Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

this morning I've sent 1BTC from my wallet and the wallet balance inside Bitcoin client was correctly updated, i.e. "initial BTC amount - 1BTC",
but when I've checked online the balance for my wallet, I had a surprise:
http://blockchain.info/address/18sS8Dbx16HbJ8vQPzV4jwnmeu1z6zbHmF

This is the transaction:
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/533710b97e466eb715e4d3d94a95fe6806ac95001457b1255d906a9b7eac26db#i11495640

It seems from my wallet was took 2BTC instead of 1BTC, and 1BTC was sent to an unknown address.
So, this moment, my Bitcoin client shows the balance as being X-1BTC, and blockchain.info shows as being X-2BTC.

Does anyone has any explanation for this?

Thanks.

Bitcoin can't spend part of an output.  If you have a 2BTC output you MUST spend 2 BTC.  The second 1BTC is a "change address".  A new address from your wallet.  Your client spent 2BTC.  1BTC was sent to the destination and 1 BTC was sent back to you.

All Bitcoin transactions work this way.

OK, let's summarize:

Initiallly my wallet had 60BTC, this amount was reported both by Bitcoin client and blockchain.info.
With Bitcoin client I've sent 1BTC, and not 2.

Now, the Bitcoin client report that my wallet have 59BTC,
but blockchain.info states I have 58BTC.

Which is the real amount of BTC I have on my wallet, 58 or 59?

Another question: supposing I have in my wallet 10BTC, and I want to send all these 10BTC to another address.
Will Bitcoin client succeed to perform this operation, since it needs 2*10BTC, but I have only 10?

I'm using Bitcoin client version 0.6.2-beta.
Note: after a while, I've sent another 0.5BTC, and this amount was substracted from my wallet and arrived on the destination,
so everything fine, except that blockchain.info doesn't show this transaction, neither updated the No. Transaction or Final Balance.

59BTC

You have 2 Bitcoin addresses in your wallet.

You have 58BTC in this address:
http://blockchain.info/address/18sS8Dbx16HbJ8vQPzV4jwnmeu1z6zbHmF

and 1BTC in this one:
http://blockchain.info/address/1HYjmxq8V3Dr1PfnGMWFSt3wkPe62jsGn4


Yes. If you have 10BTC, you can send 10BTC to someone. You don't need any more (apart from perhaps a transaction fee of ~0.0005BTC)


Here is that transaction, it came out of the address with 1BTC in it:
http://blockchain.info/tx-index/13196364/cea8bdb1003f05fb285bb37c51e1a7abc20f0d2b213dae950f2ae1a9d913eb80

You can't use block explorers to determine a wallet's balance, only an address balance. To quote blockexplorer.com

@Blazr:
My wallet has the address 18sS8Dbx16HbJ8vQPzV4jwnmeu1z6zbHmF = (A), and it has initially 60BTC.
The problem is when I've sent 1BTC from 18sS8Dbx16HbJ8vQPzV4jwnmeu1z6zbHmF, and the wallet balance become 59BTC,
according with http://blockchain.info, from my wallet left 2BTC, and not 1BTC, to the following addresses:
1Ps3vZQxPt6cEdgQNMFqqZAaoUN1bEB7hQ = (B)
1HYjmxq8V3Dr1PfnGMWFSt3wkPe62jsGn4   = (C)

The address (C) is the address where I intended to send 1BTC, the address (B) I don't know why it was generated and 1BTC was sent to (B).

If you say that my wallet has 2 addresses( A and B ), it's OK, because this means my wallet has 58+1BTC,
but this behavior it's not so natural for me, moreover my version of Bitcoin client(v.0.6.2 beta) does not show as I would have 2 addresses.

PS: the transaction info which sent 1BTC:

Status: 92 confirmations
Date: 7/23/2012 06:10
To: 1HYjmxq8V3Dr1PfnGMWFSt3wkPe62jsGn4
Debit: -1.00 BTC
Net amount: -1.00 BTC
Transaction ID: 533710b97e466eb715e4d3d94a95fe6806ac95001457b1255d906a9b7eac26db

So, for this transaction,the Bitcoin client states I've sent 1BTC to address C,
and for the same transaction, the http://blockchain.info states I've sent 2BTC, one into B and one into C:

Transactions (Newest First)
533710b97e466eb715e4d3d94a95fe6806ac95001457b1255d906a9b7eac26db2012-07-23 03:11:07
18sS8Dbx16HbJ8vQPzV4jwnmeu1z6zbHmF -->              1Ps3vZQxPt6cEdgQNMFqqZAaoUN1bEB7hQ 1 BTC
                                                                                1HYjmxq8V3Dr1PfnGMWFSt3wkPe62jsGn4   1 BTC
                                                                                                                 89 Confirmations  -2 BTC

These 2 different info I saw for the same transaction confused me.

Thanks.

Bitcoin works in a slightly different matter than you would think.

Someone paid you 2BTC. You want to send 1BTC to someone out of this 2BTC. What the Bitcoin client does it take that 2BTC, and sends 1BTC of it to the recipient and the rest (1BTC) back to you in an internal address called a change address (B).

Blazr your a hottie ;)

Don't be creepy, that's not Blazr. It's boxxy.

Judging by this post and your username I'd say you better not do more drugs lol

Blazr is right.

Although is there a way to check whether a particular address belongs to my node?
I tried RPC command 'getaccount' but it doesn't seem to work (returned blank for both my address and another node's address).

Oh I see. The RPC command 'validateaddress' shows if the address is mine.

The truth.

I had the same thing happen to me when I first started. But it didn't take too long to figure out!