Need to upgrade a 1.7.4 Electrum wallet.

[dmk14]

Hi,

I have an old Electrum wallet that was lying around for a few years with small bitcoin balance in it.
It was created using Electrum version 1.7.4

First observation: Electrum v.1.7.4 can't seem to connect to the server anymore.

Anyway, I want to move the bitcoins to a new wallet, and I also want to get hold on the BCH related to this balance.

What would be the best thing to do?

Should I upgrade to a new Electrum version and let it parse the old wallet? is it to big of a leap from v 1.7.4 ?

From what I understand the new Electrum version will have to move the bitcoins to a new Private key, does it jeopardize my BCH?
Someone know if I can I get the private keys from my old Electrum wallet?

Thanks,

[xdrpx]

You'll be able to upgrade your electrum and your BTC would be safe and fine. When you install electrum 3.0 you'll have the choice to opt-in to generate a SegWit wallet or utilize the native / legacy wallet. You can go ahead and choose what you'd like. If you prefer receiving funds from non bench32 addresses (this is the new address format for SegWit wallets in Electrum) you should probably go ahead with legacy / native wallets.

Also about the BCH that you're attempting to claim, you'll be able to do that from other Bitcoin cash wallets. All you need is your private keys to your current electrum wallet. I suggest you send your funds from your current electrum wallet to a new wallet (legacy) on a new version of electrum and wait for them to confirm. Once you do that you can utilize the old private keys from the old seed / old wallet of electrum and probably import them into any BCH wallet ensuring that the balance on the BTC wallet is 0. This is a safety measure such that any BCH wallet will not be able to steal your BTC if you're paranoid about it and also protects you from replay attacks (although BCH has sufficient replay protection).

I hope this has helped.

[TryNinja]

First of all, get your wallet seed (Wallet -> Show -> Seed) and save it somewhere. Also backup your old wallet file to avoid any possible issue.

Now:
1. Download the latest Electrum[1] version (v3.0.2 as I'm writing this);
2. When creating your new wallet choose Standard Wallet -> I already have a seed -> Paste your old wallet seed -> Next;
3. Done! Now you can spend/receive your coins.

Don't forget to save/write down your seed. Without it, you won't be able to recover your coins if anything happens to your device/wallet file in the future.

To claim your BCH:
1. Download Electron Cash[1] (Electrum fork for Bitcoin Cash);
2. Open it and choose the same wallet you just created above (if you don't file the wallet file, look for it at %appdata%/Electrum/wallets).
3. Done! You should see your BCH balance and be able to spend them.

[1] https://electrum.org/#download
[2] https://electroncash.org/#download