Bitcoin Forum

I know we can see all the BTC transactions of any wallet in blockchain. But can we see a full balance of a wallet/public address ?

Is it possible? if so how?

I don't think it's possible, otherwise you'd be able to tie all the addresses together.

The words "wallet" and "public address" are not synonymous, but you seem to think they are?

Because a wallet can contain many public addresses, all with their own unique set of outputs (Bitcoins) it's not possible to use the blockchain to "link" them together.

So, you answered your own question. Anyone can check the balance of a public address, but nobody can match up a series of public addresses to one wallet.

It is possible to guess the balance of whole wallets, but that is mostly social engineering and guesswork. You may have heard of "painting" or "666'ing" a series of public addresses, somewhat like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in a usually vain attempt to track the coins to their owner. If the person does not want you to know he holds the coins, and he knows what he's doing, you'll never be able to tell his total bitcoin net worth from the blockchain alone.

You can always see the balance of any address.
Just go to blockchain.info or blockexplorer.com or blockr.io and enter the address.

Ok now i am really confused. Cause the first person said it is not possible and then you guys said it is possible.
I understand the mentality behind the wallets and public addresses. So let me clarify my question.

Can you see the full balance of a public address? if so how?
I have 2 public addresses in my wallet and the total of the "Final balances" shown in blockchain upon a search for a publich address doesnt match to the total I have in my wallet.

You can but in the end the balance your openent receive will be - fees 0.0001 or more .

How? Why?
Is there like a fee just to see a balance of a wallet or a public address?

https://blockchain.info/de/address/1dice8EMZmqKvrGE4Qc9bUFf9PX3xaYDp

This adress has approx. 0.21514636 BTC, but that does not mean the person behind it only owns that amount. They could have different adresses.

Only if you use at least 2 adresses for a payment they are linkable.

E.g. these 5 belong to the same person.
https://blockchain.info/de/tx/e480f6a4307753be69c7b2caacf0c545a6489d640bdc425f25f9d51ce3e949e6


Edit:


Xinzark probably though you want to spend all of your BTC.

http://blockr.io/trivia/address

In this case, yes.

But, with CoinJoin (and sharedcoin, coinmux, etc.), inputs from different people can be joined to create a transaction.

If you are using the Bitcoinqt client it is possible you've been hit with the transaction malleability bug. There's a good bit of info going around the forum on the subject. Most importantly, whatever blockchain.org tells you the balance is for the sum of public addresses in your wallet is correct.

The Bitcoinqt client is showing multiples of the same transaction in some cases, this can make your balance look both high and low.

If you see any difference in address confirmed balance in qt and bc.i, just run your qt wallet with -rescan...

yes
you can use blockr.io or blockchain.info
just type the adress you're looking for ;)

And nobody has thought to mention Change (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change) yet?

That is the #1 most common reason someone complains that blockchain.info doesn't match their Bitcoin-Qt wallet.

Blockchain.info will tell you the total bitcoins that are currently associated with a particular Bitcoin Address.

It will NOT tell you the total bitcoins that are controlled by your Bitcoin-Qt Wallet.

Your wallet can have many addresses, some that you don't even know about (especially if you are using Bitcoin-Qt).  Blockchain.info doesn't know about these other addresses.