Bitcoin Forum

Let me tell you of my near folly experience. I withdrew BTC from an account online, that means I clicked address book (like I'm used to doing (I just updated to the new horrible UI)) then I saw a list of addresses so assigned a label to one and copied it and used that for my receiving address. What I did was rename the label of an address I already sent to, then copied that address thinking it was a receiving address. When I withdrew my BTC it was sent to this mystery address.

Fortunately the address I sent BTC to was another online account which I could withdraw from to a proper receiving address.

Moral of this Story: The "Address Book" button should be used for personal information relating to send functions, not receive functions.

Suggestion: Remove the "Address Book" button from the UI and put that functionality within the "Send Coins" button. For example, once a user presses "send coins" a list of the users addresses would show below the essential input boxes. This prevents users from mistaking an address book for a list of their own addresses.

You thought you could just add your own receiving address and label it?

I did for a moment. Once you understand the design, you understand it - but for a new adopter, the UI of the vanilla client is confusing.

I thought I already had many receiving addresses in my address book, I just needed to assign a label to them (Something like that existed in the previous version).

Edit: I think that is where it's confusing, the address book only corresponds to sent addresses, not received addresses.

i think this makes sense.

I don't know about you, but my paper address book contains information on my contacts, not on myself. Just as it is in the new GUI.

Yes but that would assume that you want to mirror the Bitcoin client after a physical model, I'm just looking to arrange it in the most logical way.

Don't want to hijack a thread but this seems like the right place to put this. I've got 5 BTC stuck in my old deepbit account because I locked the send address then reinstalled windows- i had an empty wallet so i didn't even consider this. I was about to make a thread asking if there is any way to add an address to a wallet, if there is I'd be happy to send 2 BTC to whoever can help me. I doubt it's possible but perhaps worth asking at the least.

I can see the confusion that a user might have with the term "Address Book". A person's email address book, for example, only has recipients, it doesn't generally contain 100 of your own email addresses. I very specifically am mindful of whether I am looking at the sending or receiving tab; I may have "Theymos" in both my sending and receiving books.

Perhaps in the client, only sending addresses (your contacts, people you send bitcoins to) should be in the main GUI "address book" link; another button in the main toolbar that brings up just receiving addresses would further differentiate them. We just need a better name for such a "My Addresses" button that has a real-world analogy.

Another oddity that lends to confusion is the constanly changing "Your Bitcoin Address" in the main UI. It is incorrect, for one - that is only one of many address you may have, and is likely not one you have used before. If I want to use my previous addresses I will, and I ignore the new one until I have a need. It may be better to remove "Your Bitcoin Address" in the main UI. Instead, in the "My Addresses" area (where you can see all your receiving addresses), have a "create new address" feature that also prompts for a label. This would encourage labels for all addresses, and identification of who sent you coins would be easier by design. When a fresh client is installed, it could pre-label the first address it creates "My First Bitcoin Address".

Instead of Bitcoin auto-creating new addresses when it sees fit, when the new address creation parameters are met, it could prompt you "Reusing Bitcoin addresses reduces anonymity - create a new one now?". An option "Disable New Address Prompts" in settings could disable these prompts.