Export - import differences with Transfer bitcoin

[lordcroci]

Hello everybody,
My name is Loris and I'm trying to understand a little bit more of bitcoin.

I have some bitcoin, and would like to clarify this export-import of the private key...
Now I have my bitcoin in copay and after the fork I have not touch them yet. Reading here and there I understood that should MOVE btc from copay, export the private keys and import it in a coinomi wallet in order to see bitcoin gold.

The questions are:

1) is it right? can I transfer BTC from copay to kraken, sell my btc.. export the private key from copay, import it in coinomi (seeing the btgold) and than if i want, transfer btgold from coinomi to ledger nano s?
2) whats the difference between transfer btc from a wallet to another, and export the key and import it in another wallet? i know that with the first case i am gonna pay a fee.. but with export+import is it gonna happen?
3) how can I import a private key in ledger nano s? using electrum?

The thing here is that I would like to understand how to obviously do the right move, and if is it possible, move btc without paying all these fees each time.

Thanks a lot!
Loris

[odolvlobo]

1) Yes, though you don't have to sell your BTC, and you can only send btc gold to the ledger nano if it supports btc gold.
2) In simplest terms, a private key is like a password for an address. If you copy a private key from one wallet to another, then both wallets have the ability to spend the bitcoins at that address. Some wallets "sweep" a private key instead of importing it. When you sweep the private key, the new wallet uses it to send the bitcoins to itself. So in that case, it is just like sending the bitcoins from one wallet to another.
3) Many wallets don't store private keys, so you can't import them, only sweep them.