My blockchain.info balance reads different vs my bitcoin core QT wallet

[FlatTime]

Q1.) can my bitcoin QT wallet balance read wrong?  (its fully synced)

Q2.)i just submitted 1 transaction on the blockchain and when i did i get some other transaction (which i did not make) paired with it, coming from my wallet going to another address blockchain.info says... however my bitcoin QT wallet has no history of this transaction.

This has happened to a few of my transactions, i dont understand.

[1715151457]

1715151457

[Josepht]

The answer to question 1 is very easy. If there is any mistake made, it is not made by your bitcoin QT wallet, because the wallets (actually the addresses) are the backbone of the network. The webiste blockchain.info only read information, and mistakes can be made.

Regarding your second question, it can have to do with change. Whenever you send a transaction and the total input value is more then the amount you want to send, the wallet automatically creates a change wallet, where the rest of the input is sent to.

[FlatTime]

The answer to question 1 is very easy. If there is any mistake made, it is not made by your bitcoin QT wallet, because the wallets (actually the addresses) are the backbone of the network. The webiste blockchain.info only read information, and mistakes can be made.

Regarding your second question, it can have to do with change. Whenever you send a transaction and the total input value is more then the amount you want to send, the wallet automatically creates a change wallet, where the rest of the input is sent to.

blockchair reads the same amount as blockchain.info.   

Right so when i send a transaction i've started to tick the box to minus the transaction fee from my transaction, is this why my transaction creates a change wallet ? Sometimes the amounts going into the second wallet are considerably more than i am sending - is this right? im not hacked or anything here?

So let me just confirm with you because i sent like 0.1 from my addy to exchange and apparently blockchain .info says i've sent 0.5 to someone else all included - Bitcoin QT has no history of this ofcourse like i said before.

Many thanks for any help understanding.

[Josepht]

The answer to question 1 is very easy. If there is any mistake made, it is not made by your bitcoin QT wallet, because the wallets (actually the addresses) are the backbone of the network. The webiste blockchain.info only read information, and mistakes can be made.

Regarding your second question, it can have to do with change. Whenever you send a transaction and the total input value is more then the amount you want to send, the wallet automatically creates a change wallet, where the rest of the input is sent to.

blockchair reads the same amount as blockchain.info.   

Right so when i send a transaction i've started to tick the box to minus the transaction fee from my transaction, is this why my transaction creates a change wallet ? Sometimes the amounts going into the second wallet are considerably more than i am sending - is this right? im not hacked or anything here?

So let me just confirm with you because i sent like 0.1 from my addy to exchange and apparently blockchain .info says i've sent 0.5 to someone else all included - Bitcoin QT has no history of this ofcourse like i said before.

Many thanks for any help understanding.

I am not sure if I understand you correctly, but this is how it should go:


For example, you have 1 BTC in your address A.

You want to send 0.3 BTC to your friend with address B. The 0.3BTC goes to your friend, but the 0.7 BTC goes to your change address C. Whenever you create the transaction, it should look somewhat like this:
Address A  -1BTC.  ->  Address B + 0.3BTC & Address C + 0.7 BTC.

Can you maybe post the transaction ID, so that I (and others on this forum) can look into it.

[DarkStar_]

The answer to question 1 is very easy. If there is any mistake made, it is not made by your bitcoin QT wallet, because the wallets (actually the addresses) are the backbone of the network. The webiste blockchain.info only read information, and mistakes can be made.

Regarding your second question, it can have to do with change. Whenever you send a transaction and the total input value is more then the amount you want to send, the wallet automatically creates a change wallet, where the rest of the input is sent to.

blockchair reads the same amount as blockchain.info.   

Right so when i send a transaction i've started to tick the box to minus the transaction fee from my transaction, is this why my transaction creates a change wallet ? Sometimes the amounts going into the second wallet are considerably more than i am sending - is this right? im not hacked or anything here?

So let me just confirm with you because i sent like 0.1 from my addy to exchange and apparently blockchain .info says i've sent 0.5 to someone else all included - Bitcoin QT has no history of this ofcourse like i said before.

Many thanks for any help understanding.

Yes, it's normal. You aren't hacked (unless I'm understanding this incorrectly).

What BitcoinQT does by default is that it uses something called a change address - basically an address that the left over bitcoins go to, which belongs to you. This increases privacy as it's slightly harder to track, and it eventually splits your funds to multiple addresses making it harder for people to figure out how many coins you have.

When you spend Bitcoins, you have inputs and an output. The part of the input that isn't spent is the mining fee, so you need a change address if you don't spend everything.

[HCP]

The OP needs to go and read this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

and to understand WHY Bitcoin doesn't send the exact amount specified, but spends the whole amount in the address (UTXO), they should go read this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Coin_analogy

Bitcoin is NOT like fiat money bank accounts... and works completely different. It you try to treat it like a "normal" bank account, you are likely to get confused and/or into trouble and lose coins

[FlatTime]

The answer to question 1 is very easy. If there is any mistake made, it is not made by your bitcoin QT wallet, because the wallets (actually the addresses) are the backbone of the network. The webiste blockchain.info only read information, and mistakes can be made.

Regarding your second question, it can have to do with change. Whenever you send a transaction and the total input value is more then the amount you want to send, the wallet automatically creates a change wallet, where the rest of the input is sent to.

blockchair reads the same amount as blockchain.info.  

Right so when i send a transaction i've started to tick the box to minus the transaction fee from my transaction, is this why my transaction creates a change wallet ? Sometimes the amounts going into the second wallet are considerably more than i am sending - is this right? im not hacked or anything here?

So let me just confirm with you because i sent like 0.1 from my addy to exchange and apparently blockchain .info says i've sent 0.5 to someone else all included - Bitcoin QT has no history of this ofcourse like i said before.

Many thanks for any help understanding.

Yes, it's normal. You aren't hacked (unless I'm understanding this incorrectly).

What BitcoinQT does by default is that it uses something called a change address - basically an address that the left over bitcoins go to, which belongs to you. This increases privacy as it's slightly harder to track, and it eventually splits your funds to multiple addresses making it harder for people to figure out how many coins you have.

When you spend Bitcoins, you have inputs and an output. The part of the input that isn't spent is the mining fee, so you need a change address if you don't spend everything.

Thanks that is reassuring.  Do you know if there is a way to see your change address list in your bitcoinQT wallet so i know i own them?

How does bitcoinQT pick the input amount? looking at my history its really random.

edit: ok guys im feeling like a donut, thank you all for help i need to read up and go through everything said.  Would still be nice to know where i see those change address lists in bitcoin QT though if anyone knows

[HCP]

It doesn't show them anywhere in the GUI. You need to use the debug console to see them...

Help -> Debug Window -> Console. Then enter the command:

Code:

listunspent

You should be able to find the UTXO listed there with the associated TransactionID and Address.

[FlatTime]

It doesn't show them anywhere in the GUI. You need to use the debug console to see them...

Help -> Debug Window -> Console. Then enter the command:

Code:

listunspent

You should be able to find the UTXO listed there with the associated TransactionID and Address.

ok thanks, i know this is maybe a stupid question but Is there any risk doing this or is the Debug Window/Console part of the wallet safe to use for the non technical?

[HCP]

It can be "dangerous" if you start running commands without fully understanding the consequences and posting the output in threads or PMs etc...

Things like "dumpwallet" and "dumpprivkey" etc that expose sensitive info like private keys for instance.

Listunspent is relatively harmless, at worst it would reduce your privacy a little (shows addresses etc), but it should not cause loss of Bitcoins... You can see an explanation of the command and sample output here: https://chainquery.com/bitcoin-api/listunspent

My recommendation would be that of you are uncomfortable using the console... Don't!

[FlatTime]

It can be "dangerous" if you start running commands without fully understanding the consequences and posting the output in threads or PMs etc...

Things like "dumpwallet" and "dumpprivkey" etc that expose sensitive info like private keys for instance.

Listunspent is relatively harmless, at worst it would reduce your privacy a little (shows addresses etc), but it should not cause loss of Bitcoins... You can see an explanation of the command and sample output here: https://chainquery.com/bitcoin-api/listunspent

My recommendation would be that of you are uncomfortable using the console... Don't!

Ok thank you, i am playing around with test wallets on different computer. Generally i wont use it though as sounds risky.

[ranochigo]

Result: newer version of bitcoin core shows less balances.
I guess blockchain explorers always use the latest version of Bitcoin Core wallet, that why they show less balances than you have.

No. Its completely untrue. The main problem appears to be the fact that your wallet keeps and send Bitcoins to multiple change address. These are generally not visible to the user. Most of the explorers don't run Bitcoin Core exactly.

And my question is what to do to make balances like it was in bitcoin-0.8.1-win32 ?

Does it mean we all will lose all our funds with each update of Bitcoin Core?

No. Is your Core versions actually synchronized? Are you using the same wallet.dat file? Your wallet only holds the keys to your address so it doesn't store any Bitcoins, strictly speaking. For them to be lost, your wallet has to delete the keys which isn't a behavior of Bitcoin Core. Run Bitcoin Core with a rescan command and you should see consistent values.

[LoyceV]

And how you explain why older versions of Bitcoin Core shows higher balances?
bitcoin-0.8.1-win32 shows additonal pending balances, but it cant be synchronized after 452000 block, i don't know why,

If it isn't fully synchronized, the balance can't be trusted. This solves part of your mystery.

bitcoin-0.13.1-win64 and bitcoin-0.14.2-win32 - fully synchronized
And both show different ammount of balances.

Why do you use 3 different old versions? Try the latest version (0.15.1).

Is any official guide exists how to run Bitcoin Core with rescan command?

There isn't much to it:

Code:

  -rescan
       Rescan the block chain for missing wallet transactions on startup