<p>There is no relation at all between the two addresses, except that they're owned by the same person/wallet.</p>
<p>At the protocol level, &quot;change&quot; does not exist. It's just another output (with a corresponding address), indistinguishable from normal &quot;payment&quot; outputs. It is your wallet that's creating it: it needs a place to send the remainder of a spent UTXO of yours that you don't actually want to transfer, so it creates a new address of its own (just like you'd do when receiving funds), and sends the remainder there. And it stays there, until there is a need to spend those funds. It could send them back to the same address, but this would be a serious privacy leak (it lets people distinguish change from payment), and have no cost advantage.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T05:19:57.993Z
If my wallet is creating the "change address", how do I know or have assurance that I own the bitcoin that is inside the change address? All I started with was the sending address, which I know I have the private key for. The change address, however, I do not have a 2nd private key for.
user610620
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T13:28:58.213Z
You obviously have to trust the software you're using to do the right thing. Your wallet, if functioning properly, does have the private key for the change output it itself creates.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T14:36:23.033Z
How would i then next send Bitcoin from the change address to someone, instead of from my original wallet?
user610620
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T14:47:44.130Z
Your wallet manages all the addresses, both receive addresses and change addresses, and will show you as balance the sum of all funds it can control across all of them. You don't need to care about what is in which.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T15:26:28.083Z
What is the maximum number of change addresses that a wallet can generate?
user610620
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T15:52:50.357Z
That depends on the wallet software, but usually, practically unlimited.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T16:21:08.793Z
Ledger Nano is the wallet.
user610620
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-29T18:35:52.380Z
2021-01-29T20:31:34.227Z
2021-01-29T20:31:34.227Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>It doesn't interact with the &quot;original address&quot;. It's just another address in the wallet. The wallet keeps track of all of its addresses, receiving and change.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T14:38:06.057Z
How to get a list of change addresses my "wallet keeps track of", say on a Ledger?
user610620
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-29T18:31:26.497Z
2021-01-29T18:31:26.497Z
Ava Chow
<p>change address is an additional address inside a wallet, which u can create with a raw transaction with 2 outputs.</p>
<p><strong>What I want to know is how does this change address interact with the (for a lack of words) &quot;original&quot; address, when sending money back to the &quot;original&quot; address.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Does the change address have a pre-written script which sends BTC back to &quot;original&quot; address?</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-09T05:21:19.117Z
by 2 outputs, do you mean you are sending to 2 real people separately in the same single transaction? or is the 2nd output your way of saying the change address that goes back to you?
user610620
<address><change>
How does change address interact with original address
Keba
# How does change address interact with original address

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-29)

change address is an additional address inside a wallet, which u can create with a raw transaction with 2 outputs.

**What I want to know is how does this change address interact with the (for a lack of words) "original" address, when sending money back to the "original" address.**

**Does the change address have a pre-written script which sends BTC back to "original" address?**

**Tags:** address, change

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: by 2 outputs, do you mean you are sending to 2 real people separately in the same single transaction? or is the 2nd output your way of saying the change address that goes back to you?  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-01-29. Score: 3

There is no relation at all between the two addresses, except that they're owned by the same person/wallet.

At the protocol level, "change" does not exist. It's just another output (with a corresponding address), indistinguishable from normal "payment" outputs. It is your wallet that's creating it: it needs a place to send the remainder of a spent UTXO of yours that you don't actually want to transfer, so it creates a new address of its own (just like you'd do when receiving funds), and sends the remainder there. And it stays there, until there is a need to spend those funds. It could send them back to the same address, but this would be a serious privacy leak (it lets people distinguish change from payment), and have no cost advantage.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If my wallet is creating the "change address", how do I know or have assurance that I own the bitcoin that is inside the change address? All I started with was the sending address, which I know I have the private key for. The change address, however, I do not have a 2nd private key for.  
> **username_2**: You obviously have to trust the software you're using to do the right thing. Your wallet, if functioning properly, does have the private key for the change output it itself creates.  
> **username_1**: How would i then next send Bitcoin from the change address to someone, instead of from my original wallet?  
> **username_2**: Your wallet manages all the addresses, both receive addresses and change addresses, and will show you as balance the sum of all funds it can control across all of them. You don't need to care about what is in which.  
> **username_1**: What is the maximum number of change addresses that a wallet can generate?  
> **username_2**: That depends on the wallet software, but usually, practically unlimited.  
> **username_1**: Ledger Nano is the wallet.  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2021-01-29. Score: 2

It doesn't interact with the "original address". It's just another address in the wallet. The wallet keeps track of all of its addresses, receiving and change.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: How to get a list of change addresses my "wallet keeps track of", say on a Ledger?  

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