Please help me get started with Bitcoin Cash

[RedMana]

I know it's technically an altcoin, so I donno if this is the right forum section (please tell me the right one if not) but it's a fork, not something completely separate so I hope this is OK.

Alright here's the situation, I am a long-time, but not very active Bitcoin user. I've always used good old bitcoin-qt. So I've got a little bitcoin in that, right? And now I hear that I automatically have Bitcoin Cash too, without even knowing (score! I guess?) but I'm not sure how to make use of it. I look at bitcoincash.org (horrible website, by the way, entirely made of javascript) and check out the list of supporting clients. One is a special version of Bitcoin Classic, so the same old interface I'm used to. I intend to go with that unless someone knows a good reason to do otherwise.

With that out of the way, I've got a couple questions:

1. Would most people consider that client trustworthy? Is it OK to let it directly access a copy of my regular wallet?
2. To avoid having to downloading ~140GB of blocks all over again, can I copy the blocks and chainstate folders from my regular client? Or will it get confused if that contains blocks passed the split date?

[cpfreeplz]

First of all, move your coins. Now that you've done that download "electron" which is a fork of electrum. Import the private key of the address that had a bitcoin balance as of Aug first. Send those bitcoin cash wherever you want and you're good to go!

[RedMana]

First of all, move your coins. Now that you've done that download "electron" which is a fork of electrum. Import the private key of the address that had a bitcoin balance as of Aug first. Send those bitcoin cash wherever you want and you're good to go!

Like I said, I'm going with Bitcoin Classic unless someone knows why I shouldn't. But I suppose this advice still applies, "First of all, move your coins". But why, may I ask? Is that just a "be on the safe side" kind of thing? Or is this a critical step for some reason I'm not grasping?

[HashFace]

You should move your coins to new address before claiming BCC because you have to use the same private key as your BTC (where it was stored for the fork) to claim BCC ... And in the process, you could give away your BTC private key, allowing someone to steal your BTC.  It's just a precaution that is highly recommended.  Never use that address again to store your BTC.

[RedMana]

Alright, better safe than sorry. I guess that's what I'll do then. Anyone have a clue on #2? Whether I can just copy the block data over? Or shall I just give it a go and see what happens? No risk in that one at least I suppose.

And yeah, I get the impression not very many people use full nodes anymore, but I'm old fashioned like that.

[speakoo]

I know it's technically an altcoin, so I donno if this is the right forum section (please tell me the right one if not) but it's a fork, not something completely separate so I hope this is OK.

Alright here's the situation, I am a long-time, but not very active Bitcoin user. I've always used good old bitcoin-qt. So I've got a little bitcoin in that, right? And now I hear that I automatically have Bitcoin Cash too, without even knowing (score! I guess?) but I'm not sure how to make use of it. I look at bitcoincash.org (horrible website, by the way, entirely made of javascript) and check out the list of supporting clients. One is a special version of Bitcoin Classic, so the same old interface I'm used to. I intend to go with that unless someone knows a good reason to do otherwise.

With that out of the way, I've got a couple questions:

1. Would most people consider that client trustworthy? Is it OK to let it directly access a copy of my regular wallet?
2. To avoid having to downloading ~140GB of blocks all over again, can I copy the blocks and chainstate folders from my regular client? Or will it get confused if that contains blocks passed the split date?

Good luck to you for getting extra money from BCC, I suggest you sell all of you bcc after you get them.As your complaint, the devs behind BCC  are not so good at developing , right?
I did that already , I don't trust BCC team.

[Pasutinmeur]

I know it's technically an altcoin, so I donno if this is the right forum section (please tell me the right one if not) but it's a fork, not something completely separate so I hope this is OK.

Alright here's the situation, I am a long-time, but not very active Bitcoin user. I've always used good old bitcoin-qt. So I've got a little bitcoin in that, right? And now I hear that I automatically have Bitcoin Cash too, without even knowing (score! I guess?) but I'm not sure how to make use of it. I look at bitcoincash.org (horrible website, by the way, entirely made of javascript) and check out the list of supporting clients. One is a special version of Bitcoin Classic, so the same old interface I'm used to. I intend to go with that unless someone knows a good reason to do otherwise.

With that out of the way, I've got a couple questions:

1. Would most people consider that client trustworthy? Is it OK to let it directly access a copy of my regular wallet?
2. To avoid having to downloading ~140GB of blocks all over again, can I copy the blocks and chainstate folders from my regular client? Or will it get confused if that contains blocks passed the split date?

Good luck to you for getting extra money from BCC, I suggest you sell all of you bcc after you get them.As your complaint, the devs behind BCC  are not so good at developing , right?
I did that already , I don't trust BCC team.

The dev is really worst, they are so greedy person. The bitcoin cash just  decrease its difficulty just to make the bitcoin miners to interested to mine and help the bitcoin cash to run its network, that is the real evidence the developers is not good. Another altcoin has a better team than it.

[alyssa85]

Here is a good thread explaining what to do:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/6r0ou9/is_there_a_guide_to_claiming_bch_on_electrum_yet/

[Herbert2020]

1. Would most people consider that client trustworthy? Is it OK to let it directly access a copy of my regular wallet?

things you should be asking are:
- who has made the code, and who is maintaining it
- is it peer reviewed enough to know there is no shady thing inside
- is it tested enough to see there are no bugs in it
and since you usually don't compile the source code but instead download a binary
- is the binaries safe
- who is making them, and are they trustworthy (for example last time i checked electron cash binaries were made by an anonymous person)

2. To avoid having to downloading ~140GB of blocks all over again, can I copy the blocks and chainstate folders from my regular client? Or will it get confused if that contains blocks passed the split date?

yes you can. but you will still have 2 separate >140GB folders with the total above 250 GB if you want to run both full node clients.

[RedMana]

yes you can. but you will still have 2 separate >140GB folders with the total above 250 GB if you want to run both full node clients.

I'm aware. Hard drive space isn't really an issue, I could fit five or six more copies if I wanted... But honestly there's a good chance I'll do like the comment above said and sell it off, after which I guess I won't need to keep both.

As far as they security goes, knowing all that is ideal, but I'll settle for "Do other people use this?" "Does it work?" "Did it steal their money?"