<p><strong>Bitcoin payments are irreversible</strong></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Any transaction issued with Bitcoin cannot be reversed, they can only
  be refunded by the person receiving the funds. That means you should
  take care to do business with people and organizations you know and
  trust, or who have an established reputation. For their part,
  businesses need to keep control of the payment requests they are
  displaying to their customers. Bitcoin can detect typos and usually
  won't let you send money to an invalid address by mistake. Additional
  services might exist in the future to provide more choice and
  protection for the consumer.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No, they might not be lost. Addresses can both be used both for sending and receiving transactions. You have sent them to one of your own addresses. In your case you transferred to another address you own. So your wallet will have a new total minus the transaction cost. So technically, you could refund yourself again but you will loose another transaction cost. </p>

<p><strong>Crucial note:</strong>
All of this depends on your wallet. Some online wallet services share addresses between different users, so you want to be careful if you are using one of those. </p>

<p>If you are using the standard client, all your addresses are fully under your control and are safe to receive transactions.</p>

<p><a href="http://bitcoin.org/en/you-need-to-know" rel="noreferrer">Source</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-04T13:43:18.543Z
There's some other problem then. My wallet's balance remains unchanged and the transaction isn't reflected. I'm using the Bitcoin-Qt application. Any advice?
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-04T13:51:13.383Z
It's probably worth noting: this is a wallet I discovered unused for a while and I decided to “buy back in”. It had a zero balance. I had bought some bitcoin through Coinbase, and transferred to the address I mentioned around December 26. According to your sources, I should've still received the amount.
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T02:36:30.573Z
Are you synchronized with the blockchain? Any specific error? In the debug terminal type`bitcoin-qt -reindex` this will rebuild the database. I am using Linux so not sure with other o/systems.
Jonathan Rogiest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T17:27:30.680Z
Yes; Bitcoin-Qt reports that it's up to date (green checkbox), and no specific errors. I'll try issuing that command, and report back. There's another oddity here. If you search for transactions with the address I used ([reference](https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV)), you'll see three. The most recent is the one that's missing and would like to recover. The latter two are for 0.01 (a send and receive I can't explain). In Bitcoin-Qt, those latter two transactions are shown with conflicting dates _and_ amounts (0.02) ([screenshot](http://imgur.com/YgX7UpH)).
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T20:02:01.883Z
The address [link](https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV) you are mentioning is that your own address? Or did you send it to an address you do not own?
Jonathan Rogiest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T23:30:05.463Z
That is definitely an address I own, which the oddity that it comes from a list that's labeled as sending addresses ([screenshot](http://imgur.com/wRboWc8)). By the way, still reindexing those blocks as recommended.
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-06T01:52:47.677Z
Rebuild had no effect. I'm guessing this is a lost cause.
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-06T02:38:23.620Z
Use your keys to create a new wallet. Your current wallet could be corrupted. But it's definitely not a lost cause.
Jonathan Rogiest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-06T21:55:35.553Z
I think the mystery is partly solved. I tried using `-salvagewallet` to recover, and when the operation completed, I noticed the address I used for the Coinbase transfer was missing from the addresses list. Curious, I reverted to the previous wallet file (a backup made by salvage), and tried running `dumpprivkey 1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV` from the debug console. It reports `Private key for address 1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV is not known`. Wherever that address came from (that's the mystery now), it looks like I'm missing the private key for it and the 0.05 BTC I sent to it.
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-06T21:56:34.260Z
In short, your answer is correct—but it's pretty clear I've had some wallet corruption here.
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-19T18:46:26.560Z
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet
Jonathan Rogiest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-26T17:59:46.890Z
2013-12-26T17:59:46.890Z
Jonathan Rogiest
<p>In a moment of carelessness, I mistakenly used one of my wallet's <em>sending</em> addresses as the recipient for a transfer from a bitcoin exchange. The exchange confirms the transaction completed, but nothing shows up on my end. Is there any way to recover the amount?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-26T18:47:11.390Z
There is no such thing as a "sending address" in general. If you have some specific context where that means something, it would be very helpful if you explained what that was. Also, the term "wallet" can refer to anything. Presumably, you have some specific service in mind. It would be very helpful if you told us what precisely you meant.
David Schwartz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-27T22:55:57.543Z
@DavidSchwartz, I thought so, but I haven't yet seen the transaction appear in my client (Bitcoin-Qt). There's a top-level tab called “Addresses” which has a subtext: these are your Bitcoin addresses for sending payments. For some boneheaded reason, I accidentally selected the address in the listbox and used that as the recipient for a transfer away from Coinbase. Visit https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV and look the most recent transaction. By the way, there's a discrepancy between transactions on that site and in my client. Might my wallet corrupted some how?
Michael Ahlers
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-11T06:42:54.810Z
Is your bitcoind running and up-to-date?  I had troubles with my bitcoind some days ago, it was spending too much memory and stopped loading new blocks due to spam attacks.  Solved it by temporary adjusting minrelaytxfee=0.005 (basically, ignoring almost all the unconfirmed transactions).  Replacing bitcoin-core with bitcoinXT may also help.
tobixen
<wallet><address>
Can I Recover Bitcoins Transferred to a “Sending” Address?
Michael Ahlers
# Can I Recover Bitcoins Transferred to a “Sending” Address?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-26)

In a moment of carelessness, I mistakenly used one of my wallet's *sending* addresses as the recipient for a transfer from a bitcoin exchange. The exchange confirms the transaction completed, but nothing shows up on my end. Is there any way to recover the amount?

**Tags:** wallet, address

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is no such thing as a "sending address" in general. If you have some specific context where that means something, it would be very helpful if you explained what that was. Also, the term "wallet" can refer to anything. Presumably, you have some specific service in mind. It would be very helpful if you told us what precisely you meant.  
> **username_0**: @username_1, I thought so, but I haven't yet seen the transaction appear in my client (Bitcoin-Qt). There's a top-level tab called “Addresses” which has a subtext: these are your Bitcoin addresses for sending payments. For some boneheaded reason, I accidentally selected the address in the listbox and used that as the recipient for a transfer away from Coinbase. Visit https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV and look the most recent transaction. By the way, there's a discrepancy between transactions on that site and in my client. Might my wallet corrupted some how?  
> **username_2**: Is your bitcoind running and up-to-date?  I had troubles with my bitcoind some days ago, it was spending too much memory and stopped loading new blocks due to spam attacks.  Solved it by temporary adjusting minrelaytxfee=0.005 (basically, ignoring almost all the unconfirmed transactions).  Replacing bitcoin-core with bitcoinXT may also help.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2013-12-26. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

**Bitcoin payments are irreversible**

> Any transaction issued with Bitcoin cannot be reversed, they can only
> be refunded by the person receiving the funds. That means you should
> take care to do business with people and organizations you know and
> trust, or who have an established reputation. For their part,
> businesses need to keep control of the payment requests they are
> displaying to their customers. Bitcoin can detect typos and usually
> won't let you send money to an invalid address by mistake. Additional
> services might exist in the future to provide more choice and
> protection for the consumer.

No, they might not be lost. Addresses can both be used both for sending and receiving transactions. You have sent them to one of your own addresses. In your case you transferred to another address you own. So your wallet will have a new total minus the transaction cost. So technically, you could refund yourself again but you will loose another transaction cost.

**Crucial note:**
All of this depends on your wallet. Some online wallet services share addresses between different users, so you want to be careful if you are using one of those.

If you are using the standard client, all your addresses are fully under your control and are safe to receive transactions.

[Source](http://bitcoin.org/en/you-need-to-know)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: There's some other problem then. My wallet's balance remains unchanged and the transaction isn't reflected. I'm using the Bitcoin-Qt application. Any advice?  
> **username_0**: It's probably worth noting: this is a wallet I discovered unused for a while and I decided to “buy back in”. It had a zero balance. I had bought some bitcoin through Coinbase, and transferred to the address I mentioned around December 26. According to your sources, I should've still received the amount.  
> **username_3**: Are you synchronized with the blockchain? Any specific error? In the debug terminal type`bitcoin-qt -reindex` this will rebuild the database. I am using Linux so not sure with other o/systems.  
> **username_0**: Yes; Bitcoin-Qt reports that it's up to date (green checkbox), and no specific errors. I'll try issuing that command, and report back. There's another oddity here. If you search for transactions with the address I used ([reference](https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV)), you'll see three. The most recent is the one that's missing and would like to recover. The latter two are for 0.01 (a send and receive I can't explain). In Bitcoin-Qt, those latter two transactions are shown with conflicting dates _and_ amounts (0.02) ([screenshot](http://imgur.com/YgX7UpH)).  
> **username_3**: The address [link](https://blockchain.info/address/1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV) you are mentioning is that your own address? Or did you send it to an address you do not own?  
> **username_0**: That is definitely an address I own, which the oddity that it comes from a list that's labeled as sending addresses ([screenshot](http://imgur.com/wRboWc8)). By the way, still reindexing those blocks as recommended.  
> **username_0**: Rebuild had no effect. I'm guessing this is a lost cause.  
> **username_3**: Use your keys to create a new wallet. Your current wallet could be corrupted. But it's definitely not a lost cause.  
> **username_0**: I think the mystery is partly solved. I tried using `-salvagewallet` to recover, and when the operation completed, I noticed the address I used for the Coinbase transfer was missing from the addresses list. Curious, I reverted to the previous wallet file (a backup made by salvage), and tried running `dumpprivkey 1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV` from the debug console. It reports `Private key for address 1BbNoWd5wgEKkjbFskdYcxeTAhE7dWiXpV is not known`. Wherever that address came from (that's the mystery now), it looks like I'm missing the private key for it and the 0.05 BTC I sent to it.  
> **username_0**: In short, your answer is correct—but it's pretty clear I've had some wallet corruption here.  
> **username_3**: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet  

---

