1
Could you please help me understand these observations related to Bitcoin transaction?
I have setup a brand new wallet from scratch and I sent 0.0246 BTC to it (well, slightly more but after the fees are deducted, that is the amount I see in my wallet). So it looks like this.
(Bunch of other addresses here) => 14xEotnA... 0.0246 BTC
That one on the right side being my wallet.
Then I have sent 0.0125 BTC to a friend, and this is what I see:
(My address) => 1PkhkZ... 0.0125
1MRQY... 0.0119056 BTC
So that second bit shows how much is left in my wallet, but the wallet address is now a totally different string?
UPDATE: Yes, this is a duplicate. The answer suggested at the top of the page is a valid answer and was helpful.
Note: a wallet is a collection of addresses. A good wallet will create a new address for very transaction. – chytrik – 2019-02-16T01:48:05.407
So at the end of each transaction, the current wallet goes to zero and all the rest of the funds that were not sent will appear in a new address? – mbilyanov – 2019-02-16T07:33:03.703
@symbolix a transaction will spend one or more UTXOs (and each one is spent entirely, you cannot only spend half a UTXO, etc). Any excess BTC beyond what was transacted is sent to a new address, called a change address. – chytrik – 2019-02-16T11:32:07.537
But that address is just a variant of our original public address? Can I reuse the old address? – mbilyanov – 2019-02-16T11:35:52.477
it is not a ‘variant’, it is a new address. You can reuse the old address but this is highly discouraged for privacy reasons, and for security reasons as well (though perhaps less pertinently). A good wallet will automatically give you a new address for every transaction. – chytrik – 2019-02-17T07:03:29.237
Ok. I understand now. Everytime I send BTC to someone my funds keep moving to new addresses (the change). What about receiving? Me receiving address is changing again in that case? What if someone sends me BTC to one of the previous addresses? – mbilyanov – 2019-02-17T11:28:12.560