3
Normally, a transaction output will contain a list of address + amount. Each element in this list has an associate output number, "vout". For example:
Transaction outputs:
vout=0: addr=m111111, amount=100
vout=1: addr=m222222, amount=200
My question is: would it be legal for a transaction output to contain the same target address more than once? Take for instance the example below, where address "m222222" appears in vout=1 and vout=2:
vout=0: addr=m111111, amount=100
vout=1: addr=m222222, amount=100
vout=2: addr=m222222, amount=100
I know this seems silly. I'm just wondering if it is the sort of thing one might encounter "in the wild".
In fact, there really couldn't be such a protocol rule because bitcoin addresses aren't protocol-level structures. They're just convenient ways for humans to refer to the keys used to claim transaction outputs. Two transaction outputs that happen to be claimable with the same key would just appear to be two valid transaction outputs to the protocol. – David Schwartz – 2012-08-20T00:19:09.383