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I sent bitcoins for the first time to my friend. He has an address 1JkqP4qMvVpQApqyH4m9J4LBdqfFacMKSf

I chose to send them through my wallet on Bitcoin-QT, but I was interested to check blockchain.info about the transaction as well.

I see that blockchain.info shows that I sent bitcoins to another address as well! Can anyone explain why it shows that I sent bitcoins (about $30) to the address 1NTyaVoNrQYx2PA5ce7bVmqA6jfmSSkvxU on blockchain.info? I definitely did not send to that address...

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This is my Bitcoin-QT client window. It shows the correct transaction amount.

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This is because you did not have a coin that exactly matched the amount you wanted to send to your friend. So bitcoin had to split a larger coin into 2 coins... 1 with the amount to send to your friend and the rest as "change" to send back to you. The address you don't recognize is a new address that was created for the change, and it's in your wallet.

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  • Awesome answer, but what do you mean "the new address is in my wallet"? Are you saying I have two addresses now? If someone sent to that new address, would it end up in my wallet?
    – Ci3
    Nov 20, 2013 at 19:48
  • Yes, you have 2 addresses. Bitcoin added 1 for you. People can send to either one and it will end up in your wallet.
    – RentFree
    Nov 20, 2013 at 19:57
  • BTW the term "coin" in my answer is known technically as a "transaction output" or "txout"
    – RentFree
    Nov 20, 2013 at 19:58
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    I'm just new to bitcoin, and didn't know what was happening. I thought my client wasn't as updated as blockchain.info for some reason.
    – Ci3
    Nov 21, 2013 at 3:56
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    Same thing happened to me. What I don't understand is how come this "new address" it created for me doesn't show in my addresses area in Bitcoin-QT? Shouldn't it automatically be a part of my digital wallet file? Does the address only exist on the network? Is there anyway to make it show in the QT client since it is in fact a new address of mine?
    – SikoSoft
    Mar 15, 2014 at 9:34

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