Bitcoin Forum

I sent 0.002 BTC from 1A3PFXUiSot76DeEALAk8sfFv3nDc5vEsz

 to my other wallet on block chain
this is record from Bitcoin Qt

Date: 5/10/13 07:37
To: 18EQeBRMKYYzyDVMMgiDv9khrxqoQBSGri
Debit: -0.002 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.0005 BTC
Net amount: -0.0025 BTC
Transaction ID: b58602dd1e71e1756f4e3a0813e4a2b1162e3cb2321cf365af0a57411b432add


that went weird



this is record from blockchain.info

b58602dd1e71e1756f4e3a0813e4a2b1162e3cb2321cf365af0a57411b432add
1A3PFXUiSot76DeEALAk8sfFv3nDc5vEsz   ----->
   
                   1GFgabCcT3TkFE75Fg2nm7wVwp6bRd481U 0.9775 BTC
                   18EQeBRMKYYzyDVMMgiDv9khrxqoQBSGri 0.002 BTC


notice the extra 0.9775 BTC sent to  1GFgabCcT3TkFE75Fg2nm7wVwp6bRd481U

I didnt authorize this so how did that happen?

That's the change.
It's like paying $50 with a $100 banknote and getting back a $50 banknote.
The way the system works transaction are like a banknote-unit.
If you receive 2 transactions of 500mBitcoin, you have 2 "banknotes".
If you send 100mBitcoin to somewhere, you will send 500 and get 400 back.

The Bitcoin-qt clients creates a new (invisible) adress for the change. (Yes, it's a bit stupid, that the adress is invisible)

It went to the change address. All the bitcoins in an address are moved when a transaction is done, the unspent bitcoins just are sent back to the same address or, in case of the bitcoin-qt client, to a new address, for anonimity and security reasons  ;)

Okay.  Now let's say I was sending my BTC to the new wallet because my client won't sync. 

So this new account with my "change" is not showing up in the client

How can I get at this account with an unsyncing client?

Suggestions?

Since the "change" addresses are part of the "bad" wallet, you could send the complete amount that you have on that wallet to the "good" one. Then the change from this transaction will be sent along with all other bitcoin residues that are in the wallet.
However, I think you should be able to export the data from the old wallet and import it into the new wallet so that the balance is accessible to the new one, then you don't have to pay a fee.

Onkel Paul

Okay

I figured it out.  Success!!!!!!

Thanks for the help you guys.  I frickin' love you guys.

Much smarter than the folks on the Ripple Forum.

Even though the "change" address wasnt visibly listed in the client I was able to get the private key from the console.

I'm back to loving bitcoin.


KUDOS.

The change addresses aren't shown on bitcoin-qt, that is normal.

The bold part is not entirely accurate.  All the bitcoins from a previous transaction are moved when a new transaction is done, but if an address received bitcoins from multiple transactions, you may find that only some of those previous transactions are spent, while bitcoins from other previous transactions to that address remain at that address.

Example:
An address receives 3 transactions, one for 2 BTC, one for 5 BTC, and one for 9 BTC.
This is the only address in this wallet, and it has never received any other transactions.

Then a transaction is created with this wallet to send 6 BTC to a new address.  The wallet could choose to spend the 2 BTC transaction output and the 5 BTC transaction output for a total of 7 BTC, sending 6 of those BTC to the recipient and 1 BTC back into the wallet at a new hidden "change" address.  Meanwhile the 9 BTC output wild remain associated with the original bitcoin address where it was received.

You are welcome :3

If you are using the console, you can run:


To get a list of all unspent outputs in the wallet and the transactionID they originate from.

Although I haven't tried it yet, I also think:


will list every address in the wallet that has ever received any bitcoins (although some o them might now be empty if those outputs have been spent after they were recieved).

BTW - to use the "console" from within bitcoin-qt you use Help -> Debug window menu then select the Console tab (not so obvious as this is for "advanced" usage).

Fortunately, the OP was already aware of this: