Receive for the first time
Intended reader: someone receiving into Universe Wallet for the first time. Goal: funds arriving at an address you control, confirmed on chain. Prerequisites: a wallet whose recovery phrase is already written down. Chain and network: any supported chain. Check the network before you share an address. Safety: an address sent to the wrong chain or network is money gone. Verify twice.
- Open the wallet and confirm the account and network shown at the top are the ones you mean. See Chains and networks.
- Open Receive.
- Copy the address, or show the QR code.
- Send a small test amount first, from wherever the funds are coming from.
- Wait for it to appear, then send the rest.
Verify the address before you use it
Section titled “Verify the address before you use it”Address confusion is the failure mode here, and it is silent.
- Check the first four and last four characters against what the sender sees, out loud if possible. Clipboard-replacement malware changes the middle.
- Check the prefix matches the network. A mainnet Bitcoin address starts
bc1q,bc1p,3, or1. Test network addresses look different. Sending mainnet coins to a testnet address, or the reverse, does not bounce back. - Check the chain. A Bitcoin address is not a Dogecoin address. Nothing will warn the sender.
Expected result
Section titled “Expected result”The amount appears in your activity as pending, then confirms. Your balance goes up by the amount sent, and the sender pays the fee.
How to verify
Section titled “How to verify”- The transaction appears under Activity with an increasing confirmation count.
- The amount matches exactly. If it is lower, the sender paid the fee out of the amount, which is their choice, not an error in your wallet.
Common failures
Section titled “Common failures”| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing arrives, but the sender has a transaction id | The transaction exists and is unconfirmed, or went to a different address | Look up the transaction id. Check which address it actually paid. |
| Funds arrive but show as unavailable | The coin was classified as asset-bearing, or is not yet confirmed | See Protected outputs. |
| The balance updates but assets do not | Asset data comes from indexers and can lag behind the chain | Wait, then see Troubleshooting. |
| You sent to the wrong network | The coins went to an address on a chain this wallet is not watching | If you hold the keys for that chain in this phrase, you may be able to reach them. If not, they are gone. |
Recovery path
Section titled “Recovery path”Receiving cannot lose funds that are already yours. The only irreversible mistake at this stage is publishing an address that is not actually yours, which is why the verification step above exists.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Receive, including payment requests with an amount
- Payment and asset addresses