Once upon a crypto winter, MetaMask HR made a mistake that would go down in blockchain history: they accidentally hired Jamie, a 19-year-old genius who thought JavaScript was a personality type and smart contracts were dating apps for programmers.
Jamie’s resume was… unusual. Under “Experience,” they listed:
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“Broke Uniswap once, sorry.”
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“Wrote a Python bot that bought 400 plush capybaras on eBay.”
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“Made a Chrome extension that detects lies in whitepapers (still in beta).”
Somehow, HR thought that meant “high initiative.”
So Jamie became a “Junior Protocol Reliability Engineer.”
Which sounded impressive until they started experimenting with “error codes that make people feel something.”
They called it Project Sock Puppet — because, in Jamie’s words:
“Every error message should have a little personality! Errors are people too!”
Soon, MetaMask users began reporting deeply emotional and confusing trading failures.
Here are some of the infamous Sock Puppet error codes that emerged:
🧦 Top 5 Sock Puppet Error Codes
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Error 0xSOCK001: Existential Gas Limit Reached
“Your transaction consumed too much gas… or maybe too much meaning. Try again after you meditate.” -
Error 0xSOCK114: Too Many Tabs of Hopium Open
“Your optimism has exceeded the blockchain’s capacity. Please close some dreams and try again.” -
Error 0xSOCK404: Token Not Found, Probably Ran Away
“We looked everywhere. Maybe your token just needs space right now.” -
Error 0xSOCK666: Illegal Trade Detected – Your Wallet Needs an Adult
“Due to suspiciously ambitious trading behavior, this transaction has been sent to crypto timeout.” -
Error 0xSOCK420: Transaction Failed – You’re Too Early for This Dip
“Chill. Let the market do its thing. Maybe hydrate?”
At first, MetaMask support was flooded with complaints.
Then, to everyone’s surprise… users loved it.
Crypto Twitter started sharing screenshots with captions like:
“Finally, an error message that gets me.”
Jamie became an overnight meme legend.
MetaMask’s PR team called it “a bold step toward humanizing decentralized suffering.”
By the end of the quarter, the Sock Puppet System™ had its own mascot — a fuzzy animated sock that appeared whenever you messed up a trade. It even winked.
Jamie, still under 20, was promoted to “Chief Emotional Failure Architect.”
And to this day, somewhere in the MetaMask codebase, if you type a forbidden swap too fast, a lonely string might still whisper:
Error 0xSOCK999: Slow down, hotshot. The blockchain has feelings too.
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