Protect coloured outputs
The working separation between asset money and fee money, and the three habits that prevent an accidental spend.
Protocol behavior Verified 2026-08-31
Describes the Atomicals protocol itself at the pinned reference revision. It does not promise that any product exposes it.
- Page ID
-
guides/protect-colored-outputs - Normative authority
- Atomicals reference implementation
- Networks
- mainnet
- Documentation version
- 2026.08
- Audience
- everyone, holder
- Owner
- bitcoin-universe-docs
- Sources
-
- Atomicals ElectrumX
at
v1.5.2.0
- Atomicals ElectrumX
at
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Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Supported networks: mainnet.
- Status: protocol behavior.
- Nothing here spends anything.
The problem in one sentence
Section titled “The problem in one sentence”An ordinary Bitcoin wallet sees satoshis, so it will happily spend the output carrying your asset to pay a fee.
The three habits
Section titled “The three habits”1. Two pools, always. Coloured outputs in one place, cardinal outputs in another. Never let a tool choose across both.
2. Freeze what you can. If the wallet supports marking outputs as unspendable, mark every coloured output. If it does not, keep them in a separate wallet entirely.
3. Never consolidate blindly. Consolidation is an allocation event. It merges lots, can create mixed outputs, and can burn value. Model it first.
What to check every time
Section titled “What to check every time”| Before you sign | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| The input list | Every input is the one you meant to spend |
| The fee source | A cardinal input, not the asset |
| Output values | In satoshis, sized deliberately |
| Expected units | Per output, matching your intent |
| Burn figure | Zero |
The specific traps
Section titled “The specific traps”- Send max. Sweeps everything, including coloured outputs.
- Fee bump on an old transaction. Can pull in new inputs.
- Automatic consolidation. Some wallets do it in the background.
- Exchange deposits. A deposit address is an ordinary Bitcoin address. Sending a coloured output there spends it as ordinary bitcoin. There is no recovery.
If something already moved
Section titled “If something already moved”Read verify a transaction to find out exactly what happened, then recover from a rejection if it has not broadcast yet. A confirmed burn cannot be reversed.
Source
Section titled “Source”Wallet safety and burns.