See it's preety clear that YOU sent YOUR money YOURSELF to a user,even if it was a mistake,he has right to keep or spend it.
Then it is obvious that your BTC is gone and you can only get it back if the receiver is generous enough to return you the sum.
Topic: If i send my bitcoins to a wrong address, what happens? - page 12. (Read 18063 times)
If you have send your coins to wrong address it's the same like you have lost them. Unless that other person don't pay you back which is not likely. Bitcoin it's not a physical thing that you can get back.
But it's good to check the address twice and don't write it manualy, use the copy paste options. Very often people lose their coins only because they are reckless or stupid. Don't be one of them.
But it's good to check the address twice and don't write it manualy, use the copy paste options. Very often people lose their coins only because they are reckless or stupid. Don't be one of them.
if you do. just send an email to the owner of the incorrect answer and request your dough back? why would there be an error?
btw there's a checksum in case you get one letter/number wrong. but why would that happen?
btw there's a checksum in case you get one letter/number wrong. but why would that happen?
It's simply numbers assigned to addresses and that's it.
It's not even that. Numbers assigned to addresses is an abstraction that we humans use to make discussions about transfer of value easier. Technically, the value is represented as a number that is encumbered with a requirement that must be met before being allowed to divide up and encumber portions of that number with a requirement of their own.
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It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.
I've thought about that - I believe generating batches of keys and scanning the blockchain for keys with a balance is going to be prohibitively expensive. As in, not entirely unlike the lottery of running a solo cpu miner, but with vastly more variance in the payoff.
If you solo mine with a cpu you might get a block within 200 years which contains a few bitcoins plus transaction fees. If you generate keys of addresses and check to see if they hold anything, you might get a hit within 500000 years worth a few millibits or microbits.
Finally they let me post on here... I learned the hard way and believe this post should be resurrected for newbs to the currency. Don't let the "coin" part of bitcoin fool you into thinking it's not worth much. On the other hand, realize that it is "coin". Just like giving a rare coin to a homeless guy on the street, you MAY never see it again if you make a mistake...
I think a reason bitcoin is so difficult to understand for newbies is because it's name is so misguiding. Bitcoin is not a coin. It is not a physical thing. You can't touch it or hold it. It acts like cash but it in no way resembles cash. It's simply numbers assigned to addresses and that's it.
Yes you lose them unless the stranger is kind enough to send them back.
Finally they let me post on here... I learned the hard way and believe this post should be resurrected for newbs to the currency. Don't let the "coin" part of bitcoin fool you into thinking it's not worth much. On the other hand, realize that it is "coin". Just like giving a rare coin to a homeless guy on the street, you MAY never see it again if you make a mistake...
As far as I know they get lost 
What happens if I will send to an invalid address, which passes the built-in check??
They are lost. Look at the Address Astro posted above. The right to transfer (= the ownership) of a coin is granted by the possession of the private key of the address where the coin was last transferred to.
What happens if I will send to an invalid address, which passes the built-in check??
In a couple of years, with so many coins lost this way, not sure many will be left, since bitcoins are limited to 21 million and losing coins by sending them to wrong address's will keep on happening. Anyone can make a simple mistake copying the address, even though it's easy.
Yes, it's like with cash and washing machines. So much gets destroyed, they even need to print new notes all the time!
21million will be plenty - even with lost coins. if and when bitcoin actually takes off, 1btc will be a pretty large amount. i wouldnt be surprised if day to day transactions would be <1 btc... loaf of bread: .00001 btc, pack of smokes: .0002 btc, etc. there is plenty of room to divide a single bitcoin that lost bitcoins wont really matter.
Yeah you might want to take that comment with a grain of salt. Your particle analogy seems a bit exaggerated though.
There are somewhere between 10^72 an 10^87 particles in the universe. The keyspace is 2^160, or around 10^48. So yeah, it is exaggerated.
ok, so if I pick some random guy on the street and put my wallet in his pocket when he's not looking, what are the chances that he's gonna find me after the fact and return it? Not great, but it's possible 
If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.
I don't think you fully appreciate how vast the keyspace is. Mining is like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding an address is like finding a particle in one of many universes, where there's as many universes as there are particles in each universe.Yeah you might want to take that comment with a grain of salt. Your particle analogy seems a bit exaggerated though.
If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.
I don't think you fully appreciate how vast the keyspace is. Mining is like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding an address is like finding a particle in one of many universes, where there's as many universes as there are particles in each universe. 
If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.
I've thought about that - I believe generating batches of keys and scanning the blockchain for keys with a balance is going to be prohibitively expensive. As in, not entirely unlike the lottery of running a solo cpu miner, but with vastly more variance in the payoff.
If that happens on a regularly basis I might switch to "mine" addresses by creating new ones until I get one of those "forever lost" coins.
I've thought about that - I believe generating batches of keys and scanning the blockchain for keys with a balance is going to be prohibitively expensive. As in, not entirely unlike the lottery of running a solo cpu miner, but with vastly more variance in the payoff.
In a couple of years, with so many coins lost this way, not sure many will be left, since bitcoins are limited to 21 million and losing coins by sending them to wrong address's will keep on happening. Anyone can make a simple mistake copying the address, even though it's easy.
Yes, it's like with cash and washing machines. So much gets destroyed, they even need to print new notes all the time!
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