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What will happen if someone does not copy and paste the "To" address properly?

For example:
If my address is 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxA

and the person tries to send money to 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(note the missing last alphabet)

will the transaction go through and will the coins be lost?

Thanks! Ryan

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From the bitcoin wiki:

Several of the characters inside a Bitcoin address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be automatically found and rejected. The checksum also allows Bitcoin software to confirm that a 33-character (or shorter) address is in fact valid and isn't simply an address with a missing character.

In other words, your wallet shouldn't let you sent coins to a bad address, and servers won't accept the transaction.

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  • servers won't accept the transaction Actually, they will. Checksum info is stripped off before sending out the transaction.
    – Nick ODell
    May 16, 2013 at 1:29
  • Thanks for replying! "a 33-character (or shorter) address is in fact valid" - what about more than 33 then? For example if there is a space in the beginning or ending?
    – Ryan
    May 16, 2013 at 15:18
  • Nick, checksum info is part of the address - how is that possible?
    – Ben
    May 16, 2013 at 23:17

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