Bitcoin Forum

Hello, is it possible to see when was bitcoin address or wallet created?
Thank you

Since creating an address basically means to randomly pic a number from an unimaginably high range, since a wallet can be created whether you're online or offline, since a wallet can be recovered at any time if you have the private key or seed... if I understand correctly your question, the answer is no.

Bitcoin address doesn't have timestamps, with an extended public keys, you can pregenerate billions of wallet address without anyone noticing. The only way you can detect address existence is when it receives a UTXO for the first time.

All possible Bitcoin addresses, and therefore wallets, have always existed.

It's not like when you open an account at a bank for example. A Bitcoin address is based on math, not a centralized database used by someone to generate a new row when an account is created.

You can only know when a transaction occurred in a particular address, but the address has and will always be there.

The only thing that changes is who has access to the private key of an address. That event could be somehow tracked in certain scenarios, but not in a general way.

There is generally no record of when an address is created. A wallet could record that info, but I can't think of a reason why it would.

As for the wallet, you can probably find out from the OS when the software was downloaded or the wallet's data file was created.

(emphasis mine)

And sending a transaction. Although this practically can never happen because an empty address has nothing it can send. Don't forget posting Bitcoin signed & raw transactions on the internet, or a signed message, or anything that involves posting a BTC address anywhere, and possibly opening an LN channel (I believe your address or pubkey is shared with the other end during the initial exchange, CMIIW).

Exactly.

This was my first thought when I read the question. The address always existed.
And anyone can prove it just by searching in any block explorer an address created offline. Your address was already there, because it is valid.

You cannot just enter anything because there is a checksum (details here (https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Bitcoin_address)). So if you enter an address 1111111111111111111111111 the checksum is invalid and that address simply cannot exist.



IMO, you should check the first time the address received any coins. This is the first registry of that address in the blockchain.

But you can find some older off-chain registries. Such as when you send your address to an exchange to make an withdrawal.

Otherwise it would require some kind of "ownership lock", for example: if you get a private key which creates a given address, you may mark it as "taken". But that idea does not have much sense, for example in the case of HD wallets you would have to mark thousands of addresses as 'yours'.
In other words - you do not know if someone has already an access to the address as long as there is no OUT transaction (or IN, as usually no-one requests or makes transaction to uncorrelated address).

...and when you'll want to recover an address from its private key, you won't be able because it's already taken; the blockchain won't know it was you.
Such a setup can work only in a system where it will be needed to identify you as owner.

It does not need to be so strict, it even does not need to be able to identify the owner. Just a mark that there is someone who is able to sign a message for that address.
But I do not see now any practical use for that.

If that system would be implemented, it would work more like "invoice", for example it would be impossible to send coins to address which is "not taken". So no more "burn" addresses.

You can send coins to an address that belongs to no one. For example one of the bitcoin eaters: 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

You can see the history of the address here: https://mempool.space/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

But no one has access to that private key.

I tried and check if it is true that an address will be valid in a wallet created offline and it is. This catch my interest, if Bitcoin addresses are already existing, is there a possibility of two people creating the same Bitcoin address?  We know once offline, there is no means of communication between computers and the Bitcoin network database.  I am wondering if such a thing is possible.


Isn't the created address already registered on the Blockchain even without receiving any coins?  I think it should be the first transaction registry of that address.  Sorry if my understanding is wrong, pls. correct me if I do.

Bitcoin wallets can either be created online or offline and only gets recorded on the blockchain once it has carried out at least a single transaction showing a timestamp of the UXTO and it's transaction history. This makes it impossible to trace when it was actually generated by a private key and it's corresponding public key. It is done in a format of a  mathematical computation as such there are no timestamp to show when an address got created and isn't recognized by the block until it receives it's first coin.

Why can I search and find a newly created address on the blockchain explorer without any transaction if you say that it only gets registered on the blockchain if it has carried out at least a single transaction?  So what is the difference between being seen on a blockchain explorer and being registered on the blockchain?  Anyone? Some discussion here made me confused can we have at least someone to clearly explain this?


How can a newly created address accept a transaction if it isn't recognized by the block?  If it isn't recognized by the block shouldn't the transaction be invalid or rejected?

As many have already answered you above, this can't be seen until no funds have been received at the bitcoin address. But as soon as at least a small amount comes to your address, then on the blockchain (for example, using something like blockexplorer.com) you can immediately see that the address is active. From this point on, it will be possible to see that this address is "created", which means that someone has access to this.

Is it possible? Yes. Will it ever happen? No. The number of possible addresses is simply too astronomically large for there ever to be a random collision.

Addresses are not registered on the blockchain - once an address receives coins for the first time, then it will be recorded in the blockchain. But every valid address already exists and can be sent coins at any time by any person, without any prior interaction with the blockchain.

Blockchain explorers will generally allow you to search for any valid address. If it can find no record of that address on the blockchain, then it just displays an empty address.

The blockchain has absolutely no way of knowing if someone has generated any specific address. All that happens is that nodes will check if the address is valid before accepting the transaction. Addresses can be invalid if they contain characters or symbols not in the character set, have an incorrect checksum, are too long or short, and so on. As long as the address is valid, then your transaction will be accepted.

For example:
The address 1serjentserjentserjentserjent (https://mempool.space/address/1serjentserjentserjentserjent) is invalid, and if you try to look it up you will return an error.
The address 1serjentserjentserjentserjenasRA4 (https://mempool.space/address/1serjentserjentserjentserjenasRA4) is valid, and if you try to look it up you will be shown an empty address. The blockchain has no way of knowing if anyone actually generated that address in their wallet or owns the associated private key.

Cool! Thank you for the enlightenment, I owe you one  :).

And one more thing, isn't it more acceptable to say that an address is labeled active than saying it will be registered on the blockchain once the first transaction is made?  After all, I just made some digging and read that address is categorized as either new, active, or dormant.  I can't find anything about the unregistered or registered addresses on the blockchain.

That's probably a better way of phrasing it, yes. As I mentioned above, there is no such thing as "registering" an address.

Here's an analogy. Let's say I run a delivery business, and I keep a database of all the addresses I've delivered to in the past. Obviously I don't generate a database containing every possible address in the world and then tick the ones I've delivered to - that would be crazy. Instead, whenever I deliver to a new address, I create a new entry in my database. If someone asks if I've delivered to an address before, I can just open my database and do a quick search operation. If nothing shows up, then I know I've never delivered to that address. But my database tells me nothing about when that address was built or even if someone is living there.

In the same way, the blockchain does not keep a record of every possible address, it simply records which addresses are receiving deliveries (outputs). If you try to look up an address and find nothing, then it shows you an empty database entry.

Thanks for the clarity. Registered was misused in my opinion. Although when i used registered i meant append only but thanks for the correction. Recorded is more appropriate following your illustration. Is it still right to say this addresses with no transaction hash is invalid until it has at least one transaction 

No, that's not correct.

There are set rules governing what an address can look like. These rules are different for different address types. For example, legacy addresses must begin with 1, must use Base58Check encoding, must have a valid checksum, and so on. Native segwit addresses must begin with bc1q, must use Bech32 encoding, must have a valid checksum, and so on. If you break any of these rules, then this address is invalid. If you try to look up an invalid address on most block explorers they will return an error, and if you try to send funds to an invalid address then almost certainly your transaction will either be rejected by your wallet or rejected by the node you try to broadcast it to.

If, on the other hand, an address passes all these rules, then the address is valid, even if it has never received any coins. Such addresses are simply unused, rather than invalid.

If you look again at the two address examples I gave in my earlier post in this thread - the first one is invalid, while the second is valid but unused.