What Happens When I Mistakenly Transfer My Bitcoin To A Wrong Address?

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Before Bitcoin is sent to the wrong address, it's either the sender mistakenly copied the wrong address or sent the coin to the old address of the receiver, which they no longer have access to, but definitely the bitcoin will be delivered to that address.

If the sender deletes one letter from the wallet address, which is a combination of 42 scattered letters, then there will be an error message stating that the wallet is not correct. But if they delete one or more letters and replace them with another letter, I think that the bitcoin may still be delivered to that address. The way to confirm if the bitcoin was delivered to such addresses is to scan the address on Blockchair.

[tranthidung]

Before Bitcoin is sent to the wrong address, it's either the sender mistakenly copied the wrong address or sent the coin to the old address of the receiver, which they no longer have access to, but definitely the bitcoin will be delivered to that address.

They are two situations but there are more such as malwares will change address and send it to the address of hacker rather than address of receiver.

I would like to always check address two or three times and always do a mini transaction to test. If it comes to a right address of the receiver and I get confirmation from the receiver, I will complete the trade with rest value on a second transaction.

Bitcoin transaction is irreversible when it is already confirmed by miners with at least one confirmation. After it has 1 confirmation and more, you lose that bitcoin and can not revert it back to you.

[0t3p0t]

Let's assume there really is an error either it's on your fault, internet, your device or whatsoever possible factors since Bitcoins transactions are irreversible therefore you are generous enough to accidentally copied someone's Bitcoin address on your clipboad and then it's gone. Lucky for you if you set super low fees on that transaction as it took too long to confirm and you still have time to cancel that or else you will end up bankrupt depending on how much you've sent. But yeah this is an isolated case so no worries.

[Pitter]

As far i know that Bitcoin transactions are irreversible.Once a transaction is confirmed and added to the blockchain, it cannot be undone.This means that if you send Bitcoin to the wrong address, you are unlikely to be able to recover it.you can try to contact them and explain the situation.They may be willing to return the funds to you, although there is no guarantee.
Some cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets have customer support services that you can contact in such situations.While they may not be able to reverse the transaction, they may be able to provide guidance or assistance. Some cryptocurrencies and platforms offer features like reverse transactions or multi-signature wallets that can provide an extra layer of security and protection against mistakes.
Prevention is key in avoiding such mistakes in cryptocurrency.

[Z-tight]

You can mistakenly send your funds into a wrong BTC address if you are attacked by a clipboard malware that changes your address into that of a scammer, or if you are attacked by dust and you copy the scammers address from your wallet tx history instead of from your address' tab. These are the ways you can send funds to a scammer.

However, if you are using a good wallet software and you make a mistake with one or two characters, the address becomes an invalid address and your wallet should notify you about that, in order for you to double check and correct your mistake.

[Stompix]

No one can send Bitcoin to an incorrect address, if you send Bitcoin to a correct address then before 4 confirmation you can delete the transaction but you will incur a fee. Electrum wallet gives that feature.

Wait a minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You say you can delete a transaction from your electrum wallet after 3 confirmations?
On what planet is that possible?

1. When Bitcoin is sent to the wrong address, the funds are typically deducted from the sender, and the transaction is approved.
2. There is a 1/100 chance that someone else might receive the funds.

Completely false!

First!
There is a 1 in 2³² chance of mistyping a valid address, that's 1 in 4.2 billions (and a bit)
Second!
There are 2¹⁶⁰ possible addresses and only around 2³¹ addresses ever used.

So, let me put this in numbers:
You have a 1 in 4294967296 chance to hit one of the 1461501637330902918203684832716283019655932542976 valid addresses out of which the 1239567421 addresses ever used by somebody!

That means after getting a valid address from your mistype  you have a 1 in 1179041667076812101276173901275212764594 chance to hit a previously used address!

[TopT3ns]

~
However, if you are using a good wallet software and you make a mistake with one or two characters, the address becomes an invalid address and your wallet should notify you about that, in order for you to double check and correct your mistake.

Yeah that's the advantage when you use a third-party wallet such as Ledger or Electrum, but what you need to pay attention to now is that when you want to make a transaction in Bitcoin, it seems like the focus is on providing information like that, including that when you are at the exchange, there will be several confirmations when you want to do it. When sending assets in the form of Bitcoin, make sure you look at the network used, and the recipient's address must match, because if it differs by one letter, the asset will move to another wallet.

[Tribalchief]

Completely false!

First!
There is a 1 in 2³² chance of mistyping a valid address, that's 1 in 4.2 billions (and a bit)

I don't know if you manually type your address during transactions, as I find it an unreasonable method for inputting 42 sensitive characters. Why not use the normal copy-and-paste approach? Also, what makes you think it's impossible to make a mistake while typing 42 characters?

Second!
There are 2¹⁶⁰ possible addresses and only around 2³¹ addresses ever used.

So, let me put this in numbers:
You have a 1 in 4294967296 chance to hit one of the 1461501637330902918203684832716283019655932542976 valid addresses out of which the 1239567421 addresses ever used by somebody!

That means after getting a valid address from your mistype  you have a 1 in 1179041667076812101276173901275212764594 chance to hit a previously used address!

I think this explaination makes sense. My point should have been in percentage, maybe 1/100%. How about that??.

[Stompix]

I think this explaination makes sense. My point should have been in percentage, maybe 1/100%. How about that??.

Here you go:
0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000084814644632474391532%

Don't know if you manually type your address during transactions, as I find it an unreasonable method for inputting 42 sensitive characters.
Why not use the normal copy-and-paste approach?

Because malware, clipboard hijackers, etc!

Also, what makes you think it's impossible to make a mistake while typing 42 characters?

It's not impossible, but getting a valid address by typing one one wrong letter is a one in 4 billion chances!

[MVL~$]

Most of the time it seems stupid to me to make a mistake when trading bitcoins. Because you are not having any fun or entertainment with this topic. You probably trade with this in mind when making a mistake here when trading Bitcoin, and you can lose big financially. When you send someone Bitcoin to an address, you must patiently double check that the Bitcoin address is correct. And if there is a keyboard error then you should not click the send button. Then your first task will be to change the keyboard. But the last is the least likely to go to the wrong address.

[Litzki1990]

The chance of transferring bitcoins to the wrong address is very low because we check multiple times before transferring and then transferring. Those who do not have such a habit should make it a habit to check the address before transferring bitcoins to an address. If the bitcoins can be transferred by matching the addresses properly then there is very little chance of us making a mistake. The safest way is to copy and paste the address and do not use any extra words in the middle of the address. Copy and paste if checked multiple times then I believe your btc will transfer successfully to specified address. But we must be careful in making transfers so that we are not in too much of a hurry, whenever we want to do something in too much of a hurry we are more likely to make a mistake and in these cases the chances of getting a refund are less.

[Jamal Aezaz]

Bitcoin transactions take place almost every minute globally, indicating frequent transfers of funds between wallet addresses. With a large number of transactions daily, there's a significant chance that individuals may mistakenly send Bitcoin to the wrong address. This can result from missing or incorrectly inputting the wallet address, device keyboard malfunctions. This topic sparked a debate between myself and some friends.

My Opinion:
1. When Bitcoin is sent to the wrong address, the funds are typically deducted from the sender, and the transaction is approved.
2. There is a 1/100 chance that someone else might receive the funds.
3. Bitcoin addresses for individuals are not closely related; the address generation process is not done alphabetically or numerically.

These were my viewpoints during the argument. The other person held a different opinion:
1. There is a higher chance, such as 80/100, that someone else would receive the money.
2. Bitcoin addresses are usually generated in alphabetical and numerical patterns.

In conclusion, we couldn't reach an agreement on the entire argument. I'm seeking opinion from the general public on this forum. I'll screenshot all the replies and send them to the person in a week from today.

And My opinion is different than both you and your friend's.
In My opinion:
1: when bitcoin sent to a wrong address. they are gone forever. forget those bitcoins.
2: There is 10/10 chance that Bitcoin will go to some wallet. now that's a different thing that the wallet is not being used or not owned by anyone. if the wallet doesn't exist. the wallet wouldn't even accept the wallet and give inncorrect address error.
3: bitcoin addresses are randomly generated..

[Stompix]

2: There is 10/10 chance that Bitcoin will go to some wallet. now that's a different thing that the wallet is not being used or not owned by anyone. if the wallet doesn't exist. the wallet wouldn't even accept the wallet and give inncorrect address error.

What's  a 10/10 chance , 10 out of 10? So 100%?
Read the topic and my previous reply to the OP, a simple mistype will only gran you a 1 in 4 billion chance of hitting a valid address!
Bitcoin addresses have a hash encoded with a checksum, it's so 32 bits the probability of entering an incorrect address that will still be valid is roughly 1 in 4.3 billion!

Most of the time it seems stupid to me to make a mistake when trading bitcoins. Because you are not having any fun or entertainment with this topic. You probably trade with this in mind when making a mistake here when trading Bitcoin, and you can lose big financially.

This is not about trading!

The safest way is to copy and paste the address and do not use any extra words in the middle of the address.

What extra words?
And no copy pasting it's not the "safest" way!

[Sim_card]

I remember that each block in the Bitcoin network is created every 10 minutes. The probability of sending coins to the wrong wallet is 1 in 1,000,000. By verifying the recipient's address, the likelihood of sending to the wrong address is significantly reduced. The same applies to security: using a separate device that is not susceptible to infection significantly reduces the risk of sending coins to the wrong wallet.

I really appreciate your effort and explaination, but i think you are coming from an angle were the sender has verified the recipient's address.

Sometimes, we hear of clipboard malfunction: were copied items are sometimes altered. In such situation, would the transaction still be approved ?, Because i guess large number of f people making transfer lacks the patience going through the copied address due to it's length.

When you send your bitcoin to a wrong address, you have automatically lost those bitcoins. This is the reason why scammers send malware to your clip board. This is the reason why you should re-check the bitcoin address that you want to send bitcoin to over and over again to make sure that it is the right one. The only way that you can get those coins back is if the receiver is a good person, then he might transfer back your coins to the address that you used in sending it. Apart from that once the transaction is confirmed there is nothing that anyone can do. This is because bitcoin transaction is irreversible.

[Gurujebs]

When uoi senf your bitcoin to a wrong address, you have automatically lost those bitcoins. This is the reason why scammers send malware to your clip board. This is the reason why you should re-check the bitcoin address that you want to send bitcoin to over and over again to make sure that it is the right one. The only way that you can get those coins back is if the receiver is a good person, then he might transfer back your coins to the address that you used in sending it. Apart from that once the transaction is confirmed there is nothing that anyone can do. This is because bitcoin transaction is irreversible.

The wrong address could be wrong one but you can still have access to the private key. Problem arises when you don't have access to private keys and not your keys, there is no any way for you to, signed a transaction even if you create a transaction with the wallet address.

Because Bitcoin transaction are irreversible and and can't be undone, the best you can do to avoid this kind of problem is to recheck wallet addresses that you paste just incase you are have downloaded a malware on your device. Also reconfirm the wallet address before you sign and broadcast a transaction just to be at safer hands.