Can I have more change addresses?

[nachoig]

By default, Electrum generates only 3 change addresses. Is there a way to configure it to have more change addresses? 3 is very little...

[btchris]

By default, Electrum generates only 3 change addresses. Is there a way to configure it to have more change addresses? 3 is very little...

I suggest that you use the most recent version of Electrum (2.x).... That would give you about 2 billion change addresses. Hopefully that would be sufficient

[nachoig]

By default, Electrum generates only 3 change addresses. Is there a way to configure it to have more change addresses? 3 is very little...

I suggest that you use the most recent version of Electrum (2.x).... That would give you about 2 billion change addresses. Hopefully that would be sufficient

I'm using the 2.0 version, but only 3 change addresses appears on the list (the same beavior as of 1.9).

[jackbox]

By default, Electrum generates only 3 change addresses. Is there a way to configure it to have more change addresses? 3 is very little...

I suggest that you use the most recent version of Electrum (2.x).... That would give you about 2 billion change addresses. Hopefully that would be sufficient

I'm using the 2.0 version, but only 3 change addresses appears on the list (the same beavior as of 1.9).

It generates a new one every time one is used. You have infinite change addresses. If you want to see more in the list there is a console command to change but then if you recover from seed you must know what you changed it to or it might find all your bitcoin during a recovery. Better to keep the default settings. If you click the arrow next to "used" under "change" you will see any that were used and no longer have a balance.

[btchris]

I suggest that you use the most recent version of Electrum (2.x).... That would give you about 2 billion change addresses. Hopefully that would be sufficient

I'm using the 2.0 version, but only 3 change addresses appears on the list (the same beavior as of 1.9).

It generates a new one every time one is used. You have infinite change addresses. If you want to see more in the list there is a console command to change but then if you recover from seed you must know what you changed it to or it might find all your bitcoin during a recovery. Better to keep the default settings. If you click the arrow next to "used" under "change" you will see any that were used and no longer have a balance.

Sorry for my initial flippant response.

jackbox is correct (except that there are "only" 2 billion change addresses). After a change address receives its first transaction, a new change address is created, and the original change address is not used again. There's currently little reason to increase this gap limit from its default of 3, it won't effect the way Electrum works with change addresses. (Old change addresses are moved to the Used section once they no longer have a balance.)

Note that Electrum will occasionally reuse change addresses. A change address is only considered "used" once it has at least one transaction with two confirmations. If you create two transactions without waiting for two confirmations in between, and if both transactions need to use a change address, then the same change address will be used for both. There's no simple way (without mucking with the console for every transaction) to avoid this in Electrum aside from waiting for two confirmations in between transactions.

[nachoig]

I suggest that you use the most recent version of Electrum (2.x).... That would give you about 2 billion change addresses. Hopefully that would be sufficient

I'm using the 2.0 version, but only 3 change addresses appears on the list (the same beavior as of 1.9).

It generates a new one every time one is used. You have infinite change addresses. If you want to see more in the list there is a console command to change but then if you recover from seed you must know what you changed it to or it might find all your bitcoin during a recovery. Better to keep the default settings. If you click the arrow next to "used" under "change" you will see any that were used and no longer have a balance.

Sorry for my initial flippant response.

jackbox is correct (except that there are "only" 2 billion change addresses). After a change address receives its first transaction, a new change address is created, and the original change address is not used again. There's currently little reason to increase this gap limit from its default of 3, it won't effect the way Electrum works with change addresses. (Old change addresses are moved to the Used section once they no longer have a balance.)

Note that Electrum will occasionally reuse change addresses. A change address is only considered "used" once it has at least one transaction with two confirmations. If you create two transactions without waiting for two confirmations in between, and if both transactions need to use a change address, then the same change address will be used for both. There's no simple way (without mucking with the console for every transaction) to avoid this in Electrum aside from waiting for two confirmations in between transactions.

Thanks. But a question still remains unclear: are these new change addresses (beyond the first three) covered by the original seed? Or in this case I'll need to do a new backup?

[btchris]

Thanks. But a question still remains unclear: are these new change addresses (beyond the first three) covered by the original seed? Or in this case I'll need to do a new backup?

All of the change addresses (and normal addresses) are covered by the original seed.

[jackbox]

Thanks. But a question still remains unclear: are these new change addresses (beyond the first three) covered by the original seed? Or in this case I'll need to do a new backup?

All of the change addresses (and normal addresses) are covered by the original seed.

That's the beauty of an HD wallet. Just having your seed can recover all you bitcoins in any address ever used. Don't even need a wallet backup if you have the seed written down accurately somewhere and it is not lost or destroyed.

[nachoig]

Thanks. But a question still remains unclear: are these new change addresses (beyond the first three) covered by the original seed? Or in this case I'll need to do a new backup?

All of the change addresses (and normal addresses) are covered by the original seed.

Thanks. I was spending some of my coins today and noticed there are now 6 change addresses instead of 3.

BTW, is there a way to force Electrum to use more than 1 change address in each transaction? It could split the coins between multiple change addresses, which could turn more difficult for who is receiving the coins from me figuring how many bitcoins I have (or still can figure, but they won't see the entire balance so easy).

[jackbox]

Thanks. But a question still remains unclear: are these new change addresses (beyond the first three) covered by the original seed? Or in this case I'll need to do a new backup?

All of the change addresses (and normal addresses) are covered by the original seed.

Thanks. I was spending some of my coins today and noticed there are now 6 change addresses instead of 3.

BTW, is there a way to force Electrum to use more than 1 change address in each transaction? It could split the coins between multiple change addresses, which could turn more difficult for who is receiving the coins from me figuring how many bitcoins I have (or still can figure, but they won't see the entire balance so easy).

You would just manually send some btc to one of the change address or any of your addresses as part of the transaction. If you are able to send to more than one address at a time.

[nachoig]

You would just manually send some btc to one of the change address or any of your addresses as part of the transaction. If you are able to send to more than one address at a time.

Yeah, this is a possibility, but I would like to do this in a more automated way. Maybe opening a bug report can be helpful.

I'm not moving a lot of coins and these are not for saving purposes (just something around 0.25 BTC), but allowing to the receiver of the coins to see all your coins you have in your wallet because Electrum concetrates all your coins in only one change address sounds bad for privacy, because all your coins are moved in the same transaction.

Edit: I discovered it's possible to freeze the coins at an specific address. Maybe this can be useful.