Question about Electrum

[marilyngroom]

I see that I can send and receive, and I also see that I have like 20 or more receiving addresses. And I guess different sending address also. I don't know, I'm not sure.

My questions is, what if I need for the receiver to know my BTC address. Like in an ICO. Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds.

[1714817265]

1714817265

[1714817265]

1714817265

[steven0021]

I see that I can send and receive, and I also see that I have like 20 or more receiving addresses. And I guess different sending address also. I don't know, I'm not sure.

The sending address is whatever address that have a balance. You can choose a specific address to send from by right-clicking them and choosing send from.

My questions is, what if I need for the receiver to know my BTC address. Like in an ICO. Does Electrum my address, or moves the coins into different addresses?

Mind clarifying the bolded part? That doesn't make sense.
If you only need the receiver to know the address you used to send btc, just see the outgoing transaction in an explorer.

[marilyngroom]

I see that I can send and receive, and I also see that I have like 20 or more receiving addresses. And I guess different sending address also. I don't know, I'm not sure.

The sending address is whatever address that have a balance. You can choose a specific address to send from by right-clicking them and choosing send from.

My questions is, what if I need for the receiver to know my BTC address. Like in an ICO. Does Electrum my address, or moves the coins into different addresses?

Mind clarifying the bolded part? That doesn't make sense.
If you only need the receiver to know the address you used to send btc, just see the outgoing transaction in an explorer.

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. I wrote: "Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds."

[achow101]

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. I wrote: "Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds."

No. There is no way to do that in Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn't actually go to your wallet, they stay in the address (well technically more complicated, but just a high level abstraction). There is no way for the network to know what addresses in your wallet. Thus when you send, Electrum chooses addresses that have funds and sends from them.

[marilyngroom]

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. I wrote: "Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds."

No. There is no way to do that in Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn't actually go to your wallet, they stay in the address (well technically more complicated, but just a high level abstraction). There is no way for the network to know what addresses in your wallet. Thus when you send, Electrum chooses addresses that have funds and sends from them.

What I read about Electrum is that it's like getting change back. Like giving a cashier $20 to send $14, and then the cashier gives you $6 back as your change. I'm just a little bit confused at the moment. Do you know of another wallet that I can use that has only one sending and receiving address?

[achow101]

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. I wrote: "Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds."

No. There is no way to do that in Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn't actually go to your wallet, they stay in the address (well technically more complicated, but just a high level abstraction). There is no way for the network to know what addresses in your wallet. Thus when you send, Electrum chooses addresses that have funds and sends from them.

What I read about Electrum is that it's like getting change back. Like giving a cashier $20 to send $14, and then the cashier gives you $6 back as your change. I'm just a little bit confused at the moment. Do you know of another wallet that I can use that has only one sending and receiving address?

No. No good wallet will reuse the same address. It is bad for privacy and can be bad for security.


Bitcoin doesn't actually have addresses. All it has are transaction outputs. Outputs consist of a script. The outputs become inputs in another transaction, and that input has another script which is combined with the output. If that combined script validates to true, then the value associated with the referenced output is used in that transaction. This is why you get change, because it isn't a balance of an address but rather the value of a output being used as an input.

The address is really just a human readable representation of a specific type of output script.

[marilyngroom]

Oops, sorry. I fixed it. I wrote: "Does Electrum show my address, or does is shuffle it around to hide the address that had the funds."

No. There is no way to do that in Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn't actually go to your wallet, they stay in the address (well technically more complicated, but just a high level abstraction). There is no way for the network to know what addresses in your wallet. Thus when you send, Electrum chooses addresses that have funds and sends from them.

What I read about Electrum is that it's like getting change back. Like giving a cashier $20 to send $14, and then the cashier gives you $6 back as your change. I'm just a little bit confused at the moment. Do you know of another wallet that I can use that has only one sending and receiving address?

No. No good wallet will reuse the same address. It is bad for privacy and can be bad for security.


Bitcoin doesn't actually have addresses. All it has are transaction outputs. Outputs consist of a script. The outputs become inputs in another transaction, and that input has another script which is combined with the output. If that combined script validates to true, then the value associated with the referenced output is used in that transaction. This is why you get change, because it isn't a balance of an address but rather the value of a output being used as an input.

The address is really just a human readable representation of a specific type of output script.

Ok, I think I understand that now. Thank you.

[pooya87]

i don't know about new version (2.7) since i have not tried it yet and don't know what is changed but up until this version there is a tab called "Addresses" that you can see all your bitcoin addresses and balances they have and if you want to receive from one address just right click and copy.

and if you want to only spend from one of your addresses just select the address(es) and right click and select "Send from" and Electrum will spend those UTXOs for spending.

this is particularly good for separating your finds from each other.

[marilyngroom]

i don't know about new version (2.7) since i have not tried it yet and don't know what is changed but up until this version there is a tab called "Addresses" that you can see all your bitcoin addresses and balances they have and if you want to receive from one address just right click and copy.

and if you want to only spend from one of your addresses just select the address(es) and right click and select "Send from" and Electrum will spend those UTXOs for spending.

this is particularly good for separating your finds from each other.

This is a good response. Thanks. I will try that.

[pooya87]

i don't know about new version (2.7) since i have not tried it yet and don't know what is changed but up until this version there is a tab called "Addresses" that you can see all your bitcoin addresses and balances they have and if you want to receive from one address just right click and copy.

and if you want to only spend from one of your addresses just select the address(es) and right click and select "Send from" and Electrum will spend those UTXOs for spending.

this is particularly good for separating your finds from each other.

This is a good response. Thanks. I will try that.

no problem.
i have also checked the new version (2.7.2) and nothing related to what i said has changed. the only thing to know is that they have hide the "Addresses" tab by default and you have to either check it from menu to see or press "Ctrl+a" to see the tab.