Electrum question: Why are receiving addresses in "Change"?

[DavidCWG]

I just started using BitCoin with the "Electrum" client. I used an address from the "Lite" UI to receive some coins, and all is well.

However in the "Classic" UI, the addresses I got from the Lite UI are now listed under "Change" section if I turn expert mode on, and not listed at all if I don't.

It was my understanding that Change addresses were used only as a consequence of me sending coins, which I haven't done yet.

Have I misunderstood things? Why doesn't the Lite UI show the "Receiving" addresses?

(This should go in the Electrum forum but I'm not allowed to post there yet.)

[DavidCWG]

OK well it's pretty crappy that I have to post a bunch of rubbish in here before I'm allowed into the useful forums, so I asked on IRC instead since this clearly won't get answered here.

Here's the answer, tl;dr: It's a bug.

Code:

[13:24:37] <Lion_>	 Is it normal that the some of the "receiving addresses" in the Lite UI are shown under "Change" in the Classic UI and not "Receiving"? I've been using addresses assigned as "Change" to receive coins, inadvertently.
[13:25:26] <ThomasV>	 Lion_: it's a bug, fixed in git
[13:25:51] <Lion_>	 Will the fix move the addresses or just change what is displayed in the Lite UI?
[13:26:02] <ThomasV>	 just the display
[13:26:20] <Lion_>	 Is there any consequence to having most of my coins stored in a "Change" address?
[13:26:35] <ThomasV>	 no
[13:26:58] <ThomasV>	 there's no difference
[13:27:02] <Lion_>	 OK thanks. Final question: Can I move an address out of "Change" and into "Receiving"?
[13:27:03] <ThomasV>	 it is just cosmetic
[13:27:10] <ThomasV>	 no you cannot

[DannyHamilton]

OK well it's pretty crappy that I have to post a bunch of rubbish in here before I'm allowed into the useful forums, so I asked on IRC instead since this clearly won't get answered here.

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That's just silly, of course your question will get answered here.  Perhaps just a little bit of patience is in order?  You posted your question to a public forum and then acted surprised when 28 minutes later you didn't have an answer yet?  You think every bitcoin expert has nothing to do but sit here and wait for you to come along so they can immediately answer your specific question while disregarding all the questions everyone else is asking?

Bah.  It's times like this I'm glad we have the Newbie Restrictions.

[DavidCWG]

You posted your question to a public forum and then acted surprised when 28 minutes later you didn't have an answer yet?

I got an answer in about 28 seconds on IRC. I wasn't complaining about the lack of the rapid response though, I was complaining that I have to faff around in unrelated subforums before I can post in the only one relevant to me.

[DannyHamilton]

You posted your question to a public forum and then acted surprised when 28 minutes later you didn't have an answer yet?

I got an answer in about 28 seconds on IRC. I wasn't complaining about the lack of the rapid response though, I was complaining that I have to faff around in unrelated subforums before I can post in the only one relevant to me.

The Newbie Forum is monitored by several knowledgeable and experienced members.  If they have the answer to a question, you'll get an answer right here in the Newbie Forum.  If they don't know the answer, they'll cross post to the appropriate forum for you and link back to your post so those who are active in that forum can quickly and easily respond to your questions.

If a Global Moderator or Administrator encounter a well structured and reasonably intelligent question, they'll frequently whitelist you immediately and move your question to the appropriate forum for you.

As such, there is absolutely no need to "post a bunch of rubbish in here".

[DavidCWG]

If a Global Moderator or Administrator encounter a well structured and reasonably intelligent question, they'll frequently whitelist you immediately and move your question to the appropriate forum for you.

As such, there is absolutely no need to "post a bunch of rubbish in here".

Perhaps this should be made more clear when you sign up then? There was no indication that this would be the case. And people seem to think that posting rubbish is necessary, because there sure is a lot of it.

[DannyHamilton]

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Perhaps this should be made more clear when you sign up then? There was no indication that this would be the case.

There was no indication that rubbish would be necessary either.  Somehow, most people make an assumption that they should post rubbish rather than making an assumption that they should make intelligent useful posts.  The rewarding of intelligent posts isn't really a rule or forum policy, it seems to be more something that some moderators just happen to do sometimes when they feel like it. Probably the assumption is that intelligent people will post intelligent things, so there is no need to tell them to do so.  Others are going to post rubbish regardless of what you "tell them to do".

Even so, if you read through the threads that are linked in the "NEWBIE README" pinned to the top of the Newbie Forum (seems like a good use of the 4 hours of Newbie Jail time), you'll find that in one of those linked threads a Moderator has posted:

If you have something new to post about it, write up the post and PM me with a link and I'll whitelist you/move the post if it looks good.  Otherwise go for the 5 posts/4 hours till you can post outside, or you could PM people if you have something specific to say to them.

Additionally the Administrator has posted the following in another thread linked in the "NEWBIE README":

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If you have really good posts, you can post a request for preemptive whitelisting in the appropriate topic.

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When you sign up, it does specifically state:

If you are registering to ask a question, please ask it in the newbies section. Do not wait to ask it just because you must post it in "newbies": the question is very likely to have already been asked. If you don't end up getting good responses, you can ask it again elsewhere after you are established, or you can move the entire topic.