Bitcoin Forum

Hi I have a big problem and I'm freaking out.  I sent all my bitcoins from my bitcoin core wallet to another address to try and get them converted to ethereum but I just found out that the address had expired but the transaction has already confirmed.  Will then coins eventually be returned to my bitcoin wallet or not? The transaction ID is: 6186a91463264f3e0b475dd4386d95a995d22552e939e63690109fcb396dec0b-000

There is no such thing as an expired address. Addresses do not expire, that is not how Bitcoin works. Your Bitcoin is fine so long as you have access to the wallet that contains the address that you sent the Bitcoin to.

I tried sending the bitcoin to my ehtereum wallet and generated a deposit address to have it converted.  The transaction confirmed but the address must have expired as it has not shown up in my wallet and on the screen it said the address has expired.

I guess you used Shapeshift or similar company to do this? Then you can better try to contact them. If it is Shapeshift, then don't worry, they are really helpful. Only it can take a while before they answer, depending on their workload.  If it is another company, then I don't have experience, but still the best way to go is to contact them.

And: expired address means you have to send money to them within a certain timeframe. Due to bitcoin congestion I don't recommend using those services when their timeline is too short.

You can't send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet unless that "wallet" is an exchange. I assume that you are talking about an exchange. In that case, contact the exchange's support. The Bitcoin is not lost and they will have access to it.

To the Bitcoin network, there is no such thing as an address expiring. Those "expirations" are only on the wallet software side of things. The Bitcoin is still spendable if you have access to the private keys.

Here is a link to a picture for an example: http://imgur.com/a/Askm3  Obviously not the same address but you get the point when it said the address is expired but I sent the coins to the address anyway.

Again, as I said, addresses do not expire. This just means that the service behind the wallet does not want to keep tracking transactions to that address so they "expire" it and stop watching for new transactions. This happens for exchanges like the one pictured because they will lock in a price for a transaction but don't want to be bound to that price and exchange Bitcoin at that price forever for however much is received at that address. So they "expire" the address and simply stop tracking transactions to that address. Since the expiration is a specific feature of the service you are using, contact their customer support.

AFAIK is Shifty a service of Shapeshift, so you have to contact them. Then don't worry: Shapeshift will help you out.