Electrum Receiving Address Quick Question

[viking02]

I'm going to do a transfer with shapeshift with my bitcoin for another coin.  It ask for my bitcoin receive address.


Whenever i receive bitcoin from a site, i always give 1 bitcoin address that i use.  It basically has over 50 transactions etc and i haven't had any issue receiving btc to this address in my electrum.


Just to make sure, i could use this bitcoin address right as the bitcoin receive address?


I ask this because on electrum, i notice when i clicked on the receive tab, theres another address there.


Do i need to use that one?  Or i could use the one i always used?

[viking02]

I like to mention also that the address shown in the receiving address in the Receive tab... i do not see this address on my addresses tab at all.


I have about 20 bitcoin addresses that are under the Change... Used like this


Change

Used

btc address
btc address 2
btc address 3



The bitcoin address in my receive tab is not there.  The first bitcoin address under the Used is there of course and has over 50 transactions etc.


So which is the bitcoin address i need to put in the bitcoin refund address tab?


Also since when you put the amount of btc you want for litecoin for example, they give you a specific bitcoin address to send to.  So wouldn't that mean when they receive it, they know which litecoin address to send to?  Thus they put the bitcoin refund address only if there is an issue?


Also does anyone know how long it takes for shapeshift to do a transfer?  Im going to do a test deposit with a few coins first... then do bigger amounts.


Thanks.

[viking02]

Hey guys have another question.


So i tried to do a test deposit like 0.005 btc for some litecoin on shapeshift.


When i tried to send from electrum, i get a message saying the fee is unusually high.  Its like 3.80 for this fee to send like 12 dollars worth of btc for some litecoin.  Im doing a tiny transfer first to test it out.


Can someone confirm that these are the fees?  When i moved the fee bar to the lowest on electrum, it says within 25 blocks, the fee is about 50 cents or so.  But when its with 5 blocks or the next block, it shows the fee as around 3.80.  Do most of you just send it with those fees?


How long would it take to receive the litecoin if you just send with the minimum fee?  The thing is im just sending about 12 dollars worth of btc.  And the fee is like 3.80 which to me is ridiculous.


Can someone answer my other questions and also this one?  How long does it take if you send with the minimum fee?  How long if you do the default fee set by electrum?

[ranochigo]

Do i need to use that one?  Or i could use the one i always used?

You can use any address that is shown in your addresses tab. Electrum just shows you a new address to give you a better privacy and you would be able to know the source of the coin.

The bitcoin address in my receive tab is not there.  The first bitcoin address under the Used is there of course and has over 50 transactions etc.
So which is the bitcoin address i need to put in the bitcoin refund address tab?

Any address under the "Receiving Address" can be used as the "Refund address".

Also since when you put the amount of btc you want for litecoin for example, they give you a specific bitcoin address to send to.  So wouldn't that mean when they receive it, they know which litecoin address to send to?  Thus they put the bitcoin refund address only if there is an issue?

Yes. Probably.

When i tried to send from electrum, i get a message saying the fee is unusually high.  Its like 3.80 for this fee to send like 12 dollars worth of btc for some litecoin.  Im doing a tiny transfer first to test it out.


Can someone confirm that these are the fees?  When i moved the fee bar to the lowest on electrum, it says within 25 blocks, the fee is about 50 cents or so.  But when its with 5 blocks or the next block, it shows the fee as around 3.80.  Do most of you just send it with those fees?

The fees depends on your number of inputs and/or output. If you have lots of inputs and outputs, the size of the transaction will be high. Your client will have to adjust your fee to ensure that it meets the optimal fee/byte. Miners have limited space in their blocks and it is necessary for them to maximise their profit.

How long would it take to receive the litecoin if you just send with the minimum fee?  The thing is im just sending about 12 dollars worth of btc.  And the fee is like 3.80 which to me is ridiculous.

Probably from a few hours to a day. You can use viaBTC's transaction accelerator to push your queue in their mining pool.

Can someone answer my other questions and also this one?  How long does it take if you send with the minimum fee?  How long if you do the default fee set by electrum?

If you send with the minimum fee, it would take a very, very long time. If you are sending with dynamic fee, you should get a decent estimate.

[pooya87]

just want to add a couple of things:
electrum is giving you a new address to prevent you from address reuse [1]. but nothing is stopping you from reusing the same address for a million times, in fact despite this not being a good idea but many are doing the same.

and also any address that you see under the "Receive tab" must also be in your addresses tab. i believe it is the first address without any balance on it (the first empty one). you may have not looked carefully. what electrum version are you using?
go to your addresses tab (if you don't see it press Ctrl+A) and then press Ctrl+F a new textBox will appear at the bottom of the window where you can enter your address and Electrum will search in your address list to find this and show it to you if it is there.

and for fees you can take a look at this site[2] for more information.

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse
[2] http://bitcoinfees.21.co/

[viking02]

hi there thanks for that information. 


I do have the dynamic fees checked on my electrum settings.  I had did a few exchanges with btc for litecoin etc.  What i noticed was when i moved the fee button ... there are like 5 options.  One is the middle option.  Then there are 2 options to the left and right.  Of course if you move the way all to the left, its the lowest fees.  Says it will be sent within 25 blocks.  I did this and it was definitely slower than when i first did an exchange with the recommended fee.  However it still did not take that long etc.


So based on this, would you say as long as dynamic fees are checked and you move the sending fee all the way to the left, that is still fine?  Thus within 25 blocks, it takes a bit but isn't that slow etc.  When i did within 10 blocks, speed was decent.  The default is within 5 blocks and that was pretty fast.  I of course dont need to send it within 2 blocks or next block.  It really didn't take that long even with the 25 blocks etc.

[viking02]

Im using electrum 2.7.8


viaBTC's transaction accelerator... can you explain this?  Someone mentioned this in another thread.  So this would make your transfer go faster?  Thus you could send with 0 fee at all... thus dont check any dynamic fee... then use this?  Or you mean just use the dynamic fee and also this and it would be even faster?

[ranochigo]

So based on this, would you say as long as dynamic fees are checked and you move the sending fee all the way to the left, that is still fine?

It's fine, as long as you don't mind waiting.

viaBTC's transaction accelerator... can you explain this?  Someone mentioned this in another thread.  So this would make your transfer go faster?  Thus you could send with 0 fee at all... thus dont check any dynamic fee... then use this?  Or you mean just use the dynamic fee and also this and it would be even faster?

viaBTC is a mining pool. Since they are a mining pool, they can choose which transaction to include or exclude. You have to submit your transaction ID to their UI at https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/ to have them include your transaction into their mempool queue. Your transaction will only get confirmed when they mine the block, if your fees are really low.

I would still recommend using dynamic fees with this. You need at least 0.0001BTC/KB to use the accelerator.

[HCP]

Im using electrum 2.7.8

You should update your Electrum BTW... It is quite a few versions behind the latest version of 2.8.3. There were some bugs in the "older" versions of Electrum relating to Dynamic Fees. Where even with Dynamic Fees checked, it may not actually be calculating dynamic fees properly.

Having said that, currently the network load is pretty small compared to a month or so ago when there was 150,000+ unconfirmed transactions. Now, it seems to be less than 5,000. So the fees required a no longer massive. My suggestion is to keep an eye on 1, 2 & 3:

1. https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count
2. https://btc.com/stats/unconfirmed-tx
3. https://bitcoinfees.21.co

If the mempool starts getting full of unconfirmed transactions (>10K unconfirmed), you'll probably find that the recommended fees start climbing again... and you may find you need to move the slider more to the right to get your transactions confirmed. But at the moment, as it isn't busy, having the slider all the way on the left *should* be fine.

Finally, as a safeguard, you can always check the "replaceable" box so that you can use "Replace-By-Fee" functionality built in to Electrum (not sure if that was in version 2.7?) and "Bump Fee" for your transactions if they get stuck.