1
Is it possible to limit the amount of change addresses used by electrum (and other wallets)?
I understand that change addresses will increase the level of privacy for the current user but it will also increase the transaction fees which you need to pay. The size of a transaction will be higher when more inputs (or ouputs) are needed for the transaction. Therefore i would like to limit the amount of addresses my bitcoin will be splitted to.
2
Having change addresses does not change the transaction fee at all.
Whether to use change addresses that are distinct or identical to one of the receive addresses is independent from whether or not to use change.
Change is created whenever the coins (transaction outputs) that are spent by the transaction do not perfectly match the sent amounts. Change results in a separate coin, independent of what address it is sent to. And separate coins need to be spent separately, independent of whether they were sent to distinct or equal addresses.
As a result, change addresses do not affect the size of transactions.
2
Possible duplicate of How does change work in a bitcoin transaction?
– Pieter Wuille – 2017-02-06T20:45:50.093I'm a bit split about the answer and duplicate suggestion here. The answer addresses the underlying misconception leading to the question of the asker, so I'd say it is a valid answer. Yet the duplicate addresses only the resulting question. Each of the three parts only fits together partially. It would probably be easiest if the question would be adapted to fit the answer and the the remaining part of the question would then be covered by the linked. – Murch – 2017-03-04T11:35:32.140