How to find the change / sender address given a txid?

Question

Suppose I'm making a service like SatoshiDice and when I receive a transaction I want to give some money back. Where can I find the sender address?

If I run this, e.g.:

bitcoin-cli gettransaction 8386a8d2870c0df79f652ef4d981b21649ebf40601948c1c0709de0f02de8c8c

I get:

{
    "amount" : -0.00750000,
    "fee" : -0.00050000,
    "confirmations" : 10130,
    "blockhash" : "00000000000000002b44cdc1b2fe4ec2aa6b31b25ae8eedc8d1ef16799bd3114",
    "blockindex" : 13,
    "blocktime" : 1398584440,
    "txid" : "8386a8d2870c0df79f652ef4d981b21649ebf40601948c1c0709de0f02de8c8c",
    "walletconflicts" : [
    ],
    "time" : 1398584248,
    "timereceived" : 1398584248,
    "details" : [
        {
            "account" : "",
            "address" : "1Gxua3AptLgz1DWbG38dakLP4DVY2Jia4d",
            "category" : "send",
            "amount" : -0.00750000,
            "fee" : -0.00050000
        }
    ],
    "hex" : "01000000013c75459d163a5343725362a5b412dde392784814ec04c4e77df7ee5edbd10352010000006a47304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca012102be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9ffffffff0250c30000000000001976a9144233e899673c755c11664d43d0a83a56d06ce23188acb0710b00000000001976a914af1ca5c63970b893a4ef79d030b28ca91ccd22ce88ac00000000"
}

I can find the address I am looking for in details -> address. But is this the right place to look? The details array can be empty or have more than one element?

I know there are two similar questions already: How to findout the sender of a transaction and What's the best way for a website to detect payments from green addresses? but the problem is that theses questions don't explain if I can use gettransaction securely to find it.

Following the answer tip, I was able to do this:

bitcoin-cli decoderawtransaction "01000000013c75459d163a5343725362a5b412dde392784814ec04c4e77df7ee5edbd10352010000006a47304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca012102be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9ffffffff0250c30000000000001976a9144233e899673c755c11664d43d0a83a56d06ce23188acb0710b00000000001976a914af1ca5c63970b893a4ef79d030b28ca91ccd22ce88ac00000000"

which produces:

{
    "txid" : "8386a8d2870c0df79f652ef4d981b21649ebf40601948c1c0709de0f02de8c8c",
    "version" : 1,
    "locktime" : 0,
    "vin" : [
        {
            "txid" : "5203d1db5eeef77de7c404ec14487892e3dd12b4a562537243533a169d45753c",
            "vout" : 1,
            "scriptSig" : {
                "asm" : "304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca01 02be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9",
                "hex" : "47304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca012102be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9"
            },
            "sequence" : 4294967295
        }
    ],
    "vout" : [
        {
            "value" : 0.00050000,
            "n" : 0,
            "scriptPubKey" : {
                "asm" : "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 4233e899673c755c11664d43d0a83a56d06ce231 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
                "hex" : "76a9144233e899673c755c11664d43d0a83a56d06ce23188ac",
                "reqSigs" : 1,
                "type" : "pubkeyhash",
                "addresses" : [
                    "1733nLJx6QrYa7AemEHXgq89G2NaWjPpRW"
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "value" : 0.00750000,
            "n" : 1,
            "scriptPubKey" : {
                "asm" : "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 af1ca5c63970b893a4ef79d030b28ca91ccd22ce OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
                "hex" : "76a914af1ca5c63970b893a4ef79d030b28ca91ccd22ce88ac",
                "reqSigs" : 1,
                "type" : "pubkeyhash",
                "addresses" : [
                    "1Gxua3AptLgz1DWbG38dakLP4DVY2Jia4d"
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

This let's me find the change address.

But can I skip these steps and take it from "details"?

Answer 1

Bitcoin may use multiple outputs from different addresses to fund the transaction. It will always be impossible to predict what the user is doing, for example, they could be using CoinJoin and the actual sender could be any of the inputs.

Also remember that services like SatoshiDice causes huge network strain and is preferred to use a deposit address and have the user specify an address to withdraw. It solves both network strain and your issue.

In addition, never assume that a certain output is the change address. The user could be doing anything (like sending the rest to someone else).

EDIT: Downvoting both mine and David Schwartz's answer doesn't help anything. It is just not possible to anticipate every use-case. In the words of the Satoshi client developers; "Sometimes a documentation limit is a feature, not a bug". The important point there is that if you have to ask then maybe giving you the answer will cause more harm than good. The only ways to do this are:

1. Try to guess the change address. If there are two outputs you could use the one that isn't yours. If the sender has an exact output then you might not even get a second output. If there are >2 outputs you might use the last one but that makes a ton of assumptions and any wallet that even cares about privacy will randomise the outputs.
2. Try to guess the sending address. If there is one sending address you could use that, in the case of more than one, it's anyone's guess (maybe use the top one?).

Noone can answer the question any more than that. Even my answer is just made up, it is not allocated for using the protocol and is just a guess based on how some wallet software works.

I can't recommend against this enough though. It is extremely dangerous. SatoshiDice is not recommended by anyone who knows anything about how Bitcoin works, it is simply popular because it was one of the first, if not the first Bitcoin betting site.

Answer 2

Each transaction can have multiple inputs and thus can have multiple senders.

Here's how you get the sender(s):

bitcoin-cli getrawtransaction 8386a8d2870c0df79f652ef4d981b21649ebf40601948c1c0709de0f02de8c8c 1

(the 1 flag indicates that you want the raw tx to be decoded)

Note: make sure that you have already indexed the blockchain or else this might not work. To index, restart bitcoind with txindex=1 as a config variable.

From that, you get a fairly big response, which contains the following:

"vin" : [{
    "txid" : "5203d1db5eeef77de7c404ec14487892e3dd12b4a562537243533a169d45753c",
    "vout" : 1,
    "scriptSig" : {
        "asm" : "304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca01 02be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9",
        "hex" : "47304402200ee65c9f757eb6c240efe5a7e4427e04174a32da14b1eef459d36d61d031f6e702202d6b5383f86f155d92a494e80a1242af7e160faf16d597ea457b6e3bf08bb1ca012102be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9"
    },
    "sequence" : 4294967295
}]

This means there's a single input, so there is in fact one sender.

Now, there are two ways to get the sender.

Method A (should always work but is slower):

1. grab the txid and the vout
2. do bitcoin-cli getrawtransaction <txid> 1
3. find the output of this new tx where the value n is equal to the vout of our original tx
4. go to the scriptPubKey section and check the hex or addresses field - that's the sender (in hex pubkey script or address form)

We now have:

"scriptPubKey" : {
    "asm" : "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 17492e77be2c666af78993020b90235cd1d3738d OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
    "hex" : "76a91417492e77be2c666af78993020b90235cd1d3738d88ac",
    "reqSigs" : 1,
    "type" : "pubkeyhash",
    "addresses" : [
        "1388D9sHH4HXdGLxkSipxe2noZuekHZmaF"
    ]
}

and the sender is 1388D9sHH4HXdGLxkSipxe2noZuekHZmaF

Method B (faster but only works for certain types of transactions):

1. check the 'asm' field inside the 'scriptSig' field
2. if the field has two components separated by a space, and the second component is a valid public key, then we have a standard pay-to-pubkey(-hash) transaction, so convert the pubkey to an address
3. fallback to method A

We see that there is in fact a valid pubkey in the original tx scriptSig:

02be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9

We use Coinkit to extract the address:

$ sudo pip install coinkit
$ python
>>> from coinkit import BitcoinPublicKey
>>> pub = BitcoinPublicKey('02be7759e73363488269f0257158177f3295af42d1f3a6b2fdf8fb4380b1d16ae9')
>>> pub.address()
'1388D9sHH4HXdGLxkSipxe2noZuekHZmaF'

And we have the same answer!

P.S. you can inspect the Coinkit library I used above on github

Answer 3

Please just don't do this. If you have an agreement with someone and you want to pay them Bitcoins, just have them tell you what account to pay. Don't try kludges to figure out the correct address to pay because many payments do not contain any account the sender can receive Bitcoins from anywhere in the payment.

Here's what happens when you do this:

Jack uses Foo Online Wallet. He sends some Bitcoins to his deposit address. Foo Online Wallet credits his online wallet account for these Bitcoins. Jeff sends you money using his Foo Online Wallet. Foo uses the coins Jack deposited. So the source address for the transaction is Jack's deposit address. When you make a payment to the source address, you are sending the coins to Jack's deposit address -- giving the Bitcoins to the owner of the deposit coincidentally used by Foo Online Wallet. But you should be making the payment to Jeff's deposit address which you cannot know unless you ask Jeff.

Just Don't Do This

Answer 4

I have written a program in Python3 that allows you to search for any address on bitcoin core whether it belongs to your wallet or not.

Here is the github link:

https://github.com/ORP967/Bitcoin_Core_RPC_par_address

Let me know what you think or if you have any improvements you might have. (Damn, a lot of programmers in this post)