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Topic: What happens to funds sent to invalid payment address? - page 3. (Read 4321 times)

legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1137
All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
If you lose your wallet.dat file you lose any bitcoins in it since you just lost your private keys.  The public address is just that the public address used to send bitcoins to you.  You need the private key(s) to spend/send/access the coins so be sure to back up your wallet.dat file before you lose it!
newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
So if I re-built my machine, and made note of my address on a text pad, is there any way I can get it back?
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1137
All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
Refunded by whom?

Here is my favorite address you can use if you want to burn some Bitcoins.  If you send your coins to it they will be lost forever, just like the address says!

http://firstbits.com/1bitcoin = 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE



newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
i used to think in that case, btc will be refunded  Cry
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
There is a built in checksum in Bitcoin address.  The odds in mistyping an address and it being a wrong but still valid address are about 1 in 4 billion.

If you type an invalid address the client will prevent you from creating the transaction.  If you are running custom code and not doing validation it is possible to send coins to "nowhere" and make them lost forever.  Just ask Mt. Gox.

If you type a valid not wrong address then the funds will be sent there.  If by pure luck (odds are >2^210 against it) someone has a private key for that address they get your coins.  If not then those coins are lost (unless someone creates a private key in the future for that address which is so unlikely you might as well consider it 0.0%).
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
Its like fumbling for your house-keys and accidentally dropping a 10 dollar bill while you do so....digital cash is still very much like cash in some very immediate senses.
member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
I think the solution to this is to always copy and paste. I wouldn't ever think of typing one of those bitcoin addresses manually.
hero member
Activity: 590
Merit: 500
it won't send to an invalid address.

it will send to a non-existent address, in which case the coins are fairly much lost forever. there is a (ridiculously) small chance that someone in the future will randomly generate that address and get some free coin through
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0
If you mis-type an address, often Bitcoin will catch it. There is a build in check that sees if the address looks right.
full member
Activity: 140
Merit: 100
Lost forever.
hero member
Activity: 566
Merit: 500
Well this is a real newbie question, for which I hope someone can give no-brains response.

Are the funds

1.) lost in limbo
2.) returned to the sender in some way
3.) not possible to send to previously nonexistent address

Thanks!  Grin
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