<p>I don't know why the description cannot be edited, that sounds like an implementation quirk. You could try looking at the Electrum documentation or inquiring on the <a href="https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Electrum GitHub project</a>, if nobody else here can tell you.</p>
<p>The address description is your reference to identify what invoice the address belongs to. Some wallets include the description when sharing the address as QR-codes, or even have separate fields for your reference and a message to the sender. Generally, wallet addresses are neither registered nor gossiped on the Bitcoin network, they are just transferred out of band from receivers to senders when the receivers indicate how they'd like to get paid.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T14:41:16.030Z
Thanks for helping out... I did submit an [issue](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/6650) on GitHub a while back, but still don't understand the privacy implications of using the description field.  Perhaps you can shed light on this?
sunknudsen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T16:35:54.540Z
[Bitcoin Electrum](https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-use-the-electrum-receive-tab/ states that "the Description is not shared with anyone and is only for your reference". However, screenshots in the [Electrum Docs](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/merchant.html#open-the-payment-request-page-in-your-browser) show what appears to be the description in the request to be shown to the sender. — It is my impression that Electrum includes the Description in Payment Requests when presented to the sender. Unfortunately, I have no personal experience using Electrum.
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T12:59:24.123Z
2021-03-08T12:59:24.123Z
Murch
<p>Exploring Electrum and see that I can add a description when generating a receiving address.</p>
<p>The description cannot be edited later... would you happen to know why? And is that description public domain?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T16:24:28.377Z
Could you clarify what you mean with "is … public domain"? Nobody can see the user data of your local Electrum instance. Do you mean whether it gets shared with the receiver when you share the payment request?
Murch
<address><electrum><multi-signature>
Is receiving address description public domain?
sunknudsen
# Is receiving address description public domain?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-07)

Exploring Electrum and see that I can add a description when generating a receiving address.

The description cannot be edited later... would you happen to know why? And is that description public domain?

**Tags:** address, electrum, multi-signature

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could you clarify what you mean with "is … public domain"? Nobody can see the user data of your local Electrum instance. Do you mean whether it gets shared with the receiver when you share the payment request?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-03-08. Score: 1

I don't know why the description cannot be edited, that sounds like an implementation quirk. You could try looking at the Electrum documentation or inquiring on the [Electrum GitHub project](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum), if nobody else here can tell you.

The address description is your reference to identify what invoice the address belongs to. Some wallets include the description when sharing the address as QR-codes, or even have separate fields for your reference and a message to the sender. Generally, wallet addresses are neither registered nor gossiped on the Bitcoin network, they are just transferred out of band from receivers to senders when the receivers indicate how they'd like to get paid.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for helping out... I did submit an [issue](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/6650) on GitHub a while back, but still don't understand the privacy implications of using the description field.  Perhaps you can shed light on this?  
> **username_1**: [Bitcoin Electrum](https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-use-the-electrum-receive-tab/ states that "the Description is not shared with anyone and is only for your reference". However, screenshots in the [Electrum Docs](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/merchant.html#open-the-payment-request-page-in-your-browser) show what appears to be the description in the request to be shown to the sender. — It is my impression that Electrum includes the Description in Payment Requests when presented to the sender. Unfortunately, I have no personal experience using Electrum.  

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