<p>There is a patch for the client available to let you choose specifically which addresses to use when spending.
 - <a href="http://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/415">http://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/415</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-02T16:55:50.390Z
2011-09-02T16:55:50.390Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>There is really no such thing as the "address my payment will come from". Transactions can pull in coins from any number of sources which may or may not be associated with addresses. It is definitely not recommended to try to identify payments based on the source address.</p>

<p>If you need to associate a particular payment with a person or account, use an individualized receiving address.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-20T09:38:39.313Z
`Transactions can pull in coins from any number of sources which may or may not be associated with addresses` What sources more than addresses are there? AFAIK internally every address holds it's own balance. Wallet balance shown in the Qt client is just sum of balance of all the addresses. No more no less.
Petr Peller
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-24T01:32:21.153Z
It's been a few years since this question was asked, but the answer is that there is no rule that every UTXO must be associated with an address.
David Schwartz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-07T00:01:49.050Z
2011-09-07T00:01:49.050Z
David Schwartz
<p>The current client does not allow you to select a specific address to pay <em>from</em>, and this would be ambiguous anyway because the payment may come from multiple addresses. So you don't know what addresses you are sending from until you make the payment.  It does, however, allow you to generate addresses to pay <em>to</em>.</p>

<p>The way a merchant usually associates transactions with a specific user or order is to generate a new unique payment address. Using the client, or the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/API_reference_%28JSON-RPC%29">json api</a>, the merchant can easily see when the unique address receives the payment and then credit the users account appropriately.</p>

<p>If you want to see what addresses you where paid from in the past then one way is to look up the transaction (most likely using the receiving address) at <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/">block explorer</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-10T14:28:38.610Z
About the last point, see [this related answer](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/750#765).
Stéphane Gimenez
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-02T13:54:55.383Z
2011-09-02T14:02:19.550Z
2011-09-02T14:02:19.550Z
Joshua Kolden
<p>Can I find out the address I am going send from before making a payment? And could this be useful for merchants that want to identify my transaction?</p>

<commerce><address><payment>
How can I find out the address my payment will come from?
nmat
# How can I find out the address my payment will come from?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-09-02)

Can I find out the address I am going send from before making a payment? And could this be useful for merchants that want to identify my transaction?

**Tags:** commerce, address, payment


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2011-09-02. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

The current client does not allow you to select a specific address to pay *from*, and this would be ambiguous anyway because the payment may come from multiple addresses. So you don't know what addresses you are sending from until you make the payment. It does, however, allow you to generate addresses to pay *to*.

The way a merchant usually associates transactions with a specific user or order is to generate a new unique payment address. Using the client, or the [json api](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/API_reference_%28JSON-RPC%29), the merchant can easily see when the unique address receives the payment and then credit the users account appropriately.

If you want to see what addresses you where paid from in the past then one way is to look up the transaction (most likely using the receiving address) at [block explorer](http://blockexplorer.com/).

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: About the last point, see [this related answer](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/750#765).  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2011-09-02. Score: 8

There is a patch for the client available to let you choose specifically which addresses to use when spending.
- <http://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/415>


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### Answer by username_2 on 2011-09-07. Score: 3

There is really no such thing as the "address my payment will come from". Transactions can pull in coins from any number of sources which may or may not be associated with addresses. It is definitely not recommended to try to identify payments based on the source address.

If you need to associate a particular payment with a person or account, use an individualized receiving address.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: `Transactions can pull in coins from any number of sources which may or may not be associated with addresses` What sources more than addresses are there? AFAIK internally every address holds it's own balance. Wallet balance shown in the Qt client is just sum of balance of all the addresses. No more no less.  
> **username_2**: It's been a few years since this question was asked, but the answer is that there is no rule that every UTXO must be associated with an address.  

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