kraken: deposit address disappearance mystery solved

In summary, Kraken broke deposit addresses for several cryptocurrencies.

On the one hand, I am grateful that they have not made me lose money, because they could have done that.  On the other hand, this should never have been a thing in the first place, and they are behaving according to an alarmingly common template of stupid, which is software-developer-driven neophilia and interface breakage.

Note the following key terms from the missives: "legacy", "significant time", "manual", and "top developer".

You can just see the starry-eyed "developers", always pushing the wonderful shiny new version, why would anyone want to use the smelly old version anyway?  Let's call it legacy.  It's legacy, that legacy version.  Did I mention how brilliant I am?  Many people are just not smart enough to always run the latest version.

The problem with this is: if the previous, sorry, "legacy" one was shit, the new one will be just as shit.  In different ways.  Users of the legacy one have built up knowledge and experience in using it.  They know how to get it to do things, despite its shortcomings.  This body of knowledge is destroyed when developers unleash their new one.

One can often pick up this neophilia when talking to developers.  Nothing is allowed to just be.  According to neophiliac geektards, 2 is the "legacy" number of legs for bipedal humans to have.

Like bank account numbers, funding addresses for cryptocurrency exchanges must be treated as formal financial interfaces, not to be changed, or at least not to be revoked, once they are in use.  Imagine if your standing order failed because the recipient account had been renumbered arbitrarily, and some geektard was referring to the previous account number as "legacy".

Reading the below messages, one can just imagine their "top developer", in full prima-donna mode, prancing around, bearing down on everyone about how nobody should be using the "legacy" addresses, and how much of their important time is going to have to be used on "manually" getting the funds sent to the old address.  Management should not allow this type of behaviour.  Actually, developers should not be allowed to create or change any interfaces, only to implement them.  In this case, Kraken management should have a policy, enforced, that a funding address given to a customer is part of that customer's service interface, and may not be revoked.

The real status of the "top developer", of course, is a low-level bureaucrat, as observed by Locklin in "Calling a bureaucrat by its name" [0].

[0] <https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2023/11/29/calling-a-bureaucrat-by-its-name/>

Anyhow, here are Kraken's messages (cases of "REMOVED" in the text are just me removing their employee names etc).  I've just noticed there's a "Doge" in there where it should say "Monero"; in all the other places it says "Monero".  I guess the author hardcoded Doge by mistake in one place:


Hello Tom,
 
Thank you for reaching out. This is REMOVED from the Cryptocurrency Funding
Team.
 
For context, on February 2nd 2023 we sent the following email to all of our
clients:
 
_"We have recently upgraded our wallet infrastructure and have identified you as
a client that currently still has a legacy Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE),
Cardano (ADA), or Monero (XMR) address generated._
 
_These legacy addresses are set to expire on the **12th of February 2023**. You
can view which of your addresses is expiring by following the guide __here_ _for
__kraken.com_ _or __here_ _for __pro.kraken.com__._
 
_The good news is **you can** __**generate a new address**__ **before the expiry
date** if you haven’t done so already. If you don’t generate a new address by
the 12th of February 2023 you will still have your balance on Kraken and be able
to continue to trade and withdraw, but to deposit you will need to generate a
new address. Deposits made to expired addresses aren’t guaranteed to be credited
and may be permanently lost._
 
_Important: **Please make sure you update your saved address on other exchanges
and wallets** to your new address on Kraken as transferring to a legacy address
after 12th of February 2023 may result in loss of funds._
_If you have any questions, please contact __Kraken Support__._
 
_The Kraken Team"_
 
This means that your old Monero deposit address
4GdoN7NCTi8a5gZug7PrwZNKjvHFmKeV11L6pNJPgj5QNEHsN6eeX3DaAQFwZ1ufD4LYCZKArktt113W
7QjWvQ7CW9k4dHGXsDwF4Snrvd has been **expired**. If you haven't done so already,
you will need to generate a new Doge deposit address.
 
Your most recent transaction to your Kraken account will still be credited,
however the process will require significant time to be manually credited for an
expired address.
 
**Please do not use your old Monero deposit address anymore for this reason.
**Once you have generated your new Monero address, you should only use that one.
Additionally, if you can provide the transaction details and view key for your
newest transfer, we may be able to assist expediting this transfer on your
behalf.
 
I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to let us know if you have
any additional questions.
 
Regards, REMOVED
 
-------------------------------------------------------

Hey Tom,
 
Thanks for getting back to us.
 
I just personally confirmed with our top developer that we will be manually
crediting this transfer for you, but due to technical complexities it will
likely require one to two business days to be completed successfully.
 
In the meantime, we will be available here if you require any additional
assistance.
 
Regards,
REMOVED
Kraken Support


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