Bitcoin Forum

Hi!
As the title says, what happens if i get an address wrong? Do the coins get lost?
If that's what happens, why not change the code in Bitcoin, so that if the bitcoin network cant detect that address, returns the bitcoins to you?

What happens?

A random stranger has a really good day, and you lose your coins.

I'm pretty sure they're lost in that case. AFAIK the network doesn't know about addresses that never received anything so there's no way to tell you that the address is invalid. An address could have been created offline and would still be able to get coins. It just has to download the blockchain later to get the transaction information and can then proceed to redeem the coins in new transactions.

From the wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address):

"Bitcoin addresses contain a built-in check code, so it's generally not possible to send Bitcoins to a mistyped address. However, if the address is well-formed but no one owns it (or the owner lost their wallet.dat), any coins sent to that address will be lost forever."

While what is stated above is true... there are some other points here.

It is hard to have a typo in an address (from what I read somewhere).  If you send to an invalid address, the transaction just fails.

If you mix up your clipboard and send to the wrong, yet valid, address... then you have no recourse as there is no way to get the coins back unless a person holding the private key to that address sends them back to you.

I once overpaid someone using mybitcion... and they were kind enough to give me the extra, so if you can find out who the coins went to, there is a chance.

If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.

In a couple of years, with so many coins lost this way, not sure many will be left, since bitcoins are limited to 21 million and losing coins by sending them to wrong address's will keep on happening. Anyone can make a simple mistake copying the address, even though it's easy.

Yes, it's like with cash and washing machines. So much gets destroyed, they even need to print new notes all the time!

I've thought about that - I believe generating batches of keys and scanning the blockchain for keys with a balance is going to be prohibitively expensive. As in, not entirely unlike the lottery of running a solo cpu miner, but with vastly more variance in the payoff.

with the vast keyspace, you will make MUCH more money by mining.

I don't think you fully appreciate how vast the keyspace is. Mining is like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding an address is like finding a particle in one of many universes, where there's as many universes as there are particles in each universe.

Yeah you might want to take that comment with a grain of salt. Your particle analogy seems a bit exaggerated though.

ok, so if I pick some random guy on the street and put my wallet in his pocket when he's not looking, what are the chances that he's gonna find me after the fact and return it? Not great, but it's possible ;)

There are somewhere between 10^72 an 10^87 particles in the universe. The keyspace is 2^160, or around 10^48. So yeah, it is exaggerated.

Umm yeah..

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

that doesnt have much bearing on bitcoins. notes are reprinted because old ones wear out or a design needs to be updated. that doesnt matter for bitcoins.

21million will be plenty - even with lost coins. if and when bitcoin actually takes off, 1btc will be a pretty large amount. i wouldnt be surprised if day to day transactions would be <1 btc... loaf of bread: .00001 btc, pack of smokes: .0002 btc, etc. there is plenty of room to divide a single bitcoin that lost bitcoins wont really matter.

What happens if I will send to an invalid address, which passes the built-in check??

They are lost. Look at the Address Astro posted above. The right to transfer (= the ownership) of a coin is granted by the possession of the private key of the address where the coin was last transferred to.

As far as I know they get lost :(

Finally they let me post on here...  I learned the hard way and believe this post should be resurrected for newbs to the currency.  Don't let the "coin" part of bitcoin fool you into thinking it's not worth much.  On the other hand, realize that it is "coin".  Just like giving a rare coin to a homeless guy on the street, you MAY never see it again if you make a mistake...

Yes you lose them unless the stranger is kind enough to send them back.

I think a reason bitcoin is so difficult to understand for newbies is because it's name is so misguiding. Bitcoin is not a coin. It is not a physical thing. You can't touch it or hold it. It acts like cash but it in no way resembles cash. It's simply numbers assigned to addresses and that's it.

If you solo mine with a cpu you might get a block within 200 years which contains a few bitcoins plus transaction fees. If you generate keys of addresses and check to see if they hold anything, you might get a hit within 500000 years worth a few millibits or microbits.

It's not even that.  Numbers assigned to addresses is an abstraction that we humans use to make discussions about transfer of value easier.  Technically, the value is represented as a number that is encumbered with a requirement that must be met before being allowed to divide up and encumber portions of that number with a requirement of their own.

if you do.  just send an email to the owner of the incorrect answer and request your dough back?  why would there be an error?

btw there's a checksum in case you get one letter/number wrong.  but why would that happen? 

If you have send your coins to wrong address it's the same like you have lost them. Unless that other person don't pay you back which is not likely. Bitcoin it's not a physical thing that you can get back.
But it's good to check the address twice and don't write it manualy, use the copy paste options. Very often people lose their coins only because they are reckless or stupid. Don't be one of them.

See it's preety clear that YOU sent YOUR money YOURSELF to a user,even if it was a mistake,he has right to keep or spend it.
Then it is obvious that your BTC is gone and you can only get it back if the receiver is generous enough to return you the sum. 

There are 2 possible results
First , if the address you entered belongs to someone then he / she will get that amount . And you can do nothing about it besides finding who that person is (which is very hard) and then asking them to return it to you.

Next thing , if the address is invalid and doesn't belong to anyone then your transaction will not be confirmed and hence you will get your money back without any problem. This process might take 48-72 hrs depending on the size of your transaction .

99.99%, say bye bye to your coins...🤑 So bad for you, great for the recepient! We really need to be careful with all of our transactions so as not to make any mistake. Paranoia, I believe, is not bad in this case. It's better to be paranoid than stupid! 😁

i think the answer already clear, if you sent to wrong address. either its coin get lost or that coin will come to another user wallet that have that address. well, maybe they can do that. But, i don't know anymore about changing the code  :) just becareful when you want to do some transaction.

it looks like you've lost something of value, and it will not be refundable. you should be more careful when sending an adress wallet.
do not be careless .

That would be a great help not to lose your bitcoins but i think if you send it to the wrond address for sure its someones blessings, because addresses are similar to each other so you need to double check your transaction for the best result and not to lose the money your earning for. Although human error is cannot be avoid but if you serious on your money then don't go easy on it.  

The wrong address holder gets lucky to get some bitcoin. Second thing, until he himself understands the mistake of the sender it is impossible to get back the bitcoin. Its our responsibility to be more careful while making the transactions to other bitcoin addresses.

   If bitcoin network cant detect this address it does not mean the address is not exists at all, it may be created offline by some happy camper. Your only hope is low fee which miners are not interested in, in that case you will get your coins back

If I send Bitcoin an incorrect  address, the person who owns that address will be very happy. How many people who accidentally come from Bitcoin to your account will send the money back to me. Perhaps 1 in 100 people.

Another random person will get your bitcoin, ;D
and would feel real happy about it. because if you are trying to track the bitcoin
you will be failing, bitcoin cant be track it impossible I tried it my self. :o

There's no erasing a bitcoin transaction.

In this case, You will lost your Bitcoin. If you are asking because you fear accidentally entering a wrong address, don't worry, it is highly unlikely you will randomly pick a wrong but valid address.  You would be more likely to win the lottery 100 times in a row. So, keep safe your transactions :)

So if im reading this correctly, there is possibility that the error send to address is not in use yet. Does that it at some point someone might be assigned that address and find some free random bitcoin waiting for them like a nice Christmas gift lol?

the bitcoin address will be detected if it is typo error or had a missing letter or numbers, the transaction will simply failed . If you sent a legit but into another address, sad to say but you lose your coin unless the owner of the bitcoin send it to you back your coin but that is nearly impossible :)

I suggest to you that you read more about bitcoin, the devs are never going to allow that to happen, the blockchain is immutable, once you make a transaction and it is confirmed by the miners it is there forever, the only thing you can do is to try to find the person that has that address and ask him if he can send the money back.

sry to say buddy but all of your bitcoin are lost,and if you find someone who has got bitcoin from you address and can ask for same,if he accepts and ready to give you back you are lucky and good to go,otherwise there is no way to retreat them back.

I'm sure they do not know the direction in that case. the network does not know about a non-existent address, so there's no way to tell you that the address is invalid. Addresses can be made offline and can still earn coins.

If you send your bitcoins to a wrong address then, it's simply that you will lose your coins and someone that you didn't know may have it. So it's better if you will be carefu with your bitcoin address.

I think the bitcoins will go to the address which you filled in i believe you will lose all your coins and the address owner will get them and if they are a kind person they will return them but now the price is at 11k i do not think anyone would return free bitcoins.

That's the answer maybe, there's so many unused address and it's just whom got the luck to get that free "accidental bitcoin". It'll just sitting there until someone have the access to the privatekey, maybe generating it without any intention to find a bitcoin, but it's kinda hard, or really have a low chance since the address of bitcoin really so many.

Unfortunately those bitcoins will go to the address you sent them too and there is no way to get them back unless the person you sent it to is very honest and sends them back however in this world I don't think many people like that exist.

Bitcoin address is made to safely keep the owner's info, unless you want to expose the big holders, lol that is why when you send bitcoin wrongly, there is no way for you to check whether the address is correct or not as much as you cant have a refund in case of wrong sent. Just be careful when you send.

Of course if you send the wrong address then your money will disappear because the blockchain technology does not allow you to refund BTC . I think you should recognize this lesson and soon draw lots of experience when participating in cryptocurrency

sad to say in that case only you are liable on mistakes once it done you can never get back your bitcoins. better double check it always before confirming any transactions...

just as you lose money on the road, it will be hard to come back again, and you will definitely lose your bitcoin. What will happen ?
bitcoin you lost, especially if the value is large, and will live a day full of remorse.

Sadly I cannot think of any remedy for that. All I know is when you mistakenly send your Bitcoins to a wrong address, you have no other recourse UNLESS you get to know the IP address of the wrong recipient. It would be very hard judging on the presence of Bitcoins in the market nowadays. Hence, it is true when they say prevention is better that cure. You have whence be very cautious in sending Bitcoins online for chances are you never get to have those back. It will then be an expensive lesson to learn.

That would be an epic way to start a day. The recipient would be so happy if it happens and a sad a for you. There's no way you can retrieve that unless you knew that person. To avoid losing money make sure that the address you are encoding is correct. Such error can cost you fortune. Just be careful in every transaction you'll make.

I once sent a small amount of BTC to my BCH address instead of my BTC address in an exchange, the transaction was successful and my coin was gone. I never could get an answer as to whether they were lost in space or if they went to someone else’s BTC wallet. The exchange said they could possibly help but the recovery fee was more than the amount I sent. Turned out to be a blessing as I am super careful now.

It's likely to get a jackpot to any random wallet holder if the address is valid. There is no point in making any change in the network infrastructure to manipulate it in such way to revert the coins. However, if you are sending coins to any exchange or website and sending the wrong amount then you can contact the website and ask them to alter the deposit amount but there is no such provision in case of the wrong address. There is an interesting story in this regard, 111 BTC AS FEES (don't do raw tx's when you're tired) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135665.0).

The reciever will be the luckiest person in the world. Free bitcoin for him and a loss for you. But dont do that cause your wasting your money.

That would be one of your most regrettable mistakes. Accidentally sending Bitcoin to a wring address is irreversible. If you sent your Bitcoin to a wrong Bitcoin address, the recepient will be surprise and happy especially if the amount was very high. If you sent your Bitcoin to other address which is not Bitcoin's, I don't know where in the universe your Bitcoin will go so be careful evertime you transact. Make sure that you are putting the right address.  Always double check it.

as soon as you confirm the transaction is gone and you will probably make the day of the receiver; you might be able to find the owner of the address but that's it, if he's an honest person he might send it back because he recognized the mistake but i wouldn't hold my breath on it, there are a lot of honest persons around but when it's down to BTC and the current market place it's very hard.

hi,
if that wrong BTC address is an existing address that person is going to receive free BTC and then yeah, you will lose your BTC. :)   

If you send the wrong bitcoins to the wrong address. well the person who owns that address will get the bitcoins and you will lose your bitcoins.

Simple: you can lost forever the bitcoin, so before sending bitcoin verify twice the address
And remember that BTC, BCH BTG etc, have different type of addresses
Fortunately I never made this mistake :)

strangers may not want to return it.

if you are get an a wrong address i think your money is gonna be lost because every thing you got a wrong that will be never be right so if you have mistake just be calm and got big exchange in to your looses!

When you accidentally sent it to a wrong address it'll be lost, I'm not sure if there's a way for it can be retrieved. If you sent an address that belongs to a person, they'll be having bitcoins for free. But if not, your Bitcoins would be lost and a big loss for you, better make sure to send the right address. Think before you click!

You just need to be really attentive, so that this does not happen to you. Hope you will be.

In that case you have lost your coins. Before submitting the address anywhere, check it twice or thrice, then only send the coins. I don't think that it is possible to change the code in bitcoin.

Say bye bye to your Bitcoin! Coz it's almost a hundred percent you won't retrieve you Bitcoin. That's just how it is in this system. So we should be overly sure before sending our coins..

if you enter the wrong wallet, your funds will be lost, because the bitcoin transaction system has been determined like that, no refunds unless there is a bad transaction as happened some time yesterday the transaction has not been confirmed until 3 days my funds back to the wallet. I've also encountered a wrong sending bitcoin address, and my funds are gone. It can be an experience.

You can forget about them and next time more carefully check the invoice, where to send bitcoins.

Interesting thread.
Funny I never thought of this for over a year.

Of course that particular address will receive the bitcoins. Lucky for you if you know who owns that address and send it back to you, or your coins are totally gone. Let that experience teach you to be more careful next time you send coins. So move on and start earning again.

Then you are doom. You're lucky if you're able to get in touch to the owner of that address and send it back to you. But if not, you've just lost your coins. Be careful next time when transacting your coins.

it a big failed if you do that, sending bitcoin is no comeback because it is untracable you cannot make it back when you send bitcoin with wrong address because they will think that you are scammer or hacker. sending bitcoin is very important because theres no other way to withdraw bitcoin.

Specially when you really have no other source but his address. Well if in this forum you can still run after that guy specially when you know his account name here and you can report it here. But of course if you don't want this thing to happen to you, you really have to be more careful.

I say it is very difficult,. just like someone who sends money to the wrong account, it will not come back again.and it happens, will lose your bitcoin, and you must be very sad.

Wrong address = Lost Bitcoins = You are sad/Angry = Will be Cautious the NEXT time = Lesson Learned = DONT DO IT AGAIN = GET BAcK TO LIFE
On the other side of the universe
Wrong Address = Valid Bitcoin address = Owner Happy = Praises the Lord = encash the Bitcoin = spends money = GET back to life (hoping for more misstakes)

if you send to a wrong address , you will never get back your coin and lose your coin forever

this is the same as burning coin action , check carefully before when you send bitcoin to an address

When you send Bitcoins to a wrong but valid address, the account you send to receives the bitcoin but no guarantee of receiving back your bitcoins. It is as good as gone. So, it is better to just the cut and paste option instead going through the rigor of writing out which is prone to errors mist of the time. But I am still of the thought that an option be made available for complaints so as to treat issues with wrongfully  sent transactions with both sides able to attest to this.

I think he can try double spend by generating instantly another transaction to another correct address with much higher fee. He has the chance of getting confirmed in the second transaction.

that happens you will experience a thing full of sadness, yes ,, because I think losing bitcoin is more sorry than losing gold.

Well most likely that address will receive the bitcoins that you have mistakenly sent and once a transaction is made in bitcoin it can't be reverse like paypal that can be used for scams. That's when sending bitcoin to someone you should always double check or triple check to avoid this kinds of disasters.

Its either their lost specially if you don't know the address you've sent to or just withdraw it in that wallet and withdraw the coins.

this is a joke or what , If you sent your bitcoins to a wrong address in that case you will be lost your coins and you cant refund your balance .

Jika kita mengirim bitcoin ke alamat yang salah, maka kita tidak akan mendapatkan apa apa dan koin kita tidak akan kembali,mimpi kita untuk mendapatkan coin sebanyak banyanya akan lenyap.

If you send bitcoins to a wrong address you lost your money because there is no no way to find who picked it up and no legal recourse to ask for it back.

Its gone.

Bye bye BTC. Its a very good day for him.

According to their policy, you cannot recover any amount once you already send it. In other words your money will receive by anonymous person cannot be subject of restitution of a thing.
Through this we need to check every detail and review it wisely to avoid some mistakes like this.

Other people will receive that bitcoin instead to a person that you intentionally want to give it. In this scenario, you have right to claim it again because in the first place it is your negligence not in the side of bitcoin.

If the transaction is passed, your bitcoins are gone forever. I hope the lesson you learned worth the lost money.

As what I see in bitcoin wallet, they always warns the users to be careful enough  in every transaction that they will enter using their services; because once you send it in a wrong address you have no right to get it again and the one who receives the bitcoin cannot enforce to get it back again.

That's right. It is very critical to trade in bitcoin because once you send in the wrong address it will not refunded. You will lose the amount the moment you do that. The reason why always ask if surely it is the correct address, and you have to check it properly before depositing or withdrawing it.

The coins dont get lost, but they wont be accessible anymore. Its like loosing something in the deep sea. You know its still there, but wont be able to get hold of it anymore. Always double check addresses you are sending to.

Of course you lost your bitcoin after you send it to the wrong wallet, because once you make transaction then the transaction can't be canceled, and you can't refund your bitcoin again, that's the reason why if we do transaction we always reminded if our wallet address is correct.

Of course it will get lost and there's no chance for you to get your bitcoin back even if you complain to any one. Bitcoin transactions cannot be undone and I doubt if some one would be kind enough to return bitcoin that you would receive for free. That's why you should be careful when sending bitcoin.

There would be no way for you to undo transactions that are already confirmed. Sending your bitcoin to a wrong address is also the same as losing your bitcoin. That's why when sending bitcoin, make sure to double check the address before sending, so that you can avoid sending your bitcoin to a stranger.

Hard to follow, where did the address you sent to come from?

It's not really possible to typo a wrong address, and neither will anyone else have/generate the same address. If the address was supplied to you by an exchange, you should be able to contact them and have it returned to your account.

As the per action or warning of bitcoin wallet, they always gives reminder to their users to be careful enough  in every transaction that they will enter using their services;
because once you send it in a wrong address you have no right to get it again and the one who receives the bitcoin cannot enforce to get it back again.

If the wrong destination wallet address can not be restored, one of the Bitcoin goals used is that no party anywhere in the world can take, disrupt, stop, cancel the Bitcoin user transaction. If the transaction can still be controlled by the other party then be the same as traditional money.

Try checking the gadget / computer that sends it, what virus / malware / script that automatically change the destination address bitcoin, so it does not happen again, but if it is wrong because the check is negligent before send ya finally this incident can only be a lesson.

In Bitcoin trading between individuals, it is highly confidential, people will not be able to know the trader's information because there is only one address to trade. Therefore carefully check the address before transaction because once transferred, it is impossible to get the transferred BTC number. So in this case you have lost the number of BTC you have traded, it is experience so you will not be like that in subsequent transactions.  ;D

What's more to do, it's lost forever until the receiving address holder decides to resend it to the address from which it got received. Lot of users might have lost because of being careless, also this is very rare to happen, because a single letter change will not end up in getting transacted to some other address. Mostly that'll get reported as wrong bitcoin address.

That's right, because in using bockchain technology there is no recovery of all transactions made unless you have type the invalid btc address and that's the time your sending transanction will be cancelled. As a piece of advise or tips to avoid from mistype address, it is better to copy and paste address, double check and lastly don't be rush in sending. 

From what I have heard they are lost for ever into the bitcoin void. Or you could have sent them to someone and if hes really honest he can send them back. But the probability of that happening is pretty slim.

I have never experienced anything like that, because I always be careful and do bitcoin delivery, I always check the bitcoin address several times to make sure the address is correct, if it is wrong to send to the wrong address maybe your bitcoin will be lost, or if your lucky bitcoin will return to your wallet

yes, so I always check several times to make sure the address I paste is correct. well, if the wrong address is written and registered, then there will be a warning, is not it? then, if that address has one, can we ask to be sent back?

You have to be very careful in doing so but if that really happens, then you can hope that that address is not existing yet because that's a checksum error. But if the address is wrong and it is existing, then your bitcoin will be deducted for sure.
Worst is, if you don't know who's bitcoin address you've mistakenly sending, then you can never contact that person.

Other people might get it. But I doubt some people will get it because of how random or how complex the address system is. Just because you made a 1 letter mistake that doesn't another person would actually get it. It's pretty much lost. You can't have it return to you.

If it is send to wrong address accidentaly. Of course, you will lose your bitcoin balance. So its better to double or even triple check your own address in order to send your money and have it. Well a random address isnt applicable but there is a chance that mistyping the address will lead to loss of money

Yes they are totally lost forever, there's no way to recover it and how on this world you will be able to send into a wrong address? Each address are very unique and I find it odd if you'll be sending to a wrong address at all. This rarely happens but it has 0.01% chance of happening especially if that person is just keep on copy pasting address and if he's affected with a malware that changes the wallet address after copying.

This is the only way, only few people remain to be honest but still there is still humanity.

It depends. One thing is sure, you don't have those coins anymore. If the address you have sent is owned by someone (he has private key), he will receive the funds and he can use them as he seems fit. And the changes you are proposing are not good for the following reason: what would stop someone from buying something, and after receiving the goods proclaiming the transaction as erroneous and receiving the funds back?

please make shure you send them to me i can always use a few more satoshi.........
adress  36Q1SuhGE7DiszmxWjRDviVDa748Q4GEVd  donations are always welcome , merry hoho

I'm not sure what's more amusing...The original question, or the geeky sidebar  ;)

Are you all going to answer to this guy? it is obviously that there is no way to recover that money once that you send the funds.

It works by the same way as if you send money to a different bank account on your bank.. It is exactly the same, there is no way to recover those funds.

Well, if the receiver decides to give you your money back, you are probably one of the 1%.

That's mean you lost the bitcoins already. If the person is a good guys. he will send it back to the same address. I think no one will do it. Be careful next time. Check the address twice.

     If you send your bitcoin to a wrong address then this address is valid no doubt that you cannot get it back unless the owner of the wrong address you have sent has a kind heart and he/ she will give it back to you. So,be carefull to send,check the wallet several times before you send.

It is not possible to mistype a particular wallet address, and if we send it to an unauthorized address, every transaction will fail. Unless we store the Bitcoin address with another file and you mistakenly copied the address you are addressing and the address is valid, the transaction will be successful automatically. Unfortunately you will lose Bitcoin for mis-delivery, so be more careful and more careful before sending your Bitcoin.

yes, your coin get lost and happy day for someone get your coins. so i just wanna say beware before you input your address, if you get an address wrong, you can lost your coin, and cant get back..

If you send bitcoins to a wrong address then you lost your coins forever and never get back. So becareful in future and check recever address twice before send btc to any other account.

Yeah, it is necessary to use copy-paste technique for BTC addresses. At the same time it is necessary to check the first and last letters of your address.

You probably lose all your coins sent if you enter a wrong address, that's why it is so important to double check the address entered before you clicking the 'send' button even though you copy and paste it. (P.S. I am going to create few more addresses just in case some careless users enter the wrong address ;D)

Always remember in your self this  "slowly but surely" so you need to check 3-5 times before you send and i think if you have a trust wallet like coin base you can contact their team to refund or to get your money or bitcoin again .

I think that would be very bad for you but i guess a very excellent day for that soneone who would have coins appearing out of nowhere and then you would lose it. I guess that is something that all of is would not want no matter how rich we get in bitcoin

Don't think about it.and I have no idea about it.

I think that is you bad day because I think that no one can back that, that is your fault so it will not be back but for the user that recieve it, he or she is very lucky because he got that without doing anything. Beware to put your address because there is no solution if you got it wrong.

Then the one who owns that address is lucky because he or she receive money even though he is not doing anything. There is no way you can get it again if you don't know the one who received your bitcoin.

How I wish your suggestion will be taken into consideration. But I really doubt they would install such feature. Bitcoin has been in existence for a long time already, almost 10 years all in all. Never had I heard of such additional feature. So we just have to be very careful, double check every single address in every transaction so that not even a little amount of BTC will go to waste by simple errors. If the BTC you are sending are sent on a valid and used address then it will be made available to the owner of the address. But if it is sent on an invalid address that it will forever be gone.

If you send bitcoin to a wrong address you will loss your bitcoin and the wrong address will receive your bitcoin. And it can not canceled. Except you know the address you send and maybe you can call the people who have its address and you can ask them to send back your bitcoin to you. But if you dont know who the people has its address you must sincere because your bitcoin is loss 😁😁

I think after send your bitcoin in wrong address u have to forget your bitcoins beacuse it's gone. u never going have it back once its gone. so better this will not happen.

If you send your bitcoins to a wrong address.You will end up loosing your bitcoins to a total stranger.It will be a lucky day for the one who receive your bitcoins even if it was send as a mistake it will be like them winning a jackpot without spending cash for the jackpot they have won and it is not possible for you to reverse your bitcoin transactions.I hope in future something might come up so that you can cancel the transaction atleast within ten minutes after the transaction.

If send the bitcoin you will be send wrong person. You can't replised the bitcoin. It to risk to transaction process. But you get the currect address for use the transaction process. So you careful to use for the bitcoin address transaction. But bitcoin will be give the allect for to your mail so you will check the bitcoin address it will be right. So it good use for transaction process.

the coin will be at that wallet address and the owner doesn't know who is which sending the bitcoin to him. he only knows the wallet address and if he is a good person then he might send it back to you. you will lose your bitcoin without knowing who the person and it is better to double check the address before you want to send your bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the need of today for those who are deprived of a regular job and have no other source to earn money except for working on the forum and making good amount of money so to make his present good and future secure. Bitcoin should be kept very safe and high attention should be paid while transferring them, because if once you entered a wrong address you get a un repairable loss and regret for life long

yes, with all its advantages, this is a negative quality, which sometimes leads to stress, when you double-check the address several times

Actually, if you sent bitcoins to other wallet then you just screwed up big time. Especially if it is a big amount of money, although if you know whom you just send to then you can communicate and ask to return the value that was transferred into his or her account. But it is hard to trace and determine who and where the user of the wallet is, because it is unique in every way.

well its irreversible your treat your bitcoins as lost because you cannot retrieve it again because that's the what the system is build for it has no support to acknowledge your concern so always be careful when sending coins to other address always double check it again and again so mistake is lessen before you transfer your money to other address yours or not..

if the bitcoin network don't detect the address it will return back to you, that's possible. have you experienced it?, Actually my experience in crytopia And I was sending btc to my wallet it has a confirmation if you really want to sent it in that address, and they are checking if that address is existing.
going back to the first question, If you sent it, you just make someone rich, ,even if it's not that large amount.

Sending bitcoin to a wrong address is as good as sending good fortune to a stranger. The anonymity of bitcoin is what makes refunding of such bitcoin impossible. There's no way such person can trace your address to send back the bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency users are in full control of their funds, which also means they bear the full responsibility for sending money to the correct address. Sending funds to a wrong address can have very dire consequences. Thankfully, it is virtually impossible to send Bitcoin to a wrong block chain. However, should the transfer be accepted because it is recognized as a valid address, things can get out of hand very quickly.

if the address you sent is wrong and the address is one that has an automatic coin you have sent and how happy that got the coin.
if the address does not exist then your coins will return or the transaction fails because the address is not valid.
so how is your transaction sent or failed?

I hope it never happens to anybody because if you send bitcoin to wrong address, it is gone. in case this person is very good heart person and doesn't send money back, you have to say your coins by by. So be careful about addresses.

if the receiving address is accepted by your wallet and returns a successful send notification then you'll most likely lose your bitcoins....

Technically the coins are not lost forever. The coins can get returned if he knows how to bruteforce a wallet.

Well, it's like real life, if you loose your money you won't get them back. Maybe the owner of the adress you sent is kind enough to give your money back

There is no way to recover to regain them................

if you had simply mistyped a few of the letters or numbers in the address, it's unlikely the client would have let you send them. If, however, you pasted in a different and valid address, the coins are already transferred to it permanently.
In this scenario, Bitcoin works pretty much like cash there is no way to get it back after giving it away. No way to recover them .......:)

I don't know what wallet you use that does that....All the wallets that I use would send coins even if the letters or numbers were mistyped.

There's no way you get it back. Try to double check before sending bitcoin. If it's easy to change code in bitcoin, i think developers would have done it by now.

I think you would lose it forever if that address does exist,
For example you mistype it or you send it to a wrong person then there is no way that you could get it back unless the person is too kind to give your money back.

I think if the address exists, you will lose all your bitcoin and if it not exist, you will be refund.

I think it’s a good thing if you send bitcoin on wrong address by mistake if they see that these are coins  so defiantly he will start search of it that what is bitcoin and how it work and it depend on him that what he will do with your bitcoin and I think he will return you back so in one condition I’m sure that he will join bitcoin because bitcoin is now a very valuable currency and its demand is very high so nothings to worry about it if you send by mistake bitcoin on wrong address.

You will lost your bitcoin.  And you can not get it back.  Because nothing application to back it.  I hope some day there is a application which can get back bitcoin if send to wrong address. 

of course you will lose your coins or maybe even your coins will go into someone else's wallet. I guess that's what will happen if you mistakenly fill in the address you'll send bitcoin or another coin.

Bitcoin is decentralized and ledger of non reversible transaction so no one control it. Second important thing to keep in mind while doing Bitcoin's transaction is do double check everything before making process to transaction. As Bitcoin is decentralized there is no customer support.


If Bitcoins transferred to wrong address then it will loss permanently. As two possibilities
1) If BTC Address is wrong then there is revere payment.
2) If send to anonymous address then also no chance to recover funds from user due to anonymity.

Other than these two option there is also one more condition. As we know coinbase allow bitcoins to transfer from coinbase account to another coinbase account through email. In this way  if you send bitcoins to a wrong email address through coinbase, you can them email that person and request him a refund. Other than that, i don't see bitcoins coming back to you.

need to be careful in writing the wallet address, and more thoroughly before being sent to minimize address errors in the delivery.

I think that most people wouldn't send the money back if they received the coins, so the money is probably going to be gone.

This case if sent bitcoin to wrong address it will not return back to you. It will not lost its just sent to the recepient. Yes if we will send btc we should really be careful and verify more times the address to send your btc.

Well , someone with that address is having a very nice day. Maybe he will send you back some coins but I doubt it , there's no nice persons here :( they are all greedy.

Well, I guess if you send it to a owner of that address then your btc will somehow go to his account and you can't do anything to get it back unless you contact him or you know him. And if that address doesn't have any owner or let's just say invalid address, I think your money will be back on your account. That's all.

if it happens then you have finished your history, it is a bit excessive but it is in fact not to send a bitcoin to an address that is not an appropriate address because we can not return the wrong bitcoin.

Since, bitcoin is not physical and transaction has no security check, it's most likely that you'll lose your bitcoins if you send it to a wrong address. Unless or until you trace or find that person and the person is kind enough to return you coins back. So, good practice is to validate the address multiple times before transaction proceeds.

In this case, 99.99999999% you don't know the owner of the address. Then you can forget about that bitcoins, they're lost forever. If you saw it instantly, you can try to make another transaction with extremely higher fees to save your bitcoins.

Yes you will lose your coin and goes to someone else wallet and if you think this in real senior of world if you put your money to someone else wallet then it depends on the person in who`s wallet you have put the money whether he returns you the money or not.Bitcoin do so because it provides full controls to the user who holds that account and never interferes.

Not only in bitcoin in the usual things we do the same thing, let's say that bitcoin address is the destination account number that we will send the money, then we enter the wrong account number, then the money we send will not reach the goal, or not sent. What distinguishes the bitcoin transactions is that if we enter the wrong address at the time of sending bitcoin, the bitcoin you will send will not get anywhere unless the address you entered is correct, but whoever is receiving it.

I always wish it was possible that one can return his or her bitcoin to their address before the transaction could get confirmed, I am sure that could prevent a lot of thefts in the bitcoin network. But at the moment whether confirmed or not you lose your bitcoin once it is sent.

Why not??
it's simple You will lose your bitcoin if you send your bitcoin to wrong address!!

This is not a bank where sent money is coming back. Here it is otherwise badly sent out are lost. I have already convinced myself several times :(.

I don't think anyone can help in this case as there is no authorities that one can go to and rectify the situation. He will just have to consider himself unlucky. These types of transactions really do make people paranoid and it would be great if there is some sort of system in place to protect us in the future.

nahhh.. you will lose everything not half :D Once you send the bitcoin to the wrong address say good bye to your BTC because it's irrevocable. Be responsible in what you do, better to look twice or even 3x to the address where you want to send the btc.

I'm sorry to tell you but its either lost forever or it is transfered to some unknown person which gives you almost 0% chance of getting it back. Even if you have his address it would still be quite a feat to retrieve it, even brute force hacking is not an option when it comes to crypto wallets.

If you have sent your bitcoin to an address that was assigned to another user, there is a big chance and a possibility not to get it back unless you have to private key to that public address.

They will be lost and you'd have no right getting them back. The only way you would have some chance with, is if  you can find the owner of the wrong address that you sent your money to and try to persuade them to give them back and the odds of that happening is close to zero.

The coins go to a lucky human being in the world. They would be there and you will not be able to see them again. If you do such a thing than you have to forget your btc.

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. While this may be very inconvenient at times, it prevents scammers doing charge backs on PayPal transactions while using credit cards. If you think about it another way, how would the block-chain know you sent bitcoins to the wrong address? It could be that someone buys goods with bitcoins, pays the guy and then a day later tries to get his bitcoins back claiming he sent them to the wrong address.

It will be lost. Next time you have to make iy sure that you will use the right address because you cant change it. You have to double check it next time and make another address.

You just send them to the wrong person and lose) no refunds in bitcoin, this is one of the basic principles of the bitcoin code!and if the address is simply not correct, then the transaction simply will not happen and bitcoin will not write off your account

if you send the wrong address of course you will lose your bitcoin because it is impossible you can ask to return your bitcoin

so we are taking to be more careful cause in this case there is a lot of process there is some that you have to file some case and of course in the first place you will never know who is the owner of that address and we all know that all of us are greedy to have atleast some bitcoin so even me if i may receive some bitcoin with my address from unknown first i may take some shock why i may receive that.

It may possible to make your money return but the bigger portion was cant.. All because bitcoin can have a so many transactions,so that they may not know something else happend....only you need to do is to report earlier to the manager to give a quike responce and action. But the biggest point is when you are asking for it within several days passes without informing bitcoin...thier is possibility that you cant return your money back.but im sure that bitcoin can handle that kind of problem.

The possibility of other people getting the bitcoins is very low. The chances are, some person MIGHT have received it, but the chance is really slim, and the other scenario is it will be lost in the void. It cannot be recovered, sadly. So next time you send bitcoins, always make sure the address is active.

Obviously you can't get those bitcoin which lose as a donation!

If it will happen then someone has a good day after sending money randomly but its once in a blue moon, like how can you send to a wrong recipients ? you have to double check it before sending because its a key. Aside you just need to copy and paste it , how can you be mistaken of it unless you misclick something or delete some parts of it.

Always be carefull sending coins makes sure the address are correct, sad to say with you hard to locate who is the owner of the address.

If you send Bitcoin to the wrong address, it is likely that you will lose all of that Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin's security mechanism seems to only send data, it does not return a sent BTC. Be careful, before sending you to need to check whether the address information is correct or not, avoid sending the message and then recognize the wrong address. I hope that the future will be able to return the BTC sent or have an intermediary such as escrow to ensure no mistake in the transaction as it is now.

Now what is meant by bruteforce a wallet ? The scerniro is simple here. If you send the bitcoins to the wrong address and you do not know which person is the owner of that address, you can never claim it back and those bitcoins now belong to whom it has been transferred wrongly. That's why we should double check the wallet address before sending any money to wallet address.

If you send your btc to the wrong address it's your fault and your btc is gone and the receiver will be a lucky person because you cannot claim it back so if you don't want to lose your btc as soon as possible before you send your btc to another person or wallet always double check it maybe if you don't do that it might be gonna happen to you so always double check.

If you send to the wrong bitcoin address of course the bitcoin will vanish. Or the likelihood of the wrong address being owned by someone lucky to get bitcoin from you.
The lesson is that every time you want to transfer bitcoin must be very careful in entering bitcoin address.

It's difficult to accidentally send bitcoins to an invalid address because there is a 4-byte checksum in every address. If you make a typo, the checksum won't be valid and any transaction sending bitcoins to such an address will be rejected by the network.

Yes you will lose your coin and goes to someone else wallet and if you think this in real senior of world if you put your money to someone else wallet then it depends on the person in who`s wallet you have put the money whether he returns you the money or not. The only way you would have some chance with, is if  you can find the owner of the wrong address that you sent your money to and try to persuade them to give them back and the odds of that happening is close to zero.

you will lose the btc you send it and there will be lucky people who get it according to the address you input it
so, first check your btc address before you do btc transactions

what happens ? i have a little information about it.
I read some information on another website. if someone send the bitcoin to wrong address, he / she will lose the coins. I do not know how to recover it if something happens to me.  :)

Obviously yes it will get lost if the address that you place is currently existing and you cannot do anything to get your coins back because it is all your fault. You can look at those exchangers that has an email address confirmation to be more secured in transfering your coins.

I lost some satoshies due to a wrong address :(

I reused the same address in which had previously worked for me. Now I know its a one-time only thing  ;D Hence, my transaction has been marked as "pending" for a couple of months.

I wish there was a time termination on pending transactions.

If the address is exist it will a lost coin on your part.
The only way to retrieve it if the owner of address will agree to return it to you.
Its a blessing for the recipient.

It Can not be reterns .,..

If you send to the wrong bitcoin address of course the bitcoin will vanish. You will lose the btc you send and luck will get according to the address you input it. The lesson is that every time you want to transfer bitcoin must be very careful in entering bitcoin address. And if we need to send a bitcoin or coins / tokens we should be careful and double check if it's correct the address when you send bitcoin or altcoins

Any transaction issued with Bitcoin cannot be reversed, they can only be refunded by the person receiving the funds. Therefore, it is impossible for Instacoin to charge back or provide a refund. Bitcoin can detect typos and won't let you send money to an invalid address in the chain, but you should always confirm that you have type the correct adress to send to.

if you are send bitcoins to a wrong address, your bitcoin is lost. of course
Be carefull, it is better to check bitcoin address before you click on button send.

Wrong address like you mistype it or correct address but not intended for right recipient. I think if it was wrong address as a result of mistype then it wont be able to pass the blockchain and likely bounce back, but if is a correct address meant for different user, then you just gift a stranger some free cash.

We know that bitcoin is that technology which is famouse for its two quality that is reliability of payment that can't reverse and has not limit to transfer .
So here no chance for you to get back your bitcoin ( sometimes fees factor for long term unconfirmation results into reverse of bitcoin but I had never faced such things in my bitcoin work career ) .
And also sometimes when we send bitcoin to wrong address then bitcoin doesn't transfer ( I am talking about mistake type any extra word , or erase of any word or type of equal word ) .
Hope you understand well that what are probability that can happen with you .

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. If you were connected to the network when you made the transaction, your coins are lost.

Sad to say, you are right! those coins was lost. If you send bitcoins to wrong address unintentionally then the person which suppposed to receive that btc will receive nothing, and on the other hand, there's a lucky person who will receive what you sent. So be very careful when copying/typing addresses because a single wrong letter/number will ruin everything.

I think there's nothing wrong with the codes, actually it's very unique and provides total security. Just avoid being careless next time.

Bitcoin send in wrong adress the bitcoin loss not come ur wallet pls you see adress many times than send bitcon to another wallet

If you send your coin  to the wrong address, well it's your fault for being careless. You should check if you copied correctly the address of the receiver to avoid any mistake because if you send it in the wrong address, you cannot retrieve what you send, unless the person who receives it will send it back to you but that's impossible.

Yes. They get lost forever. Hope you wrote right adress) i was just thinking about it today. How many money lost in crypto world

yes, your coins will be sent to the wrong address. and of course you will lose all the coins you have.
If the address is not listed in blockchain, then the transaction will fail by itself. So if you want to send bitcoin, make sure the address you go to is not wrong.

Obviously, it will be gone forever. If you sent it to a wrong address then that person is really lucky and would definitely see a bright future ahead  :D

If somehow it will be someones address - that lucky guy will get your coins. otherwise, if that adress is valid? but noone owns it - you will lose your coins

Bitcoin address is to different. So you will check the bitcoin addres before you will send. If wrong send you can't find any one. Bitcoin address is to safe to transfor the bitcoin so you will check and you for the transaction process. Bitcoin to easy to transactions process. You will send the bitcoin any one. It good opportunity of the future growth and future transactions process. If bitcoin transfor wrong address you can't if the bitcoin the where it will send.

your bitcoins will be lost and there is no hope of retrieving them so that's why you have to be very careful when sending your money to another address check the sending more than once untill you make sure its the right address i hope i don't fall to that mistake my self oneday....

Whenever I send BTC has a different address I stress every time so much I'm afraid to be wrong ahah

Nothing to be scared about if you are careful enough. Yes it does scares at the beginning as if the funds are sent to another address its kind off lost even if the address exists, because you cannot contact the person to whom you sent. But for other Payment processors this can be reversed.

To prevent it from happening, it is better to copy and paste rather than of manual inputs.
Because using of blockchain technology, all transaction are not reversible. Once it become successful, you can't bring back your money even you have sending a wrong address unless it is appeared that it is invalid address. Double checking of address might work before sending.

You will lost your tokens...the bad thinks is that you cant contact anyone for send back the amount to you because btc is decentralized and not need informations about users...we are the only responsible of our actions

When something like that happens, forget that you even have a bitcoin. And someone out there will totally have a blast. A total celebration i may say. Imagine the excitement he/she may feel when out of nowhere a couple of bitcoin appears in their wallet. And you cannot blame anyone but yourself. That is totally your fault. Always remember, before you press that enter, check your input twice or more.

You just gave someone a gift. There's no way to get them back unless that person sends them back to you but good luck finding who they are.

Once you have confirmed your transaction, there's no way to cancel it. Just say good bye to your bitcoin if ever you have sent it to a wrong address. That is why it is always better to double check before sending or doing any transactions. I doubt if the recipient will be generous enough to send back your bitcoin. Consider it as a gift if this happens.

There's no way to cancel the transaction. If ever I receive a free bitcoin I will not send it back. I doubt if some body had done it. It is always better to double check transactions and bitcoin address before sending it. All you can do if ever you sent your bitcoin to a wrong address is to check the numbers of confirmation done on block chain before the stranger receives your free bitcoin.

It depends on your wallet because in our wallet coin.ph if you send a wrong adress you can contact the team of fheir company to resolve the problems but it takes a time because theyre are busy too so if you use like blockchain i think it never comeback again.

What you say makes no sense, it's just impossible, it's like putting money in someone's pocket, and waiting for it to be repaid

It's your fault and bitcoin is not responsible for it.Sending bitcoins to the wrong address causes your bitcoin to disappear and can not come back again.Be careful in the delivery of bitcoin.

If you send your bitcoins to wrong address then surely blessed are those lucky receivers, Actually there are many cases happening in real scenario about sending btc in wrong no. and they find hard to recover the amount. Much better to double check always the pincode before sending:)

It might cause us to lose incorrectly using the wrong address, if the address bitcoin receiver is active then it will not be easy for us to get it back

Yes, you will totally lost your btc and forget about it and the other one will be enjoying your btc because he/she gets some btc without doing nothing.

All people who involve in bitcoin know that your bitcoin will loss. You can not recover it.

About the total of bitcoin getting less because of wrong send to any address, it can really happen if no body own the address anymore. If the address where we send it still belong to someone, it means it is just hand over to the other hand.

If that will happen you can not recover it, and that was a big loss because you might lose some bitcoins and my advice for you is always check before you click, we all know that bitcoins is very important for us so my advice is always double check the address.

if your address is not in a proper format,it will show error.but if you send bitcoin in any other wallet accept from bitcoin,you coin will be lost forever and can not refundable.so be careful before sending any coin.

sad but you will lost your coin & someone will be lucky...because after sending in wrong address, you can't recover it from being sent...so when you send bitcoin in any address, you need to more careful...

If it's an invalid address, the transaction will fail. But if it's valid of course someone will receive your Bitcoin and it won't be a lost bitcoin unless they don't have access to that address anymore.

Obviously,you will end up losing your money and there's no guarante that you will be able to retrieved the money you lost.However,it's really a common mistake which everyone could not avoid but we could prevent it if we properly handle our money with care and use some alternative precautions in order to have a clean and safe transaction and even withdrawing your money

If you send your bitcoin into wrong address, this is a mistake you will truly regret because it only means that your bitcoin will lost forever and it is impossible to return to you.  That is the reason why you have to be very careful on entering your bitcoin address.  Besides, you can just copy  (using copy command) your address and paste it (using paste command) into the address bar instead of typing it character by character to avoid mistakes in your transaction.  It is a precaution to everyone because bitcoin address is the pathway to receive your bitcoin earnings.

Its hard to recover bitcoins that send to a wrong address. So be careful, make sure that you enter your address correctly. Double check if needed before you put your address.

Just becareful if you sent and you look first then check the address of you sent.

if you input wrong bitcoin wallet address on the process of transaction, your bitcoins will be gone to that "wrong" bitcoin address and you cannot retrieve it back to your wallet. please becareful next time

In my points here is, sometimes we make mistake of tyiping anykind of letters and numbers we do not know when its mistaken sometimes it happens to me that situation is easy if we made a mistake at that point we should let to know the administration here for they give us an active way to change our address that we can mistakenly change to let us know that we are wrong .it is a coin that will be discussed and your coin is lost then your clip board and passed in the wrong way and valid address then you have to accept as no way to get that and return your coins .unless if someone holds a private key that the way that address send them back to you .so be careful and what ever you write or type it.pls check and read it again...

When you make a mistake passing your bitcoins to a different wallet address it certainly will not go back, now because there are many people who like bitcoin. So be sure to put a wallet address.

Tbh, I don't know what will happen if we send to the address that doesn't exist. Maybe the coin will be lost forever.

If you send Bitcoin to a wrong address and if the address is existing then it's your bad luck. Or if the address has no existing then it's your good luck. One month later it will come to your wallet again.

Wow, this whole thread has turned into a place for people to up their post count.
The original question is from 2011 with hundreds of answers and they're all the same.
You lose your coins.

Why are people still commenting years later?

Then your coins is gone if the current address you are sending is existing. To avoid this kind of problems, You should place your money on those exchangers that has an email confirmation before sending your coins into another address to withdraw.

if you send bitcoin to wrong address make sure your bitcoin will disappear and it's very hard to go back, unless the bitcoin address owner you sent would be kind enough to return it

That would be your loss if you had sent it to a wrong address I dont think that the wrong address you had sent would return that to you unless you have proper communication with. But i doubt if the wallet owner would return it. It would be a lucky day for that wrong wallet address.

I am not sure maybe it's impossible to back, a real story a few days ago my friend, unfortunately, do that & he can't back to the money own wallet if you want to do the transaction check again & again when you send the money. if you try to send the money a wallet you need to total concentration. And you also can be remained own mind messages ''amount not refundable'' best of luck.

Every activity in blockchain must be carefully done and require reconfirmation before you hit the button for sending. If you send any fund to a wrong address the fund is lost forever you may have given a gift to another person.

Well you can just bye.bye to your coins. Because there are no ways you can undo the transaction. Unless you know the owner of that address and can ask him to return it back to you. Bitcoin is not like paypal where you can cancel your transaction.

Yes that's right , you are very reckless if you send your coins to the wrong address because most of the people are really checking their address well before they confirm and we are talking about the big money here so you should always check your details if it is correct.

There is a big money involved in transacting bitcoins. So being careless and reckless I guess would be the last thing to do. Better to double or triple check everything before confirming any transactions.

If the transaction does not find the destination within a certain time, then the cashback. That's what I know but I think you should think about risk you may not get cashback if the address you send has a user.