Newbie question about adresses

[42246709215]

Hi there and thanks for reading.

As far as I understood there have to be 2 addresses for each transaction.
On for the sender and one for the recipient... is this right ?  

I wonder because when I take a look at the transactions there is just a single address for each transaction.
If I send BTC the recipients address, if I get BTC (one of) my own addresses.

So where can I see the other address ?

When I send BTC to an address, what will my address be for the recipient ?

Thanks ... Sorry...

[1715133816]

1715133816

[1715133816]

1715133816

[Jamie_Boulder]

1. Where are you buying/selling yours BTC
2. What wallet are you using?

You're correct in the assumptions that 2 addresses are required however I'm not following where you're getting confused..do you mean what the receiver of your sent funds will see? in which case it will be your BTC address which never changes.

If I've gotten it wrong please elaborate your question and I'll try again.

[byt411]

I am assuming you are using Bitcoin-qt as your client. Well, all you have to do is right click on the transaction and get the transaction ID.
You then go to blockchain.info and paste in the transaction ID.
Voila! It's much more easy to understand now.
(Note: Bitcoin-qt transactions sometimes end with -000, remove that part before pasting into blockchain.info.)

[42246709215]

I am assuming you are using Bitcoin-qt as your client. Well, all you have to do is right click on the transaction and get the transaction ID.
You then go to blockchain.info and paste in the transaction ID.
Voila! It's much more easy to understand now.
(Note: Bitcoin-qt transactions sometimes end with -000, remove that part before pasting into blockchain.info.)

Oh wow. Wow. Thanks.

[SelbyTsang]

I am assuming you are using Bitcoin-qt as your client. Well, all you have to do is right click on the transaction and get the transaction ID.
You then go to blockchain.info and paste in the transaction ID.
Voila! It's much more easy to understand now.
(Note: Bitcoin-qt transactions sometimes end with -000, remove that part before pasting into blockchain.info.)

Just a friendly note, there are many other bitcoin blockexplorers, such as blockr.io and biteasy.com

[roslinpl]

You can also check blockchain.info and bitcoin core guide provided by Bitcoin Online Embassy www.btc-embassy.com.

There are guides which will explain a lot to you.
Cheers.

[42246709215]

Thank you guys...

Will I ever understand that system ?

[byt411]

Thank you guys...

Will I ever understand that system ?

Feel free to ask. We're all here to help each other out.

[SelbyTsang]

Thank you guys...

Will I ever understand that system ?

It may not be easy to understand bitcoin at first, but you can start with sites like https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page and feel free ask any questions you encountered on bitcointalk.

[ALToids]

I think the confusion might be with inputs and outputs.

if somebody sent you 5 BTC, and you decide to spend 2.5, what the bitcoin client does in reality is send 2.5BTC to the address you're sending to and then send 2.5BTC back to yourself.  When it sends it back to yourself it creates a new address.  You can see this by using blockchain.

[JohnLennon]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

[Juan007]

It's pretty hard to type a correct address, because it contains a checksum, and (as far as I remember) you have 1 chance in 4.3 billion (232) to type that checksum correctly.
So yeah, it just won't go through.

[BurtW]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

Can you explain a bit more by what you mean by "didn't exist".

[torusJKL]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

As long as the address is a valid bitcoin address then the network will accept it.
But if nobody has the private key to that address then you can consider those bitcoins to be out of circulation forever.

[cellard]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

As long as the address is a valid bitcoin address then the network will accept it.
But if nobody has the private key to that address then you can consider those bitcoins to be out of circulation forever.

Isn't this scary? Imagine for some reason.. when copypasting an address or whatever, you don't select the last leter, then send a shitton of money into an address that doesn't exsist.. coins lost forever. Shouldnt the software guarantee that the transaction can be doable (guarantee that the address exists) before going on with the transaction?

[BurtW]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

As long as the address is a valid bitcoin address then the network will accept it.
But if nobody has the private key to that address then you can consider those bitcoins to be out of circulation forever.

Isn't this scary? Imagine for some reason.. when copypasting an address or whatever, you don't select the last leter, then send a shitton of money into an address that doesn't exsist.. coins lost forever. Shouldnt the software guarantee that the transaction can be doable (guarantee that the address exists) before going on with the transaction?

If you paste everything except the last letter then the checksum will fail and the address is not valid so you will not be able to send any BTC to the invalid address.

If you copy it "by hand" and make a mistake, for example put in 'h' instead of 'H' then the checksum will fail, the address is invalid, you are protected.

It is possible to create an address with a valid checksum without ever knowing the private key.  The normal process for creating a Bitcoin address is:

(private key) -> (public key) -> (hash of public key) -> (append id and checksum to hash of public key) -> (base 58 encode)

but it is possible to skip the first three steps and make a valid Bitcoin address (the checksum is correct) but nobody knows or will ever know the private key.

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

is such an address.  Any BTC sent to this address are lost forever because it was created directly and the private key will never be known.

Notice the random looking stuff after 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSend, that is the checksum.

[Sonny]

if the bitcoin address didnt exist, would the transaction go through. I didn't have a good answer because I never tried it. Does the transaction go through or are the coins lost forever?

As long as the address is a valid bitcoin address then the network will accept it.
But if nobody has the private key to that address then you can consider those bitcoins to be out of circulation forever.

Isn't this scary? Imagine for some reason.. when copypasting an address or whatever, you don't select the last leter, then send a shitton of money into an address that doesn't exsist.. coins lost forever. Shouldnt the software guarantee that the transaction can be doable (guarantee that the address exists) before going on with the transaction?

There is a built-in checksum in the bitcoin address (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address#What.27s_in_an_address), and you can't send bitcoin to an invalid address.
On the other hand, you can send bitcoin to a valid address which no one has the private key (such as 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE), and you can assume the bitcoin on those addresses are lost forever.

EDIT: Just noticed BurtW has updated his post, and all my content can be found in his post lol.

[BurtW]

Sonny, beat you to it.

[safari88]

I am assuming you are using Bitcoin-qt as your client. Well, all you have to do is right click on the transaction and get the transaction ID.
You then go to blockchain.info and paste in the transaction ID.
Voila! It's much more easy to understand now.
(Note: Bitcoin-qt transactions sometimes end with -000, remove that part before pasting into blockchain.info.)

more simple again just using blockchain.info and right there it's easier to see the transaction ID and the other does not need to copy and paste: D