Bitcoin wrong address

3

What will happen if someone does not copy and paste the "To" address properly?

For example:
If my address is 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxA

and the person tries to send money to 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(note the missing last alphabet)

will the transaction go through and will the coins be lost?

Thanks! Ryan

Ryan

Posted 2013-05-15T22:24:00.007

Reputation: 133

Question was closed 2013-05-16T15:11:13.010

Answers

5

From the bitcoin wiki:

Several of the characters inside a Bitcoin address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be automatically found and rejected. The checksum also allows Bitcoin software to confirm that a 33-character (or shorter) address is in fact valid and isn't simply an address with a missing character.

In other words, your wallet shouldn't let you sent coins to a bad address, and servers won't accept the transaction.

Ben

Posted 2013-05-15T22:24:00.007

Reputation: 366

servers won't accept the transaction Actually, they will. Checksum info is stripped off before sending out the transaction. – Nick ODell – 2013-05-16T01:29:23.960

Thanks for replying! "a 33-character (or shorter) address is in fact valid" - what about more than 33 then? For example if there is a space in the beginning or ending? – Ryan – 2013-05-16T15:18:45.543

Nick, checksum info is part of the address - how is that possible? – Ben – 2013-05-16T23:17:02.610

Asked: 2013-05-15T22:24:00.007

Viewed: 589 times

Active: 2013-05-15T23:23:53.347