Which option do I choose to get an address to send btc to myself? (see pics)

[9thsky]

Is it this one?







Or this one?....





And what does "change" (circled in red) do?



Or are they all the same?
Don't want to send my coins to the wrong place for them to be lost somewhere in the abyss of the crypto world.

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[ranochigo]

If you've received a 12 word seed phrase during creation, Electrum only generates addresses that would be recoverable from that specific seed phrase so your funds will never be lost either ways.

I'll recommend you to generate an address using the receive tab instead of manually selecting an address. When using the receive tab, Electrum can organize your payments and associate them with the description selected. In addition, addresses are also not reused.

The remainder of the Bitcoins that are not spent in the transaction are sent to the change address. It has a different derivation path but it is also still recoverable using the seed phrase.

[HCP]

Is it this one?

"Receive -> Request" will give you the "first" unused address from your wallet... it is probably the best way to get an address to "send yourself coins" (or to give to someone else so they can send you coins), unless you really know what you're doing and need/want to see a specific address from your wallet. I would recommend you use this method.

Or this one?....

This method is basically just showing you ALL your receiving addresses at once. it also indicates which ones are "used" (aka have received coins) and which ones are "unused".

Electrum is what is known as a "Hierarchical Deterministic" or "HD" Wallet... this means that it uses a "seed" (derived from the 12 words you would have been shown when you created the wallet) and from that seed it will be able to automatically generate an endless number of receiving addresses. Electrum, by default, pre-generates around 25 addresses. As they become "used" (ie. they receive coins), the wallet will generate new "unused" addresses. This list shows all the ones that it has currently generated.

The reason to use a new address for each receive transaction is to prevent/reduce "Address re-use", which can reduce privacy of both the sender and receiver. It's not really a security issue. You can read more about that topic here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse

And what does "change" (circled in red) do?

The "Change" button, just switches the list from receiving addresses to "change" addresses (You don't really need to worry about change addresses, Electrum will use them automatically and you should not use them as an address to receive coins from an external source.)

[9thsky]

Thanks for the info!

The "Change" button, just switches the list from receiving addresses to "change" addresses (You don't really need to worry about change addresses, Electrum will use them automatically and you should not use them as an address to receive coins from an external source.)

How do I know which one is which? Is the screenshot above showing "change" addresses or "receiving" addresses? It's kinda confusing. When the tab says "change", is it showing the changes list or is it saying that's what will show if you tap it?

[Pmalek]

When you generate a new receiving address in Electrum, the software knows not to generate a change address for you, so don't worry. The addresses on your screenshot seem to be normal addresses. You can see your change addresses if you click on the change button. I think Electrum initially creates 6 change addresses. Nothing happens to the funds sent to a change address even if you gave it to someone to pay you. They have a different derivation path, but you have access to everything through your recovery seed. 

[nc50lc]

In contrary to what HCP said, if it said "Change", it means that you're seeing change addresses.
If you click it once, it will change to "Receiving" and the list will switch to receiving addresses.
Third time will switch it to "All" addresses.

You can check it yourself, see if the address you got from option1 belongs to the displayed list of addresses while it's displaying: "Receiving" "All" "Search"; if it is, those are "receiving addresses".

In addition, as a response to OP, you can use the second filter button "All/Unused/Used/Funded" and switch it to "Unused" so the list will only display unused addresses for you not to accidentally reuse addresses.
But option1 is still recommended.

[9thsky]

In contrary to what HCP said, if it said "Change", it means that you're seeing change addresses.
If you click it once, it will change to "Receiving" and the list will switch to receiving addresses.
Third time will switch it to "All" addresses.

You can check it yourself, see if the address you got from option1 belongs to the displayed list of addresses while it's displaying: "Receiving" "All" "Search"; if it is, those are "receiving addresses".

In addition, as a response to OP, you can use the second filter button "All/Unused/Used/Funded" and switch it to "Unused" so the list will only display unused addresses for you not to accidentally reuse addresses.
But option1 is still recommended.

Ah OK!
When I tap here, the address that's copied to the clipboard is like as follows....

Bitcoin:[the address which shows on the same window]? time=[ten digits].

Example: Bitcoin:hhbs87laywovten7bjdk0qiwgakirquioa6hags98j?time=5617892656

What's up with that?

[ranochigo]

Ah OK!
When I tap here, the address that's copied to the clipboard is like as follows....

Bitcoin:[the address which shows on the same window]? time=[ten digits].

Example: Bitcoin:hhbs87laywovten7bjdk0qiwgakirquioa6hags98j?time=5617892656

What's up with that?

It is a payment URI.

It contains the information for the payment and it will fill up the details automatically for the user; scanning the QR code with Electrum will result in the payment details being filled automatically, you can specify expiration as well as the amount. The time is in unix, and it is the time for which your payment request is created.

[9thsky]

Ah OK!
When I tap here, the address that's copied to the clipboard is like as follows....

Bitcoin:[the address which shows on the same window]? time=[ten digits].

Example: Bitcoin:hhbs87laywovten7bjdk0qiwgakirquioa6hags98j?time=5617892656

What's up with that?

It is a payment URI.

It contains the information for the payment and it will fill up the details automatically for the user; scanning the QR code with Electrum will result in the payment details being filled automatically, you can specify expiration as well as the amount. The time is in unix, and it is the time for which your payment request is created.

I just edited my post. The link wasn't working.

I just want to be able to copy and paste the address in my other non-Electrum wallet to send some coins. How do I go about doing that? Do I just delete the "Bitcoin:" and "?time=5617892656" part and use the sequence that's left over? Is the "?" part of the address?

[HCP]

I just want to be able to copy and paste the address in my other non-Electrum wallet to send some coins. How do I go about doing that? Do I just delete the "Bitcoin:" and "?time=5617892656" part and use the sequence that's left over? Is the "?" part of the address?

If you just want to copy/paste the address only without all the Bitcoin Payment URI stuff... tap the "address" box here:



It'll open a new window with a different QR code that encodes just the address... So, you can either scan that or you can tap the "copy" button and it will copy the address to the clipboard:

[BitMaxz]

I just edited my post. The link wasn't working.

I just want to be able to copy and paste the address in my other non-Electrum wallet to send some coins. How do I go about doing that? Do I just delete the "Bitcoin:" and "?time=5617892656" part and use the sequence that's left over? Is the "?" part of the address?

Yes, you can do that but the question mark is not included in the address.

Why don't you just go to addresses click the address you want to use and then click address to copy so that you won't be confused about copying your receiving address that's the best option compared to copying the address by removing "Bitcoin:" and "time" just to be safe for accidentally copying the address with extra characters. It happens to me sometimes that I sent it to the wrong address with an extra character and confirmed without notice.

[nc50lc]

-snip-
You can check it yourself, see if the address you got from option1 belongs to the displayed list of addresses while it's displaying: "Receiving" "All" "Search"; if it is, those are "receiving addresses".

Ah OK!
When I tap here (https://imgur.com/a/eAGHEc2), the address that's copied to the clipboard is like as follows....
-snip-

When I think about it, you don't need to test it  
The logic is: when you're seeing "All", it's showing all addresses from "Receiving" and "Change" combined; it won't switch to All addresses but it's the current list.
Get it?

Since they already told you how to copy the address from the invoice, you may as well test it.
Just do not use "Search" it's kinda bugged and may not find the copied address from neither of the lists.

[9thsky]

I just want to be able to copy and paste the address in my other non-Electrum wallet to send some coins. How do I go about doing that? Do I just delete the "Bitcoin:" and "?time=5617892656" part and use the sequence that's left over? Is the "?" part of the address?

If you just want to copy/paste the address only without all the Bitcoin Payment URI stuff... tap the "address" box here:



It'll open a new window with a different QR code that encodes just the address... So, you can either scan that or you can tap the "copy" button and it will copy the address to the clipboard:

Thanks!

Nothing happens when I tap this



Long pressing it does nothing either. What am I missing?

[HCP]

Nothing happens when I tap this



Long pressing it does nothing either. What am I missing?

I honestly don't know... I am running a self compiled "TestNet" version... so maybe there have been some commits to the codebase that change the behaviour since the official 4.1.2 APK was released?


EDIT: nope... I just uninstalled my dev version and then installed the latest 4.1.2 APK from the Play Store and when I tap the address on the "Request" screen, I get shown the other screen with the address QR code and the "Copy" button.


What version are you actually running? I don't think that has been mentioned as yet...