Address reuse, explained
A Bitcoin address can receive any number of payments, and the chain records every one of them in public, permanently. Address reuse means the same address appears in many transactions. The note counts them.
What the note says
- Good
Seen in one transaction.
- Good
Seen in two transactions.
- Info
Seen in 9 transactions. Repeated use of one address is publicly linkable.
The count includes transactions in and out.
What it means
Every transaction is public. When one address is used again and again, its whole history sits in one place: amounts, dates and the addresses on the other side of each payment. Anyone who learns who the address belongs to, from an exchange, an invoice or a web page that shows it, can read all of it. That is why wallets create a fresh address for each payment. Reuse is normal all the same: a published donation address, an exchange deposit address or a savings address that receives regular purchases is used many times by design.
What it does not mean
Reuse does not make the bitcoin less safe and does not change the balance or the fees. Reuse is common in the examples above. The note is not a judgment of the owner.
What you can do
If you watch the address, expect its report to show the whole history. If you control it, use a fresh receiving address when privacy matters. The old address keeps working, and anything sent to it still arrives.
Common questions
Can someone find out who I am from a reused address?
The chain shows no name. It shows payments, and payments can be matched with information from elsewhere, such as an exchange record or a page that publishes the address. More transactions on one address give more to match.
Why does my wallet show a different address every time?
That is the normal design. A wallet holds many addresses and gives out a fresh one for each payment. All of them belong to the same wallet. See why one address is not a whole wallet.
Does sending from an address count as reuse?
Yes. The count is the number of transactions the address appears in, whether it received or paid.