You obviously can’t stop people from forming such transactions. And if you mean that the network shouldn’t relay and execute them, that’s clearly an inferior option.
Consider if I form a transaction that sends an amount I have, but at about the same time someone takes an offer that I placed and my account can’t cover the amount I sent to myself if that transaction executes first. Now, we’ve relayed the transaction but may not get paid for it (since it cannot claim a fee unless it executes). I never find out the status of my transaction. And that transaction is part of a stream of transactions, my stream is jammed. Huge minuses all around.
If we allow the transaction to execute, the network gets paid a fee, everyone can see the final disposition of the transaction, and we don’t have the attack vector of defunding transactions before they get accepted and getting free relaying.”
No one is dumping XLM, you can send 200 billion of XLM tokens to yourself but you won’t get richer. Actually, you will get poorer for the fee network pays you. Luckily, it is a tiny amount so you can make a practical joke with experts on Crypto Twitter and inept explorer tools.