Help ! Bitcoin send to one address goes to two address automatically??

[supermankid]

[Edited some details]
I am experimenting sending bitcoin between my own wallets.
I sent a 100k satoshis from my original address (A) (which had 200k satoshis) to my other wallet (B).
I received correct amount on address B.

I was expecting now ~100k on address A and 100k on address B (for simplicity, removing txn cost)

When I check this on block explorer, address A does not have 100k, but something like 70k and the rest of the amount of sent to a random new address (X).
How is this possible? Will I ever get the remaining satoshis in my wallet A/address A? If not how to access the wallet X?
Why all this trouble in bitcoin core?

Sorry for so many panic questions but such is my situations.
Any quick suggestion would help me calm down. Thanks.

[1714687386]

1714687386

[1714687386]

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[1714687386]

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[ranochigo]

The other address should be your change address. Wallet usually generate a new change address on every transaction and they are usually hidden from sight.

Bitcoin Core should still display the correct balance.

[Cookdata]

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Your UTXO in the wallet A was spent and a portion of satoshi was sent to the wallet B and the remaining was received as a change into your change address(wallet X), there is nothing to worry about, you can select the change address as a new input when you want to make a new transaction or you can send it back to your wallet A if you don't mind the fees.

[NeuroticFish]

I am experimenting sending bitcoin between my own wallets.
I sent a 100,000 satoshis from my original wallet (A) to my other wallet (B).
Then I looked on the wallet and my B wallet only got a small portion lets say 50,000 satoshi only.
When I check this on block explorer, the rest of the amount of sent to a random new address (X).
How is this possible? Will I ever get the remaining satoshis in my wallet B? If not how to access the wallet X?
Why all this trouble in bitcoin core?

Sorry for so many panic questions but such is my situations.
Any quick suggestion would help me calm down. Thanks.

It's like when you spend from a 100$ bill:
You give the whole 100$.
Some of the money you spend;
Some of the money returns to you.

The thing is that by default, the money returning to you will return to another address in your wallet.
So you have to check if the change did return to initial wallet. If it's so, you're good.
Also keep in mind that you've also paid the transaction fee, so the sum of all the money will probably be less than what you initially had in wallet A.

However, if you still in doubt, maybe you can share the transaction link on a blockchain explorer so we can explain better (just of course, this involves that the world will know that those addresses are yours)


I also suggest this kind of learning tests to be done on testnet; this way, even if mistakes are made, it's not a problem. And you can master all the use cases you can think of without paying a dime.

[Charles-Tim]

Check your wallet balance, probably you sent only 50000 sat from wallet A, if your transaction has 100000 satoshi as the input and wallet B receive only 50000 sat, definitely the remaining 50000 sat are sent to changed address on your wallet A.

For example
Wallet A has these 2 addresses
bc1g7h...
bc1hj3...(change address)

Wallet B has this address
bc1jhk...

Assuming you have 100000 sat UTXO on address bc1g7h... on wallet A, you transfer 50000 sat (input) to address bc1jhk... on wallet B from 100000 UTXO from address bc1g7h... on wallet A. The remaining 50000 sat would be sent to address bc1hj3...(change address) on wallet A which is the second address you are seeing on wallet explorer.

[supermankid]

Hi all,

Thanks for all of you input. I am both clear and confused a bit more.

=> When I load my wallet A still shows 100,000 (but the block explorer website shows less than this).

=> It is clear that the amount was not reduced on the destination wallet(B) but my original wallet(A).

=> It is also clear that the new wallet(X) id generated is mine but how can I access it?
How can I send money to my original wallet (A) from my supposedly new wallet(X).

and again if I send from wallet X to wallet A, will it not create another wallet (Y)?

This loop could go on forever creating new address every time
The problem I have is these new wallets are not shown on my bitcoin address list.

Help please.

[hosseinimr93]

=> When I load my wallet A still shows 100,000 (but the block explorer website shows less than this).

That's probably because wallet A includes multiple addresses, but in the block explorer you are checking a single address.
You are confusing wallet with address. Note that a wallet can include numerous addresses.

How can I send money to my original wallet (A) from my supposedly new wallet(X).

Address X is a part of your wallet and there is no need to make any transaction.
That will be used whenever you make a transaction.

and again if I send from wallet X to wallet A, will it not create another wallet (Y)?

Address X to address A. Not wallet X to wallet A.

Every time you receive a transaction, a new UTXO is added to your wallet.
Let's say you have received 0.1 BTC in transaction A and 0.2 BTC in transaction B.
Now you have two UTXOs.
UTXO A: 0.1 BTC
UTXO B: 0.2 BTC

Any of UTXOx must be spent completely.

If you spend all the fund, your wallet will use both UTXOs and there will be no change.
If you spend 0.2 BTC and only use UTXO B, there will be no change.
If you spend 0.15 BTC, you have to have a change address.

[BitMaxz]

You sent 100k sat and received only 50k sat in your b wallet?

It shouldn't be 50k sat unless you mean you sent 50k sat and all of your balance is 100k sat and all of them were sent to your address b and the random address. The above posts are right it could be your change address because the Bitcoin core wallet change address is enabled by default. So every time you made a transaction it will generate a new change address. it's your change address where you receive change of your BTC.

Sample you buy a candy worth of $50 and you only have the whole $100 you pay the seller with $100 and receive a $50. The difference is it generates another address where the change amount was sent to that address.  

If you don't want to use change feature on Bitcoin core you can change it on bitcoin.conf by adding this line below

Code:

changeaddress=yourbitcoinaddress

[supermankid]

=> When I load my wallet A still shows 100,000 (but the block explorer website shows less than this).

That's probably because wallet A includes multiple addresses, but in the block explorer you are checking a single address.
You are confusing wallet with address. Note that a wallet can include numerous addresses.

How can I send money to my original wallet (A) from my supposedly new wallet(X).

Address X is a part of your wallet and there is no need to make any transaction.
That will be used whenever you make a transaction.

and again if I send from wallet X to wallet A, will it not create another wallet (Y)?

Address X to address A. Not wallet X to wallet A.

Every time you receive a transaction, a new UTXO is added to your wallet.
Let's say you have received 0.1 BTC in transaction A and 0.2 BTC in transaction B.
Now you have two UTXOs.
UTXO A: 0.1 BTC
UTXO B: 0.2 BTC

Any of UTXOx must be spent completely.

If you spend all the fund, your wallet will use both UTXOs and there will be no change.
If you spend 0.2 BTC and only use UTXO B, there will be no change.
If you spend 0.15 BTC, you have to have a change address.

Sorry for mixing the wallet and address.
One question though...i know the private key for my address A but i do not know the privatekey (yet) for my address (x). So, if I want to secure the BTC on address X then I need to dump the privatekey of this address X as well. right? (in case I mess up the wallet)

One last thing...My current wallet is showing the wrong amount compared to block explorer.
I am using "rescanblockchain" on Node window. Is this the right way to update the wallet to latest transactions? (it seems quite slow).

one more question
Since both my address X and A are on same wallet, how do i move BTC from X back to A.

[khaled0111]

^^
Your wallet will generate/use a new address every time you make a new payment request (to receive payment) and will generate/use a new change address ever time you spend some coins and a change needs to be sent back to your wallet. Your wallet app will take care of all of that and there is no need to back up the private key for every address your wallet generates.
Instead, just back up your wallet file, it's all you need to restore all your wallet addresses.

[ranochigo]

One question though...i know the private key for my address A but i do not know the privatekey (yet) for my address (x). So, if I want to secure the BTC on address X then I need to dump the privatekey of this address X as well. right? (in case I mess up the wallet)

You generally shouldn't dump your private key if you don't know exactly what you're doing. All you need for a backup is your wallet.dat, assuming that you're using it with the later versions (then one would suffice). Individually extracting private keys poses unnecessary risks when all that you'll need is just the wallet.dat.

One last thing...My current wallet is showing the wrong amount compared to block explorer.
I am using "rescanblockchain" on Node window. Is this the right way to update the wallet to latest transactions? (it seems quite slow).

Yes, you can also specify additional flags like rescanblockchain 730007 731007 and that scans the blockheight in the range. But that shouldn't be necessary, is your wallet synchronized?

Since both my address X and A are on same wallet, how do i move BTC from X back to A.

I'm not sure why is that necessary.

If you want, you can choose coin control within Bitcoin Core and spend the funds back into address A.

[supermankid]

Alrighty everyone!
I got the basics now. Was a little scared first when the amount was decreased from original address.
Now after update => rescanblockchain => the wallet has the correct funds. Also I saw the weird new address I never saw on receive menu (with bunch of other addresses).

Lesson learned
=> Every txn, a new address is generated related to the wallet.
=> Backing up the wallet properly is good use of time and security instead of sercuring address/publickey/ privatekey/
=> No need to panic! Bitcoin has worked for 12 years. If something goes wrong, it is not something is not working, it is only because it takes a while to get the BTC system (for newbies)
=> And most importantly, Bitcoin Forum community is great place to discuss/learn any BTC related issue.
So, no need to panic much.
(unless you are hacked, which definitely crossed my mind immediately after I made my first legendary BTC txns).

Thanks yall.
Have a nice weekends.

[BitMaxz]

Alrighty everyone!
I got the basics now. Was a little scared first when the amount was decreased from original address.
Now after update => rescanblockchain => the wallet has the correct funds. Also I saw the weird new address I never saw on receive menu (with bunch of other addresses).

That is why you need to keep your bitcoin synced if you want to get the latest balance of your wallet.
And without downloading the latest blockchain the address X you talking about is not showing in your receiving addresses so you will need to use "listunspent" to find the UTXO. Or you can just use the send BTC normally put your bitcoin address A where you want to receive this BTC if you want to put it back to your address A.

Also, take note of Coin control you can find it under settings then option enabling it will give you chance to manually set where you want to send the change amount.


I would like to ask if you are running a full node? or pruned mode?

[hosseinimr93]

And without downloading the latest blockchain the address X you talking about is not showing in your receiving addresses

Even if bitcoin core is fully synced, change addresses are not shown in receiving addresses.
To see all your addresses (receiving addresses + change addresses), you can use the following command in console.

Code:

listaddressgrouping

[supermankid]

Alrighty everyone!
I got the basics now. Was a little scared first when the amount was decreased from original address.
Now after update => rescanblockchain => the wallet has the correct funds. Also I saw the weird new address I never saw on receive menu (with bunch of other addresses).

That is why you need to keep your bitcoin synced if you want to get the latest balance of your wallet.
And without downloading the latest blockchain the address X you talking about is not showing in your receiving addresses so you will need to use "listunspent" to find the UTXO. Or you can just use the send BTC normally put your bitcoin address A where you want to receive this BTC if you want to put it back to your address A.

Also, take note of Coin control you can find it under settings then option enabling it will give you chance to manually set where you want to send the change amount.


I would like to ask if you are running a full node? or pruned mode?

Running full node. Best way to update the old wallet fast was to
=> rescanblockchain txnblock currentblock