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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

Ryan
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1 Answers1

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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.

Ben
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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 '13 at 01:29
  • 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 '13 at 15:18
  • Nick, checksum info is part of the address - how is that possible? – Ben May 16 '13 at 23:17