Bitcoin Forum

I heard this is going to be soon and i read that if you have bitcoin cash in coinbase or binance, you will get credit for it.  Now is there anyone here that still have not claimed their bitcoin cash from electrum?  I still have not.  Does anyone know if that means when the bitcoin cash fork comes... does that mean i do not get anything from the fork because i never claimed the bitcoin cash in the first place?


Thus those of you that claimed your bitcoin cash and held it and either keep it in a hardware wallet or an exchange, you should get something from the fork.  But what about those that never claimed bitcoin cash?  Would we still get it somehow or not?  Does that mean we have to claim our bitcoin cash soon then if we want to get something from the fork?

I like to add something else.


Does anyone know if i could claim bitcoin cash on a chromebook?  I have a computer that i do everything on... my main computer.  I also have a chromebook as well but thats for doing things like visiting websites that maybe sketchy, streaming websites... and watching porn.  So whether or not i have virus there, i don't have a clue.  But i know i could powerwash it... its a term thats like complete wipe of the computer.


The reason i ask this is because most ppl say don't download electron cash on the same device as your electrum.  I have very little btc in my electrum.  I sent those to my nano ledger s already.  So could i download linux on a chromebook... i read you could do this.  Then once i do this, then i download electron cash on it and claim my bitcoin cash... send the bitcoin cash to my nano ledger s... and that way everything is good?  Because i do not have access to a 2nd windows computer at the moment.  I only have 1 computer and i know many ppl say don't download electron cash on same computer as electrum.  But what if my electrum has very little to no btc?  As long as you download correct electron cash, there is no harm to your computer right?  Because this computer, i do have wallets stored on it and also... i use a program like lastpass and keepass for passwords so i wouldn't want to get hacked because obviously my email and passwords are in those programs.  Anyone have advice on this?  Had i knew there was going to be a fork like this, i would have claimed the bch in another windows computer a while back.  Now i dont have access to a 2nd computer.

the fork coins such as BCH are not something you claim! you already have them if you have the private key. they are sitting there on the blockchain and if you have the private key then you have the "key" to spend those coins. you can do that any time you want as long as the chain is alive and has not changed its rules.

that means if any future fork of fork (like this current fork of BCH) happens you sill get the fork of fork coins!

what you need to understand first is that in bitcoin (and any forks of it) you don't store coins. you store keys. the coins are transaction outputs which are stored in the blockchain and when they share the blockchain that means they also share transaction outputs aka coins. that is why you don't "claim" anything and you already own it.

Okay.  I understand the private keys as it pertain to when you have btc and ppl go and claim bch and bitcoin gold.


So the bitcoin cash and gold that i never claimed yet... well its still there.  Thus i can claim it now or whenever.  But when bitcoin cash fork happens, does that mean i already have the private key for that?  The thing is if i claimed my bitcoin cash from electron cash and then send it to my nano ledger s or send it to coinbase/binance, i know i will get the fork coins.  But because i never claimed the bitcoin cash, then where would the fork coin for bitcoin cash be then?  Thus does that mean in the future, when i go and claim my bitcoin cash from electron cash... then i go and claim the forked coin from bitcoin cash right afterwards?  I guess i shouldn't use the word claim but own it.  But where would i claim the forked coin from bitcoin cash then from the fork?  Because is there a chance i do not get anything from bitcoin cash fork if i didn't claim my bitcoin cash from electron cash?  My wording might seem a bit confusing here.

I'll try to explain it as simple as i can:

Your wallet holds private keys. Each private key is associated to a public key.
Any coins are assigned to public keys on the blockchain.

In case of a fork, the forkcoin basically says "each public key which holds coin X will get new forkcoin Y".

So, if you had BTC at the time of the btrash-fork, the same public key has btrash associated to it.
Now, if btrash forks again (which is quite ironically), all public keys holding btrash will get btrashv2 associated with it.


As you see, it doesn't matter whether you 'claim' your coins or not. 'Claiming' in this case basically means to 'open the correct wallet and access them'.

What you should do is very simple, there is no need to complicate things. You send BTC from Electrum to Ledger Nano S and this is most important thing for you. That seed from Electrum is now all you need to claim BCH, and for that you can use Electron Cash wallet on the same device where you have Electrum. So just follow these steps :

- Download Electron Cash from this link : https://electroncash.org/
- Start installation - Standard wallet - I have seed - Insert seed from Electrum.
- Now you have BCH, and you can keep them in this wallet or send to Ledger Nano S.

In case you decide to send BCH to Ledger, keep in mind that any future fork of BCH will be connected with Ledger BCH address. That means you would need private key for that address in order to claim forked coin - or to wait Ledger add support for that coin in a way to allow split from BCH to some new BCH2.

Okay if i don't claim the bch before the bch fork, would i still have access to the forked coin? 

There is no option to claim or not to claim. If you own any BCH coins on Nov 15th, you will get access to both forks, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash SV. This is assuming you keep these on your Ledger or ElectronCash wallet.

You will NOT get any BCH forked coins by holding BTC however. Only way you would get those is if you held some BTC before Aug 1st 2017 which would get split basically 3 ways.

If you held any BTC at the time that BCH was forked... then you automatically get BCH... you don't actually have to do anything, the forkcoin blockchain records all this for you. You are free to access the coins at any time ("claim" is definitely NOT the correct word).

Likewise, with other forks... if you held XYZcoin at <insert fork time>... you get "Forkcoin" simply because the blockchain will record this for you.


Basically, this announcement is simply stating that Coinbase and Binance will be crediting members with the forkcoins... a lot of exchanges DO NOT do this... as you technically DO NOT control whatever coins you have on an exchange, you simply have an account balance in their database... THEY control the private keys.

However... any coins that you have in your wallets (that you have access to the private keys for), will mean that you also get access to any forks (as you have the private keys).

As far as the Bitcoin Cash any crypto fork goes... the golden rule is: "If you have access to the private keys... you have access to the coins"


People who keep their coins on Exchanges (or other online services) where they do not have access to the private keys... well, they're at the mercy of the service provider as to whether or not they get credited with the fork coins.

it really depends on the fork itself. so it is for "most" cryptocurrency forks not all of them. for example there was talk of a bitcoin fork that only credited those who have accessed their coins recently. which meant if you had a transaction output that was old (i think it was 2 years old or something like that) you could not claim it and the devs took the coins for themselves!

I held bitcoin in my electrum wallet when the bitcoin cash fork happened last year in august 2017 and whatever date was the bitcoin gold fork.


I thought about downloading electron cash to get the bitcoin cash but did not do this because I only had one computer at the time.  But i then had access to a 2nd computer and still did not claim it.  At the moment, i do not have access to bch or bitcoin gold because i did not go through the process of downloading electron cash etc.


So based on this information, do i own any bch coins or not?  Because if i did the electron cash download to get the bch, i would either move the coins to the ledger nano s or move it to exchange like binance.  That way, i would get the forked coin for sure.  The thing im concerned about is if i don't do it soon, then does that mean i don't get any of the new forked coin soon?   

So i like to know... does this mean if i do nothing now, does it mean in the future when i download electron cash, i could then of course claim my bch... but also claimed that forked coin that is upcoming? 


The thing is you say if you own any bch coins, you will get access to both forks.  So does me not downloading electron cash and doing the whole process... means it does not matter since the bch is already in electron cash?  It just i didnt went through the process?  When i say claim the bch, i mean going through process of downloading electron cash and getting the bch.  I still have not done this b/c i dont have a 2nd computer at the moment.  Well i do... but its a chromebook so i would have to install linux or something.

Short Answer: Yes


Long Answer:

Essentially, all a fork does is copy/paste the blockchain at a set point in time and then build from that point with it's own rules/network... thus, if PublicKeyA contained 1 <coin> at <forkTime> on <CoinChain>, then PublicKeyA would then have 1 <forkCoin> on <forkChain> after the fork occurred (assuming a 1:1 fork... adjust as necessary if the fork is like BCD which was 1:10)

Why this is relevant to you, is that whether or not you have created a forkcoin wallet is (usually) entirely irrelevant... As, ALL the coins are listed on the associated blockchain... not held in wallets.

So if <forkChain> is then forked... and that 1 <forkCoin> on PublicKeyA was not been moved... then at <2ndForkTime>, you will find that <2ndForkChain> now has 1 <2ndForkCoin> listed as belonging to PublicKeyA.

As long as you still have PrivateKeyA (the key that PublicKeyA is derived from) then you will be able to access all the PublicKeyA's... on all the various blockchains.

Hey hcp thanks for that information.  If that is the case, i won't download electroncash yet to get the bch that is there.  So basically my bch is in electron cash right?  Thus me doing nothing is the same as someone downloading electron cash and doing the process to get the bch and them leaving it in electron cash?


When you say the private key, you mean the electrum 12 word phrase right?  Just want to make sure of this.

All of your questions already has been answered (multiple times).

Please read the thread carefully again if you still have questions/doubts. It can't be explained in more different ways and more easier than already done.




No. When he says private key, he means private key (click here (http://lmgtfy.com/?iie=1&q=bitcoin+private+key)).
A seed is NOT a private key. A seed is used to derive all private keys.

No, the BCH is assigned to PublicKeys that match your Bitcoin PrivateKeys... and are recorded on the BCH blockchain.

They could just as easily be accessed via Bitcoin ABC, or Exodus, or Atomic or any other BCH compatible wallet.


They don't "leave it in electron cash"... remember, coins are simply records on the blockchain. They aren't kept in wallets... private keys are kept in wallets. Private keys allow you to spend coins that are... (say it with me) "recorded on the blockchain".


No... as bob says... I meant "private key".

Although, technically, as all your private keys can be derived from the 12 word phrase (aka seed mnemonic), having the 12 word phrase means you should be able to regenerate all the private keys as required.

HCP, so just to confirm, even if i dont do the process of downloading electron cash to claim the bch... yes i know claiming isn't the term to use but you know what i mean, i still will get the forked coins later on in the future right?  So its the 12 word electrum phrase that is what is needed?  Thus that is the phrase that is needed for bch claim in electron cash and the bitcoin fork soon?

For the 100th time.. YES.




You need the PRIVATE KEYS
But they can be derived FROM THE SEED. So basically.. YES.




It is needed for ANY fork.. ANY.

hi bob thanks for confirming this.  But what is meant by private keys?


so basically at the time of the fork, my bch was in electron cash right?  While other ppl might have it in their nano ledger s, coinbase or binance etc? 

Coins are stored on the blockchain. Ledger Nano S (hardware wallet), Coinbase, Binance, Electron Cash and other wallets/exchanges store only private keys which are used for signing transactions. Since you have your seed, you can easily access those coins by selecting desired chain in the Electron Cash (more information here (https://electroncash.org/nov2018.html)). The same applies to TREZOR users who don't have dedicated splitting tool due to lack of replay protection.

Read: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key ::)

No... For the millionth time... Coins ARE NOT kept in wallets... Private keys are kept in wallets.

The "ownership" of coins by public keys (which are derived from private keys) is recorded on the blockchain.

You can prove you control the public key by signing a transaction using the associated private key... Without the private key, you can't sign a transaction... And you can't "spend" coins.


Coinbase or binance (and other exchanges/service providers) generally control a bunch of private keys... In the case of the BCH fork they had control of the BTC private keys which matched public keys on the BCH blockchain... users again, were given  nothing more than an "account balance" that says "we owe this user X coins"...

It was only because of public outcry that the bigger exchanges even credited users with the BCH (again, this was just an "account balance"... They did not give users private keys etc)... Some exchanges (and other service providers) did not do this... and made huge amounts of money by keeping all the BCH for themselves.

Ledger Nano S users on the other hand "control" the private keys via controlling the device (and/or being able to restore using the seed mnemonic)... Ledger then implemented a change in the wallet software that allowed users to transact on the BCH network using their device.

Prior to that update... A Ledger Nano S user would need to have used their seed mnemonic to derive their private keys (either by importing their seed mnemonic into a BCH compatible wallet that supported seed mnemonics, like Electron Cash... And having that wallet derive the private keys... or by using some other tool to derive the private keys manually and then importing the private keys into a BCH compatible wallet).

Thanks HCP.


So to those of you that have bch on your electron cash or your nano ledger s, how do you claim the bitcoin fork that just happened?

FYI: It's a Bitcoin CASH fork and not a Bitcoin fork.

If you have them in your Electron Cash, just wait until there is a trusted BCHSV wallet, import your seed/private-key into it and spend the coins.
If you have them in your Nano S, you can either wait until Ledger supports the coin or you can move all your funds to a new wallet (for safety) and import your seed into a compatible wallet.