Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: toast on July 02, 2011, 12:54:26 AM



Title: Quick question about addresses
Post by: toast on July 02, 2011, 12:54:26 AM
When you're sending coins from your client, is the "from" address on the recipient's end obtained in the same way the address is obtained when you click the "new address" button on the client? In other words, if I am 100% sure that someone who sent me BTC did so from their bitcoin client, can I send their BTC back to them using the "from" address in my transactions list? I know as a merchant you're supposed to ask for a return address, but I think that's only because many people use e-wallets which could mess things up.


Title: Re: Quick question about addresses
Post by: MoonShadow on July 02, 2011, 01:01:14 AM
More or less, yes.  If you are absolutely certain that the funds sent to you came from a single user's client, and did not come from any shared wallet service (online or otherwise) you can safely assume that the 'from' address field is one of your sender's addresses.  It's not entirely safe to do this, however.


Title: Re: Quick question about addresses
Post by: casascius on July 02, 2011, 01:03:50 AM
I don't think the transaction list even shows a from address. It shows which address of YOURS the payment went to. When you receive BTC it could have come from many addresses at once.


Title: Re: Quick question about addresses
Post by: MoonShadow on July 02, 2011, 01:08:19 AM
I don't think the transaction list even shows a from address.

The inputs in a transaction reference other transactions, and by looking up those other transactions, the address is revealed.  I'm not positive that this is what the 'from' field in the client actually is referring to, however.