Bitcoin Sent to Wrong Address (Wallet Behavior)

[yohannc]

Hello,

I am contacting you regarding a mistake I made last night while using Electrum.

I sent bitcoins to an address provided by a friend of mine. He is new to Bitcoin and believed he was giving me his main receiving address. However, it turns out that the address was the one displayed in the settings under “Wallet Behavior,” and not a standard receiving address.

The funds were successfully sent, but they are not visible in his wallet.

Would it be possible to return these bitcoins to the original sending address so that I can resend them to one of his correct receiving addresses in his Electrum wallet?

Thank you in advance for your assistance. I remain available if you need any additional information.

Kind regards,

Yohann

[Zaguru12]

I don’t get the address you mean by wallet behavior, but if the bitcoin was sent successfully as you said ( confirmed already) and it’s not showing in your wallet then that address isn’t actually belonging to that wallet and it is a wrong wallet.

The fact that you were able to send to that address it simply means the address is a wrong but valid address because of checksum but only someone who has access to the address private keys or seed phrase can return that bitcoin,

You still need to explain further what you mean by wallet behavior address

[PX-Z]

You sound like sending support ticket ticket like electrum is a business and can help you with the mistake. Take note bitcoin transactions are irreversible, once you sent it to the wrong address, and got confirmed by the network, its lost forever. Although, there are ways to reverse it only if its not yet confirmed, and its different from your case since this was last night already.
I could only assume your friend's device is infected with clipboard malware where copied wallet address were change to bad actor's address.

[Cookdata]

What do you mean by "wallet behavior"?

If you don't mind, can you share the wallet address or TX hash to confirm the transaction.

If your friend gave you any of his wallet address, whether it's receiving or change address, the balance should be visible in his end.

[yohannc]

The address bc1qgdl5a90ccznwteha436fn52nekdwuu9ld32n3c appears in the Electrum app under "Preferences".
It is present in every wallet, as far as I understand.
So I assume it is a donation address.

My friend mistakenly gave me this address. I’m essentially casting a message in a bottle—if the person controlling this address is willing, I would greatly appreciate it if they could return the bitcoins to my address so that I can send them to my friend’s correct wallet address.

[rat03gopoh]

^^
I don't recall the developer sticking a donation address in the electrum app, though I haven't checked mine yet on my PC. I don't think they ever did.
Is your friend sure he's using the official Electrum wallet?

[bitbollo]

The address bc1qgdl5a90ccznwteha436fn52nekdwuu9ld32n3c appears in the Electrum app under "Preferences".
It is present in every wallet, as far as I understand.
So I assume it is a donation address.

...

There is clearly a button RECEIVE .... So, I can't trust directly your friend but... this address has received only 2 transactions (only 1 if we exclude yours).
Are you really sure this is their address for donation? I am looking online and in their website there is no mention about donations or whatever... including any bitcoin address. If you had used enough electrum, its really hard to get this address "wallet behavior" (no idea where it can be taken from).

[Ruttoshi]

The address bc1qgdl5a90ccznwteha436fn52nekdwuu9ld32n3c appears in the Electrum app under "Preferences".
It is present in every wallet, as far as I understand.
So I assume it is a donation address.

There's no electrum donation address in electrum wallet, it's only in their website for anyone that wants to make donations to the developers. I still don't get why your friend bitcoin isn't still in his wallet if he copied the address from the address gap limit or change address.

The transaction has already been confirmed and if the address doesn't belong to him, there's nothing anyone can do to get back those coins only if the receiver send it back.

[Charles-Tim]

^^
I don't recall the developer sticking a donation address in the electrum app, though I haven't checked mine yet on my PC. I don't think they ever did.
Is your friend sure he's using the official Electrum wallet?

Maybe he is using a fake Electrum wallet. Addresses do not show under preference on Electrum and there is nothing called address behavior on Electrum on both Desktop and Android Electrum.

Any bitcoin sent that has been confirmed already on the blockchain can not be reversed. If the money is sent to a wrong address, that means the coin has gone and can not be reversed.

[rat03gopoh]

Maybe he is using a fake Electrum wallet. Addresses do not show under preference on Electrum and there is nothing called address behavior on Electrum on both Desktop and Android Electrum.

Any bitcoin sent that has been confirmed already on the blockchain can not be reversed. If the money is sent to a wrong address, that means the coin has gone and can not be reversed.

Yeah, I thought so too. And honestly, the OP's statement creates another confusion:

Hello,

I am contacting you regarding a mistake I made last night while using Electrum.

Does that mean the OP is also using the same fake Electrum app where the "donation" address also appears under "Preferences"?
If so, the OP has messed up his friend's first experience.

[nc50lc]

The address bc1qgdl5a90ccznwteha436fn52nekdwuu9ld32n3c appears in the Electrum app under "Preferences".
It is present in every wallet, as far as I understand.

It would be best if you can request a screenshot of that "Wallet Behavior" address from your friend where the address is visible.

But in a very slim chance that it's not a fake Electrum and it's a donation address that he got from the app,
That is actually a donation for the public Electrum server that he's using (auto-selected) at that time, not the Developer's address.
So, they won't be able to do something about it even if your friend is using a legit client.

[yohannc]

I just downloaded Electrum from the official link on electrum.org, which redirects to Google Play, and I see the same address in the app.

See the attached screenshot.

The address bc1qgdl5a90ccznwteha436fn52nekdwuu9ld32n3c appears under "Preferences" in the app. It seems to be present in every wallet. I assume it is a donation address.

My friend mistakenly gave me this address. I’m essentially casting a message in a bottle—if the person controlling this address is willing, I would greatly appreciate it if they could return the bitcoins to my address so that I can send them to my friend’s correct Electrum wallet address.

[Abdussamad]

I don't see it on android electrum. There is no address under preferences.

edit: the second option under "wallet behaviour" says "Avoid spending from used addresses". It may be that the address you are seeing there was put into the french language translation file and that's why it's showing that for you.

[hosemary]

I just downloaded Electrum from the official link on electrum.org, which redirects to Google Play, and I see the same address in the app.

Are you sure it was electrum.org that redirected you to google play? Something is going wrong on your end.
I have electrum installed on my android phone and I don't see any bitcoin address in "Preferences".

See the following image. I just took it from my electrum wallet.

[Abdussamad]

Yes that address shows up in the french language file:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-locale/blob/master/locale/fr_FR/electrum.po#L768

[yohannc]

Yes that address shows up in the french language file:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-locale/blob/master/locale/fr_FR/electrum.po#L768

thanks;, i am not crazy  and yes i am french, and my friend too

[Abdussamad]

OK I created an issue on github to bring it to the developers' attention:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-locale/issues/46

[yohannc]

OK I created an issue on github to bring it to the developers' attention:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-locale/issues/46

Thanks you very much

[Lucius]

Yes that address shows up in the french language file:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-locale/blob/master/locale/fr_FR/electrum.po#L768

How is it possible that someone put that address in the French version of Electrum if I understand correctly? Still, it's hard to understand that someone found a BTC address in the Settings tab, while at the same time ignoring the Receive tab in the main menu

[nc50lc]

How is it possible that someone put that address in the French version of Electrum if I understand correctly?

Probably a miscopied text by the translator or actual vandalism, which is if the latter's case, bad news for OP.
After Abdussamad posted the issue, one major developer has seen more of those improper translations that are most likely related.

BTW, it looks like it's brought by this commit, they should've reviewed it well: 974d671 ("Load Diff" locale/fr_FR/electrum.po‎)