A complete guide to selling your free BCash for Bitcoin
Disclaimer
The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. It is common for prices to increase or decrease by 100% in a single day. Although this could mean potential huge profits, this also could mean potential huge losses. Only invest money which you are willing to lose.
I cannot and will not help you decide if selling BCash for Bitcoin will be financially beneficial in the long term. All steps are taken at your own risk. If you don’t want to sell, you’re not required to do any action. You do not need to “claim” your BCash, since you already have it. However, it still advised to follow steps 1 and 2 to move your BCash to a new address.
This guide assumes you had Bitcoins in your possession prior to the hard fork, and you know the private key for those Bitcoins. If you had Bitcoins in an exchange site, it’s up to them to decide whether to give you BCash or not.
Table of contents
- Step 1 - Secure your Bitcoins
- Step 2 - Install a BCash wallet and import your old Bitcoin address
- Step 3 - Send the BCash to an exchange of your choice
- Step 4 - Sell the BCash for Bitcoins
- Step 5 - Withdraw your free Bitcoins to your new Bitcoin address
Step 1 - Secure your Bitcoins
why?
When you redeem your BCash, you’ll possibly expose your seed or your private key. To make sure your Bitcoins don’t get lost or stolen, it is highly recommended to move them to a new Bitcoin wallet.
Redeeming BCash will require you to install a BCash wallet. This wallet is relatively new, and may contain unknown bugs or other issues. By moving your Bitcoins to a new address, you no longer risk losing them. Simply put, you’re going to empty both Bitcoin and BCash from the old address - Bitcoin first.
how?
If you’re using a wallet like Electrum, you must create a new seed, keep it safe and don’t share it with anyone. Once you have your new wallet, send your Bitcoins to the new wallet.
If all you have is a private key, you can import it to a wallet and send the Bitcoins to a new wallet via the supported wallets.
For example, in the online Blockchain Wallet, you’ll need to create an account, go to Settings, Addresses, and then Import Addresses. Paste your private key, and you’ll then be able to Spend the address balance to a new one of your choice.
Note: Using Blockchain Wallet itself with a seed isn’t considered the most secure by some, but here we’re only importing an address and then spending it immediately.
Step 2 - Install a BCash wallet and import your old Bitcoin address
why?
To send your BCash to an exchange site you’ll have to use a wallet that supports the BCash network. You cannot do that with a regular Bitcoin wallet.
how?
Warning: Running both Electrum and Electron Cash on the same machine is a bad idea
Support for BCash isn’t huge. The most obvious way to do this currently is with Electron Cash. Electron Cash isn’t related to Electrum, and we can’t be completely sure what’s inside of those binaries. While there is no evidence that Electron Cash has any malicous code in it, it may be buggy or unstable, and we don’t want to take that risk. It is therefore advised to run Electron Cash in a Virtual Machine.
Once you install the wallet, import your old Bitcoin address with the private key. If you have the Electrum seed phrase for your old Bitcoin wallet, you can use the seed phrase instead of the private keys, to create your new Electron wallet.
If the wallet shows the transaction to the new Bitcoin address, it’s probably listening to the Bitcoin network instead of the BCash one. Go to Tools, Network, and you will see a list of servers. Right click on the server that contains
cascharia.comorcriptolayer.comand choose Use as server. You should then see your BCash balance, and you should be able to spend your BCash.
Hardware Wallets
- Instructions for Ledger Blue and Nano S owners
- Instructions for Trezor owners
- Instructions for Digital Bitbox owners
Using the original ABC wallet
ABC is the original name of BCash. See the instructions to compile and use the full wallet.
Step 3 - Send the BCash to an exchange of your choice
why?
There’s no magic that transforms BCash into Bitcoin. You’ll need to sell it on an exchange site.
how?
The following exchange sites support BCash deposits:
| Exchange | Minimum Confirmations for BCash deposits (the fewer the better) | Verification required for BTC withdrawals |
|---|---|---|
| Bitfinex | 12 | None |
| Bittrex | 10 | Personal information and 2-step-verification is required. Withdrawal is limited to 3 BTC per day. |
| Bter | 3 | Passport photo is required. Withdrawal is limited to 1 BTC per day. |
| HitBTC | 2 | None |
| Kraken | 20 | Personal information and mobile number are required for Bitcoin withdrawals. |
| Poloniex | 6 | Personal information, mobile number, ID and photo are required for Bitcoin withdrawals above 2000 USD. |
| ViaBTC | 20* | Personal information and mobile number are required for Bitcoin withdrawals. |
| Coinbase | 6 | Coinbase will lock in the price for you when you buy/sell, but it can often take up to a week to transfer funds to/from your bank account. |
* In ViaBTC you can sell BCash after 1 confirmation, but you must wait for 20 confirmations to withdraw the Bitcoins
Kraken is the most trusted and oldest exchange of the exchanges listed above. If you don’t want to wait for 20 confirmations (which could take more than 12 hours), HitBTC is the quickest way to get your Bitcoins.
In HitBTC, simply register and go to Account, find the BCC Bitcoin Cash row and click the plus icon (“Fund”). You’ll receive a BCash address and you’ll need to send your BCash to that address. You can do that with Electron Cash.
Once you make the transaction you can see it at the bottom of the page (should be instant). After 2 confirmations, your balance will update. You can check the blocks being mined on BlockDozer or Blockchair.
Once your balance updates, make sure to move your BCash from the Main Account to the Trade Account. This can be done in the same page, in the BCC Bitcoin Cash row.
Step 4 - Sell the BCash for Bitcoins
Each exchange site has its own interface and it should be pretty straightforward.
In HitBTC, simply navigate to Exchange, choose BCC on the table to the right (“Instruments”), and fill the fields under Sell BCC (Limit).
Step 5 - Withdraw your free Bitcoins to your new Bitcoin address
why?
Your Bitcoins aren’t yours if you don’t own the private keys. You should only leave Bitcoin in an exchange site if you’re actively trading it. If you’re not, do not leave it in the exchange site. Exchange sites are being hacked day and night and people lose their Bitcoins because of this mistake.
how?
More detailed instructions will follow, but feel free to send the free Bitcoin to the new address you created in Step 1, or use another new address if you like.