Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I sometimes see addresses with negative balance..  like -0.05 BTC
I don't understand how it possible.
Where can I read about this features?

Thanks.

it's a bug of  double-spend when making transaction.

It's not possible and you don't see it. What you see, is a website with bugs. I assume you're talking about blockchain.info, I haven't seen this on any other block explorer.

I wouldn't bother about it, it's not a feature.

It's important to note this is not a Bitcoin bug.

What you're probably looking at is just information that the wallet or explorer (at least blockchain.info and localbitcoins do this) displays since the "balance" field is a simple calculation of "total received" - "total spent". Usually because of double spends that above users mention... meaning to say it still includes/considers an unconfirmed transaction attempting to spend an input already used up in a confirmed transaction. That double spend can never confirm, and its input(s) are reflected in the negative amount.

Once that double spend tx is dropped (since it can never be confirmed and thus is invalid), the balance will eventually show the correct amount.

The negative balance is just accounting for the double spend and waiting for one of the transactions to confirm or for both to drop off.

Someone who sent a transaction of that amount and double spend it somehow, the one who tried to take the coins will never have them because the transaction is still not confirmed yet, and maybe will never be confirmed.

It's just a double expense.

It's called Bitcoin Credit. It allows you to spend an amount you don't have up to (the number of years that address has been in existence  X upper most amount of BTC it once had) up to a maximum of 1 BTC total .
Examples:
 I once had 0.25 BTC in an address that has existed for 1/2 year. I'd be able to spend from that same address on Bitcoin Credit of 0.125 BTC
 I once had 2.45 BTC in an address tha has existed for 3 days. I'd be able to spend from that same address on Bitcoin Credit 0.02013 BTC
 I once had 1.24 BTC in an address that has existed for 3.4 years. I'd be able to spend from that same address on Bitcoin Credit 1 BTC

You have 1 year to pay it back + a fixed 20%, or the bitcoin Men In Black, or Putin, will come for you.  ;D The 20%, goes to the core developers to spend on upcoming features. Or beer.  ;D

I'm kidding, of course.
It's just a double spend or an attempt at a double spend. Most times this is not someone trying to spend coins twice in a malicious way. Most times, but not always there are many reasons it could be..but most times it is someone who submitted a transaction with too low of fee and re-submitted it with a higher fee. Until his 1st low fee trans is dropped, it would show a negative balance. One one would ever confirm. But it takes 3-7 days or more depending on the software that is submitted it, to be dropped.

yeah i'm wrong to call it's a bug because i have no idea to call what it's but i see negative balance several times on Coinbase or Blockchain.info and i think that it happen when making double-spend transaction.
I try to find more and here sthing i got https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/1392064-why-do-i-have-a-negative-balance-

Coinbase can go negative, but Coinbase is not Bitcoin. It's a private website, just like any bank can give you a negative balance.
Negative Bitcoin would be like having negative cash in your IRL wallet. It's not possible.

I don't think this is possible as i have never seen a wallet with a negative balance . It is just a bug present in the website ho show that kind of information. It is not a bug that is present in any type of wallet or in bitcoin but in the website showing it. And there are no features here about this topic. This can be seen only due to double spend transaction .

That means you've sent the funds to another address. You probably don't own that address so unless you can remember where it is. Someone probably stole it because you put it on the cloud and the cloud can get hacked...
Can we get a screenshot of this?

Are you sure it was BTC and not and altcoin like LTC or DOGE or something like that? Loading altcoin wallets into Bitcoin Core can do strange things (like not showing addresses properly).

I'd check the TransactionID of the transactions you see on various (ie. BTC, LTC, DOGE etc) block explorers to find out which blockchain they belong to. Then load the wallet.dat into the appropriate wallet synced to the appropriate blockchain.

I found similar thread at 2014..
Please see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=749108.0

I agree that is double spend transaction.

If it's on bitcoin core then no one can enforce anything as it's not actually negative. It just looks like it is from that part.

If it's on an exchange then it's unlikely but possible they might try something to resolve it.

Was the bug not resolved as the double spend was though?

Resolved. Electrum use double spend for increase fees.
blockchain.info showed old transactions.. After confirmation new TX with higer fees, balance is ok.

Ahh. So it's just buggy blockchain.info again. Presumably due to both txs being in the mempool at the same time?

It is programmed to only use the transactions in the mempool and the mempool should only have the transaction with the highest fee and kick the other one from it (that somehow didn't happen with blockchain.info here).

Hmm i think its just a bug on the wallet, i also ever facing the same issue in other cryptocurency which is DeepOnion, my DeepOnion wallet showing negative value after i do sending all of my balance but my wallet and the value inside on my wallet doesn't effect anything, it was no problem.
I think other wallet which is clone the bitcoin wallet project also have this bugs

If you check that same address on a different block explorer, you will find that the address will have a 0 or positive balance. The node probably glitched out and factored in a double spent transaction, making the balance negative. In actuality however, the balance is still >=0.

Yes, blockchain.info sometimes does that as well.
What happens is there is one transaction spending let's say the existing 0.05 bitcoins. That transaction is written to the blockchain, but is not comfirmed yet. Then the wallet owner makes another transaction, spending 0.05 bitcoins to another address. The second transaction confirms and the bitcoins are spent. However, blockchain sees both transactions, the confirmed one and the unconfirmed one, listing the balance of  - 0.05 bitcoins.
Just a glitch in the system, there is actually no negative balance.