How to Get Your Bitcoin Cash - Step By Step Guide

[Techman34]

I did a shorter reply along these lines in another thread, but figured this topic is worthy of its own post and I'll make it more detailed.

So if you have Bitcoin that you control the private keys for that was not on an Exchange at the time of the fork on 8/1/17, you will have to take these steps to claim your Free Bitcoin Cash. It's not as technical as it sounds and you really just need to do it step by step and you'll be fine.

SECTION 1: EXPORTING YOUR LEGACY BITCOIN PRIVATE KEYS

FROM A BITCOIN ELECTRUM WALLET:
To export your private key from an Electrum Bitcoin wallet and import into the Bitcoin ABC Bitcoin Cash wallet, see the example in the video I did here: https://youtu.be/XaRWNdRW9kE

The simple text version for Electrum is to go to Wallet > Private Keys > Export and it will dump your private keys into a csv file. Just copy the private key that corresponds to the Bitcoin address which has your BTC balance. Then go to Section 2 below.

FROM A BITCOIN QT WALLET:
If you have a Bitcoin QT wallet you need to export your Private Key and Import it into the Bitcoin ABC QT wallet. The Bitcoin ABC QT wallet is currently working fine - I can see my Bitcoin Cash balance, however no exchanges are accepting deposits yet so you just have to wait. At lease while we're waiting BCH is going up! I digress.
To export your private key from a Bitcoin QT wallet, you need to go into the Console to do it.

Follow these steps under your Original Bitcoin QT wallet:

Make sure your legacy Bitcoin QT wallet is fully synced. Then go to Help > Debug Window > Console tab, then type these commands to show your private key.

walletpassphrase <yourfullpassword> 6000
dumpprivatekey <yourLegacyBTCaddress>

The walletpassphrase command unlocks your wallet for the number of seconds you provide - here 10 mins in my example, so you can then get your key. The dumpprivatekey command will show your private key that corresponds to your Bitcoin address. Copy it and go to Section 2.

FROM AN ARMORY BITCOIN WALLET:

In your Bitcoin Armory wallet your private key can be found by double-clicking your wallet in the Armory main window, click “Backup this wallet”, then select “Export Key Lists” and click the button of the same name.

Verify your password, and you’ll be presented with your private key in different encodings. You can remove all checkboxes, except “Private Key (Plain Base58)”. Check the “Omit spaces in key data” box. Now select the key string and copy it and then go to Section 2.

SECTION 2: IMPORTING YOUR LEGACY BITCOIN PRIVATE KEYS

Follow these steps to Import your Private Keys into your Bitcoin Cash Wallet:

Then to import your private key into your BCH wallet, you need to first download and sync the wallet from BitcoinABC.org. Note, this took me almost 40 hours.

Once sync'ed you can follow the steps I show in my video guide to Import your private keys and I'll also provide text version below: https://youtu.be/XaRWNdRW9kE

First, as with anything in this space - turn your encryption on under Settings.

Then go to Help > Debug Window > Console tab, then type these commands to Import private key into your Bitcoin ABC wallet.

walletpassphrase <yourfullpassword> 6000
importprivkey <yourBTCprivatekey>

Again, the walletpassphrase command unlocks your wallet for the number of seconds you provide - here 10 mins in my example, so you can then get your key. The importprivkey command will import private key that corresponds to your Bitcoin address.

The blockchain will rescan all the transactions for your BTC address and then when it's done you will see your Bitcoin Cash balance in your Bitcoin ABC wallet dashboard. Congratulations, you just got your Free Bitcoin Cash!

AFTER CLAIMING YOUR BITCOIN CASH:

Before importing your private key into the Bitcoin ABC wallet and claiming your Bitcoin Cash, transact in the following order to be extra safe:

1) Move your original BTC from your BTC address to another BTC address and never use that original BTC address on the original BTC chain again
2) Import that original BTC private key into your Bitcoin ABC wallet and then leave your Bitcoin Cash at your original address until you are ready to send it to an exchange, etc. or just hold it.

To your crypto success!

Techman34

Tips are very much appreciated if you found this guide useful, claimed your Bitcoin Cash successfully and want to buy me a coffee:

Bitcoin: 1L5bN1smr9GB2SoaAMh4zWtF2s4AYbDEgv
Bitcoin Cash: 1VBpAMXMHpAXXkz4QBysKmdX5TTDrsKrd

Follow me on youtube for more in-depth crypto content. Thanks! https://youtu.be/XaRWNdRW9kE

[rizzlarolla]

It look's like quite a decent guide, but not a beginner's guide?
"do it step by step and you'll be fine. " Unless you make a wrong step!

You also make no mention to move Bitcoins to new address first, then never reuse that address.

Please update.
Beginners beware

[Techman34]

It look's like quite a decent guide, but not a beginner's guide?
"do it step by step and you'll be fine. " Unless you make a wrong step!

You also make no mention to move Bitcoins to new address first, then never reuse that address.

Please update.
Beginners beware

Thanks, I updated it.

[rizzlarolla]

It look's like quite a decent guide, but not a beginner's guide?
"do it step by step and you'll be fine. " Unless you make a wrong step!

You also make no mention to move Bitcoins to new address first, then never reuse that address.

Please update.
Beginners beware

Thanks, I updated it.

Thanks, but shouldn't the Bitcoin be moved before trying to access the alt known as "bitcoin cash"

[TygraOlympia]

I thought none of these BHC supporting wallets are actually stable yet. I've heard a lot of bad things about the wallets so far. I'm going to hold out until they fix their bugs. Great guide by the way. Definitely more informative than most on how to redeem your BHC.

[rizzlarolla]

It look's like quite a decent guide, but not a beginner's guide?
"do it step by step and you'll be fine. " Unless you make a wrong step!

You also make no mention to move Bitcoins to new address first, then never reuse that address.

Please update.
Beginners beware

Thanks, I updated it.

Thanks, but shouldn't the Bitcoin be moved before trying to access the alt known as "bitcoin cash"

You went offline, so to clarify for "beginners"...

AFTER CLAIMING YOUR BITCOIN CASH:

After you've imported your private key and your Bitcoin Cash is showing, transact in the following order to be safe:

1) Move your original BTC from your BTC address to another BTC address and never use that original BTC address on the original BTC chain again
2) Leave your Bitcoin Cash at your original address until sending transactions safely is confirmed/mining running okay/exchanges open up BCH deposits, etc.

This is all wrong, it should read,

BEFORE CLAIMING YOUR BITCOIN CASH

1) move your real bitcoins from address holding bitcoins at time of "fork". Never use that address again on the Bitcoin network.
2) do not import (now redundant) bitcoin priv key to "bitcoin cash" network until ready to immediately send "bitcoin cash" to a new "bitcoin cash" address which you have newly created and hold the priv key, or you are spending to a third party.

If you import a funded BITCOIN priv key to the "bitcoin cash" chain as instructed by Techman37 above, you may well loose your Bitcoin.
Beginners, almost certainly.

[patrickcoin]

Isn't it risky??

[Techman34]

The replay protection built in works and the method I outlined is exactly what I did and wverythibg worked fine. It's also worked for many others as you can see in the comments of my video, but yeah always do your own research before following any advice.

[kingcoinbase]

This is going to be an useful guide.

[libertyBTC2]

the best thing is not to buy bcash because it probably contains maleware (the wallets)!

[GreyWyvern]

the best thing is not to buy bcash because it probably contains maleware (the wallets)!

You are literally being PAID by malicious agents to post these lies on this forum. I think the best thing to do is re-examine your life choices.

[waterboi92]

thanks for your help! however, for bitcoin armory, when i follow your instructions i get about 50 different set of priv keys because ive been using this wallet for the past 3-4 years. each time i paste the priv key in bitcoinabc it takes a long time to rescan the block. is there a faster way to do this in bulk as opposed to doing one priv key at a time. which obviously will take forever!

thanks again!

[EJorgensen]

Thanks for a good guide

[Dynamix]

We don't need this anymore hehe BCH is DEAD . Only trade on BITMEX

[Ucrypto]

good guide, but not for beginners)

[NickDorkney]

Thank's for useful info

[edin]

You also make no mention to move Bitcoins to new address first, then never reuse that address.

[cryptofroggy142]

Great, very helpful information, thanks for the post.

[nett89]

Great guide! But for sure for users with some experience with crypto,
Thanks!