<p>There's a patch awaiting merging into the Satoshi client which allows you to see the balance on each address and pick which address(es) you want to pay from.</p>

<p>See <a href="http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous/">here</a> for more description and a video of it in action.</p>

<p>Lots of people have been showing their support for this feature by posting "+1" comments on the <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/415">pull request</a> despite requests that they stop doing so.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-13T09:58:57.793Z
FYI looks like it was finally merged into master 4 years ago (this is the updated pull request that was merged - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/3253). See also on bitcointalk - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144331

Now we just need to wait for the 0.9 release.
ripper234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-14T08:34:47.760Z
You mean 4 months ago, right?
Chris Moore
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-15T15:34:47.383Z
lol yeah 4 months :)
ripper234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-19T06:20:17.260Z
2012-03-19T06:20:17.260Z
Chris Moore
<p>Addresses are not accounts. The quantity of coins in a given address is usually meaningless, and only in specialized circumstances there exists a reason to choose a particular address to send from.</p>

<p>For example, if your first Bitcoin transaction ever was receiving 100 BTC, and then you sent 1 BTC, the balance of your receiving address will be 0, because the other 99 BTC will be sent to a new change address which you've never seen. Also, the "total balance" of an address is an abstraction on top of the collection of unspent outputs to this address.</p>

<p>The Bitcoin client chooses which outputs to use for sending with some algorithm designed to make the transaction as simple as possible (See <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1077/">What is the coin selection algorithm?</a> for discussion of the algorithm).</p>

<p>The Bitcoin command line (but not the GUI) supports accounts, which are an internal abstraction not recognized by the network. In addition you can use multiple wallet files, and Armory supports this with the GUI.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-19T06:01:51.277Z
2012-03-19T06:12:25.547Z
2017-04-13T12:47:33.610Z
Meni Rosenfeld
<p>I don't have any bitcoins yet, but I have the the wallet program called bitcoin-qt. I am wondering about the send feature. It does not seem to let me choose which address to deduct the coins from. How does that work?</p>

<p>Let's say I have 5 addresses and one coin in each and I want to send 5 coins. Does it automatically take 1 coin from each of the addresses? What if I want to take coins only from specific addresses?</p>

<p>Actually now looking at it more closely it doesn't even show which address contains coins and which one doesn't. Isn't this a bit oversimplified? </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-18T23:01:29.330Z
possible duplicate of [How can I find out the address my payment will come from?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/437/how-can-i-find-out-the-address-my-payment-will-come-from)
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-19T10:41:03.247Z
also: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2527/how-can-i-control-which-coins-to-spend-in-a-transaction
Thilo
<bitcoin-core>
Bitcoin-qt -how does it choose the address to take money from when sending btcs
domino
# Bitcoin-qt -how does it choose the address to take money from when sending btcs

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-03-18)

I don't have any bitcoins yet, but I have the the wallet program called bitcoin-qt. I am wondering about the send feature. It does not seem to let me choose which address to deduct the coins from. How does that work?

Let's say I have 5 addresses and one coin in each and I want to send 5 coins. Does it automatically take 1 coin from each of the addresses? What if I want to take coins only from specific addresses?

Actually now looking at it more closely it doesn't even show which address contains coins and which one doesn't. Isn't this a bit oversimplified?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: possible duplicate of [How can I find out the address my payment will come from?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/437/how-can-i-find-out-the-address-my-payment-will-come-from)  
> **username_2**: also: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2527/how-can-i-control-which-coins-to-spend-in-a-transaction  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-03-19. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Addresses are not accounts. The quantity of coins in a given address is usually meaningless, and only in specialized circumstances there exists a reason to choose a particular address to send from.

For example, if your first Bitcoin transaction ever was receiving 100 BTC, and then you sent 1 BTC, the balance of your receiving address will be 0, because the other 99 BTC will be sent to a new change address which you've never seen. Also, the "total balance" of an address is an abstraction on top of the collection of unspent outputs to this address.

The Bitcoin client chooses which outputs to use for sending with some algorithm designed to make the transaction as simple as possible (See [What is the coin selection algorithm?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1077/) for discussion of the algorithm).

The Bitcoin command line (but not the GUI) supports accounts, which are an internal abstraction not recognized by the network. In addition you can use multiple wallet files, and Armory supports this with the GUI.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2012-03-19. Score: 5

There's a patch awaiting merging into the Satoshi client which allows you to see the balance on each address and pick which address(es) you want to pay from.

See [here](http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous/) for more description and a video of it in action.

Lots of people have been showing their support for this feature by posting "+1" comments on the [pull request](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/415) despite requests that they stop doing so.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: FYI looks like it was finally merged into master 4 years ago (this is the updated pull request that was merged - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/3253). See also on bitcointalk - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144331  Now we just need to wait for the 0.9 release.  
> **username_3**: You mean 4 months ago, right?  
> **username_4**: lol yeah 4 months :)  

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