Help for non-developer in understanding the fork

[RobJ]

I am not a developer, just a user. I have two online wallets...one is bitcoin.com. I appreciate that there is work afoot to try to enable keeping BCH on bitcoin.com. Thanks to those who can, for those of use who can't.

I understand much of the fork. But before I feel comfortable using my BTC, I need to get some clarification: 1) If I were to move BTC to bitcoin.com that I have stored on another wallet that has not stripped off the BCH, will the BTC come with the associated BCH?; 2) I had a small amount of BTC on Kraken exchange before the fork...and see that they now show an equal amount of BCH in my acct. SOOOO....how will THIS BTC be able to be distinguished from BTC that has not had the BCH removed?; 3) If I buy something using BTC from Kraken versus from my wallet that has BTC but no indication any BCH has been stripped off...does the payment from Kraken not carry the BCH whereas that from the other wallet, carries with it ownership of the BCH that would then be the property of whomever those funds were paid to.

I think all 3 questions are basically asking the same thing, but from different viewpoints. Please help me understand the fork's impact from an end-users' perspective.

[rizzlarolla]

I am not a developer, just a user. I have two online wallets...one is bitcoin.com. I appreciate that there is work afoot to try to enable keeping BCH on bitcoin.com. Thanks to those who can, for those of use who can't.

I understand much of the fork. But before I feel comfortable using my BTC, I need to get some clarification: 1) If I were to move BTC to bitcoin.com that I have stored on another wallet that has not stripped off the BCH, will the BTC come with the associated BCH?; 2) I had a small amount of BTC on Kraken exchange before the fork...and see that they now show an equal amount of BCH in my acct. SOOOO....how will THIS BTC be able to be distinguished from BTC that has not had the BCH removed?; 3) If I buy something using BTC from Kraken versus from my wallet that has BTC but no indication any BCH has been stripped off...does the payment from Kraken not carry the BCH whereas that from the other wallet, carries with it ownership of the BCH that would then be the property of whomever those funds were paid to.

I think all 3 questions are basically asking the same thing, but from different viewpoints. Please help me understand the fork's impact from an end-users' perspective.

It is the address that held Bitcoin at the time of the fork that has access to "bitcoin cash".

If you now send those Bitcoin to a new address, the "bitcoin cash" will stay where it was/is.
To access "bitcoin cash" you must present the same private key (that secured Bitcoin held at the time of "fork") to the new chain/client.

[GreyWyvern]

1) If I were to move BTC to bitcoin.com that I have stored on another wallet that has not stripped off the BCH, will the BTC come with the associated BCH?

No, it will not. BTC and BCH are two separate currencies now that just happen to share a common parentage. As long as you are using a behaving wallet, spending one should have no effect on the other.

2) I had a small amount of BTC on Kraken exchange before the fork...and see that they now show an equal amount of BCH in my acct. SOOOO....how will THIS BTC be able to be distinguished from BTC that has not had the BCH removed?

I think you are misunderstanding a bit. At the time of the fork, BCH was born as a 100% clone of BTC. From full bitcoins down to the last satoshi, Bitcoin Cash appeared as a 1:1 copy of BTC. So there is no BCH to be "removed" from a BTC. It's already happened. If your wallet doesn't yet support BCH (like Bitcoin.com's wallet) then you won't see your BCH yet, but they are still there in the BCH blockchain, waiting for you to access them with your private key.

3) If I buy something using BTC from Kraken versus from my wallet that has BTC but no indication any BCH has been stripped off...does the payment from Kraken not carry the BCH whereas that from the other wallet, carries with it ownership of the BCH that would then be the property of whomever those funds were paid to.

At this point, BTC and BCH are completely separate. The only time anything mattered was at the instant of the fork. Spending BTC now will not affect any BCH you hold in exchanges or wallets. If you send BTC today, the recipient will only receive BTC and not any BCH.

[RobJ]

Thank you very much GreyWyvern and Rizziolola. Perfect response and clears this up well....but does then raise one more question: I see how it is hoped that soon, bitcoin.com will support BCH. Assuming that has already happened...will it be possible for me to move only some of my current BTC using my private key, or will it be all or none? Reason I ask is it is uncertain if the other wallet I have plans to add support for BCH...so is it either move ALL the BTC via use of my private key, or none. Or to put another way...let's say I consumed all the BTC on that other wallet...and from your answer above, I see that this won't have any impact on the BCH (it still exists...just not in an obvious way)...but does the same private key now apply to both the BTC (which is now gone because I consumed it) AND to the BCH, so that I could, at a later date, use that private key to move the BCH to a wallet that will support BCH?

[GreyWyvern]

Thank you very much GreyWyvern and Rizziolola. Perfect response and clears this up well....but does then raise one more question: I see how it is hoped that soon, bitcoin.com will support BCH. Assuming that has already happened...will it be possible for me to move only some of my current BTC using my private key, or will it be all or none?

Nope. You'll be able to spend BCH just like you do Bitcoin, in fractions down to a single satoshi. Plus, when the Bitcoin Cash chain starts revving up its hashrate (it's very slow right now while the previous full-chain BTC difficulty gets stepped down to reasonable levels) your fees will be much lower than the BTC chain.

Reason I ask is it is uncertain if the other wallet I have plans to add support for BCH...so is it either move ALL the BTC via use of my private key, or none. Or to put another way...let's say I consumed all the BTC on that other wallet...and from your answer above, I see that this won't have any impact on the BCH (it still exists...just not in an obvious way)...but does the same private key now apply to both the BTC (which is now gone because I consumed it) AND to the BCH, so that I could, at a later date, use that private key to move the BCH to a wallet that will support BCH?

Once you move BTC or BCH into a new wallet, you will get a new private key. In this case, after the fork, you can no longer move BTC and BCH into the same "wallet" even if those wallets exist within the same app. They will both have new, and different private keys.

I would recommend moving ALL your BCH into a new wallet if you don't think the one you're using now will ever support it. You can export the private key of your BTC wallet (the one you held BEFORE the fork, usually can be found in the settings) and import that file into any wallet which supports BCH. Create a new BCH wallet and import the exported BTC wallet file.

That's a simple explanation, but remember there is a potential you could lose all your coins doing this if you make a mistake, so don't take my word for it! Do some research on how to do it properly

[RobJ]

Thanks...getting clearer.