Very new to Bitcoin. Using Bluewallet. Wanting to verify my balance outside of using the wallet (say for paranoia/curiosity).
I copy my public key (using the "receive" button of Bluewallet to get said key).
I enter that address into block explorer type websites. It shows zero balance.
Is the address generated to receive coins not the right one to use for this purpose? I don't know how to view any other.
I don't know Bluewallet, but maybe this can help you, maybe not. Maybe that depends on the mix of on-chain vs lightning network transactions you have been using.
I copy my public key (using the "receive" button of bluewallet to get said key)
I enter that address into block explorer type websites. It shows zero balance.
When you tap "receive" on your phone, if it cares for privacy, it should give you a different and unused address each time.
Is the address generated to receive coins not the right one to use for this purpose?
That address would be the right one to use for that purpose, not before it has been given to some other person or system. In case it is a new address each time you tap.
I don't know how to view any other
You look for some panel of balance history, and look for past transactions' addresses, those used addresses would be what you should feed chain explorers when reading past transactions.
In addition to this answer if you want to verify the exact amount of your balance you should check all your sent transactions beside your received transactions. Every transaction you create has probably some change. And that change goes to another newly generated address which is not very obvious at the first time.
The below picture demonstrates it clearly. Bob has a 50 BTC coin. He decides to send 0.5 BTC to Alice, so he construct a transaction which has one input (the 50 BTC coin) and two output, one with amount of 0.5 for Alice, and the other with the amount of 49.5 back to his wallet. But probably the 49.5 BTC is now went to a new address.
To read more about it take look at this article.
Source of image.
