PayPal Accidentally Credits $92 QUADRILLION
We know sometimes a bank can slip-up and add a few hundred thousand out of the blue, but what about a 3rd party service?
Paypal recently accidentally credited a Pennsylvania man $92,233,720,368,547,800, according to a report by CNN.
For those of us who aren't used to counting that high, that comes out to more than $92 quadrillion....
But, this left me with a few questions. HOW does PayPal grant $92 Quadrillion when they only process $56 Billion? Does that mean they basically digitally "printed" money?
I'm not familiar with the mechanics of 3rd party payment services, but I'd imagine it would be different than say, a F500 commercial bank.
So, does this mean ANY popular payment service (Square, PayPal, etc.) can theoretically "credit" money on purpose for personal use?
$92 Quadrillion could cure the national debt several times over. Momentarily this man was the richest person to ever live.
What would YOU do if you found $10M (most people's walkaway number) credited to you by a 3rd Party service?
Why do these accounting blunders always leave astronomical amounts of money, rather than a small error of an extra 2 cents? Perhaps because we only hear about the astronomical errors?
The monies flowing among financial institutions, and in this case Paypal, are not cash. They are only numbers on the balance sheet and accounted as current liabilities and assets (AR/AP). As long as the equation A = L + E is met. There should be no problem.
Would be interested in hearing from someone who has insights into how these types of transactions specifically flow through Paypal's financial statements though.
Sue PayPal for emotional damage. Hopefully win in court. Transfer the money as soon as it gets there.
Bank error in your favor - collect $92,233,720,368,547,800.
Buy an insurance against my stupidity.
As is the case with any retail bank account, the balance of your account is the bank's liability. It is not cash. If you tried to withdraw $92 quadrillion from Paypal, the maximum amount you could theoretically take would equate to the equity on the balance sheet of Paypal, since it is a limited liability company. That is, of course, before you were stopped by maximum daily withdraw limits, and the various clauses in the t&c's of Paypal which prevent technical errors like this from actually crystallizing into real liabilities.
Because these aren't "accounting blunders", they are programming errors. Most likely, this 92 quadrillion number is the longest / greatest string that can be stored in the database of client accounts.
PayPal appears to use 64-bit numbers to record the account values. 2^63 is exactly equal to the number of pennies in the incorrect account balance.
If I saw 10mm in my bank I would wonder where the rest of my money went.
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