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Let's imagine I am hosting an online shop. I sell five different items with a price of 1 BTC.

Bob buys item A and Alice buys items B. Bob is paying the bill by sending 1 BTC to my Bitcoin address. Alice decides not to pay anything.

Now here is the big question: How do I know that I have received the money from Bob and not from Alice (I don't know their wallet)? Is there some kind of optional order reference / comment field in a transaction?

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Your best option is for the online shop to provide unique bitcoin addresses for each customer.

Bob clicks to buy item A and then fills out a quick form with his shipping information, after completion he is prompted to send 1 BTC to bitcoin address X. Alice at the same time clicks to buy item B and fills out a form and she is prompted to send her payment to address Y. If address X receives funds, the shop owner will know that Bob paid, and Alice did not.

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  • Address reuse is bad in general anyway. Don't ruin your customers' privacy.
    – Jannes
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 22:04
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    Or rather, when payment arrives on the address you gave to Bob, you know that Bob's bill was paid. You don't know (and shouldn't care) whether it was Bob himself who paid.
    – Pieter Wuille
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 16:05
  • Yes, that is an important distinction. All we care is which invoice/bill is paid, not which individual made the payment.
    – m1xolyd1an
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 18:35

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