How probable is it to make typo & send [BTC] to a wrong address?

fredthegambler

member

Activity: 66

Merit: 10

Quote from: Omikifuse on October 29, 2014, 08:53:35 AM

Quote from: aljunking on October 29, 2014, 08:48:50 AM

You might want to use copy and paste. That way you cannot mis type your address.

it is 1 million times more likely copy the wrong address than to mistype and still have a valid address.

But paste an invalid address is unlikely if you pay attention

That is right, the thing is you need to be careful when you write down/copy your address. Check it once, check it twice and do not rush things up!

TheNinja

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

★777Coin.com★ Fun BTC Casino!

When you copy and paste, basically the only things you have to do are make sure the beginning and last letters are the same and check for trailing/leading spaces. Messing that up would mean your copy-paste function is wired incorrectly Wink

jayce

legendary

Activity: 2982

Merit: 1506

Pie Baking Contest: https://tinyurl.com/2s3z6dee

most of the time if you are in a rush you might miss another decimal. like 0.1 and you meant to send 0.01

OptimusPrime7

full member

Activity: 122

Merit: 100

Quote from: aljunking on October 29, 2014, 08:48:50 AM

You might want to use copy and paste. That way you cannot mis type your address.

A lot of people actually copy and pasted the wrong address. Guess have to double check...

Omikifuse

legendary

Activity: 1834

Merit: 1009

Quote from: aljunking on October 29, 2014, 08:48:50 AM

You might want to use copy and paste. That way you cannot mis type your address.

it is 1 million times more likely copy the wrong address than to mistype and still have a valid address.

But paste an invalid address is unlikely if you pay attention

aljunking

member

Activity: 67

Merit: 10

You might want to use copy and paste. That way you cannot mis type your address.

bitnanigans

sr. member

Activity: 266

Merit: 250

There is a checksum in a Bitcoin address, for checking the validity of that address, so it is highly unlikely to get a different valid address by just changing a few characters. It's best to always copy-paste addresses.

Pkofet

sr. member

Activity: 406

Merit: 250

There is a checksum and so it is very unlikely you can make a typo and get a wrong but valid address.
Also, you shouldn't type the address character by character but should copy and paste it. The chance of getting a typo should be fairly low.

BitCoinNutJob

legendary

Activity: 1316

Merit: 1000

This is an almost non existent risk i have found. When dealing with exchanges i get error messages anytime ive entered a wrong character. The addresses are also far too unique for there to be a accident.

jaberwock

legendary

Activity: 2660

Merit: 1074

Quote from: apolena on October 28, 2014, 03:30:01 AM

If you copy and paste, it is highly probable you would have copied the address wrongly. It is unlikely to have a typo and the client identify it as valid.

I made it wrong once, the last character was not copied. Took some time to have my coins back, but nothing was lost due to my mistake.

So it is a good idea always double check, even if you going into copy paste. Many sites don't have error check for Bitcoin addreses

Brad Pitt

member

Activity: 64

Merit: 10

I hope something like a simplier alias feature will be implemented into bitcoin or maybe a wallet to make it easier to remember or type out addresses. Maybe linking it to a number or something that you can memorize.

medUSA

legendary

Activity: 952

Merit: 1005

--Signature Designs-- http://bit.ly/1Pjbx77

The address has error correction built-in, but the problem is whether the client checks for errors? There could be clients or sites which do not check for validity of bitcoin addresses and will sent coins to wrong addresses. My frequent mistake while copying an address is 1 character short, so I normally check the first 5 and last 5 characters of an address.

Gervais

sr. member

Activity: 366

Merit: 250

You should copy and paste addresses and always at least double if not tripple check. No idea who actually types out a btc address.

BiTJack

hero member

Activity: 806

Merit: 1000

Personally i have made typos in amounts but never in send address. It's highly unlikely if you just copy paste the whole string.
It could go wrong if you paste the wrong address.

apolena

newbie

Activity: 4

Merit: 0

If you copy and paste, it is highly probable you would have copied the address wrongly. It is unlikely to have a typo and the client identify it as valid.

Candystripes

sr. member

Activity: 294

Merit: 250

***THIS ACCOUNT IS NO LONGER ACTIVE***

To be exact, one out of 4294967296 is valid

Geremia

sr. member

Activity: 507

Merit: 253

Quote from: gglon on October 27, 2014, 04:33:03 PM

For technical background see https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses

thanks!

Geremia

sr. member

Activity: 507

Merit: 253

Quote from: Rannasha on October 27, 2014, 04:31:25 PM

It is extremely unlikely as Bitcoin-addresses contain 4 bytes of checksum, that means that only 1 address in every 2^32 (which is ~4 billion) is valid.

Yes, that's what I was wondering about: whether there is a checksum in BTC address. thanks

gglon

member

Activity: 64

Merit: 10

For technical background see https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses

Rannasha

hero member

Activity: 728

Merit: 500

It is extremely unlikely as Bitcoin-addresses contain 4 bytes of checksum, that means that only 1 address in every 2^32 (which is ~4 billion) is valid.

Topic: How probable is it to make typo & send [BTC] to a wrong address? (Read 1627 times)