What is "change" ? | Bitcointalksearch.org

bitkilo

legendary

Activity: 1638

Merit: 1010

https://www.bitcoin.com/

Quote from: shorena on February 01, 2015, 03:30:00 PM

Quote from: Xiaoxiao on February 01, 2015, 02:57:56 PM

-snip-
Any difference between the 2?

Nope, change addresses are the same as regular addresses, but Electrum creates them automatically for you. When you want to spend an input (formerly received transaction) you have to spend all if it in the transaction, this is not allways what you want. Sometimes you will want to change less and thus the rest is getting send back to you.

E.g. you get 1 BTC and now want to spend .3 of it. .7 will go to your changeaddress (we ignore the fees here).

Think of it as if you had recieved a lump of gold worth 1 BTC and now want to spend it. Youd have to melt it into two parts. One to keep and one to actually spend.

Well put Shorena,
It's like paying for a $4 beer with a $50 note you can't just cut off $4 worth and give that to the bartender, you need to give them the whole $50 and they will give you $46 in change.
Bitcoin work the same way.

twister

hero member

Activity: 672

Merit: 502

Some people prefer to use one address for one transaction and which is why they use change address for the remaining balance after a transactions, if you don't want to use it you can un-check the option "use change address" in preference.

pooya87

legendary

Activity: 3472

Merit: 10611

Quote from: Xiaoxiao on February 01, 2015, 02:57:56 PM

Under main account, there is receiving with 4 or 5 addresses and then there is "change" with 3 addresses.

Any difference between the 2?

it is a good way of keeping are your small remaining amounts from previuos payments in one place so your other main addresses wont get crowded

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

Quote from: Xiaoxiao on February 01, 2015, 02:57:56 PM

-snip-
Any difference between the 2?

Nope, change addresses are the same as regular addresses, but Electrum creates them automatically for you. When you want to spend an input (formerly received transaction) you have to spend all if it in the transaction, this is not allways what you want. Sometimes you will want to change less and thus the rest is getting send back to you.

E.g. you get 1 BTC and now want to spend .3 of it. .7 will go to your changeaddress (we ignore the fees here).

Think of it as if you had recieved a lump of gold worth 1 BTC and now want to spend it. Youd have to melt it into two parts. One to keep and one to actually spend.

Xiaoxiao

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

The Golden Rule Rules

Under main account, there is receiving with 4 or 5 addresses and then there is "change" with 3 addresses.

Any difference between the 2?

Topic: What is "change" ? (Read 1142 times)