Sended 5 btc but transaction id says I've sended 9.53

[MoneyMorpheus]

Hi,

I've sended 5 btc to btcjam. To my surprise, when I checked the transaction id on blockchain.info it said I've sended a total of 9.53 btc to two different addresses. Now I'm scared. Is this common? My wallet, bitcoin-qt states I've sended 5 and all my other coins are still there. I don't know why it says I've sended 9.53 on the t. id but I wouldn't like to find out later that I'm missing 4.53 for some reason.

This is my t. id: cb0946df9ff1d0ae6e8a87f044d150fad1aefc966b1bc7bba093696aaa6fd81e

Should I do something?

[1714164045]

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[1714164045]

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[cp1]

You have to send all the coins you got in a transaction.  So there was one transaction where you got 9.53 btc.  So to spend 5, you need to spend 9.53, 5 of which goes to btcjam, and 4.53 goes back to yourself.  So that 4.5 went back to yourself in a new address.   Your bitcoin-qt client just keeps that address a secret from you from some reason.

[cp1]

I know, should I move the rest of my coins to other wallet?

No, it's not a bug.  It's how it's meant to be.  Just get used to it.

[MoneyMorpheus]

You have to send all the coins you got in a transaction.  So there was one transaction where you got 9.53 btc.  So to spend 5, you need to spend 9.53, 5 of which goes to btcjam, and 4.53 goes back to yourself.  So that 4.5 went back to yourself in a new address.   Your bitcoin-qt client just keeps that address a secret from you from some reason.

Oh thanks! I was getting paranoid

PD: I don't have the address on the bitcoin-qt though, I've lost the ability to sign those coins...

[cp1]

I'm not sure how you sign in bitcoin-qt, maybe you can right click on the address in transactions or send, or something.  At the very least you should be able to do it from the console (help menu)

[MoneyMorpheus]

I'm not sure how you sign in bitcoin-qt, maybe you can right click on the address in transactions or send, or something.  At the very least you should be able to do it from the console (help menu)

You are right, it shows on the console as if it is my address after calling listaddressgrouping. Thanks! now I can rest in peace

[cp1]

Here's the wiki entry on change addresses:  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

[cp1]

Oh, something else important:

When you backup your wallet it only has a finite number of addresses that it backs up.  So if you generate many change addresses you can get into a situation where you aren't backed up anymore.  So make sure to backup your wallet after some number of transactions (I'm not sure what the number is).

Wallets like electrum and armory use a deterministic address generation, so you only have to backup once and you're good forever.

[Jumpy]

Here's the wiki entry on change addresses:  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

Every bitcoiner needs to read this wiki article early in their time in the community. It's a shame the same question gets asked all the time.

[MoneyMorpheus]

Oh, something else important:

When you backup your wallet it only has a finite number of addresses that it backs up.  So if you generate many change addresses you can get into a situation where you aren't backed up anymore.  So make sure to backup your wallet after some number of transactions (I'm not sure what the number is).

Wallets like electrum and armory use a deterministic address generation, so you only have to backup once and you're good forever.

Thanks, yea I think I remember reading somewhere that it was 100, but I might be wrong...

Every bitcoiner needs to read this wiki article early in their time in the community. It's a shame the same question gets asked all the time.

I think it is a shame that the qt doesn't list all the receiving addresses you actually own, someone may think he has a backup of all his addresses when the ones that came preloaded might already have being used...

Taking that out I might have read it before, but it was a long time ago. I haven't familiarized with it mainly because I was using gox to store before my own wallet when it didn't had withdrawal issues. Since they previously bought exchanges that got hacked or lost their btc for rebooting the cloud and refunded the users with their own funds I felt secure storing my btc there...

[Jumpy]

I personally don't like the qt client very much. I just use it to act as a node as public service to the network, but I use Electrum and make my own keys to import. (see my tipjar vanity address below)