Accidentally sent to BTC address instead of BCH address

[meerownymous]

Hi there! I hope my question is in the right forum, if not - sorry!

I have made a n00b mistake. I sent some coins from an online wallet to my Ledger Nano S cold storage.
I meant to send it to my Ledger BCH address, but I accidentally pasted that address in the wrong field so that the transaction got posted to the Bitcoin blockchain, not the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

So now the transaction succeeded and I have no access to that address. I know how stupid that is, and that the coins are most likely lost.
But then I wondered, since the Ledger Nano S software generated these addresses, using my passphrase which I can use to restore the Ledger if I need to - is there a way to claim that BTC address using that passphrase? I do not know, how the addresses are generated using my passphrase. I would be glad if someone could explain it.

I do not really understand: When I restore a Ledger using the same passphrase, and then add a new Bitcoin wallet, that is the same address as on another device. I can add multiple Bitcoin wallets. How do they have the same address every time? And how do BTC and BCH address creation differ?

https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005434914-Restore-from-recovery-phrase

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I am new in crypto and find it kind of hard to understand the key mechanisms And sorry for my english.

[djhomeschool]

The coins are not lost since BTC and BCH have the same private key.

You can export your BTC private key and import it to a BCH wallet and the other way around.

[meerownymous]

Thats very good news!

I can export/generate the keys like this https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005434914-Restore-from-recovery-phrase

I still do not get how/when the address comes into play. I have one passphrase for the Ledger device, but the device has many wallets...

Would I now simply:
- use the steps in the link to get my keys
- import the keys into a software BTC wallet

And then the coins show up?

[djhomeschool]

Thats very good news!

I can export/generate the keys like this https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005434914-Restore-from-recovery-phrase

I still do not get how/when the address comes into play. I have one passphrase for the Ledger device, but the device has many wallets...

Would I now simply:
- use the steps in the link to get my keys
- import the keys into a software BTC wallet

And then the coins show up?

You need the private key from the address the coins are sent to, not the recovery phrase.

https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005297709-Export-your-accounts

[AdolfinWolf]

So, basically what you did is you send Bitcoin Cash to your Bitcoin wallet.. right..?

Probably the easiest way to get these back if you didn't send them to a 3... (segwit) bitcoin adress is to:

1. Export your Ledger Nano S seed into Electrum, or use connect with hardware device on electrum (when importing check BIP39 seed.)
2. In electrum, check the BTC adress you send the BCH to. Export the private key of said adress.
3. Download electroncash, import the private key holding the BCH, and make a transaction back to your "BCH" ledger wallet.

You can also follow this guide to find the private key for said adress, and then import it into electroncash. (Or whatever Bitcoin cash wallet you prefer.)
https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005297709-Export-your-accounts

Thats very good news!

I can export/generate the keys like this https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005434914-Restore-from-recovery-phrase

I still do not get how/when the address comes into play. I have one passphrase for the Ledger device, but the device has many wallets...

Would I now simply:
- use the steps in the link to get my keys
- import the keys into a software BTC wallet

Import the keys into a BTC wallet such as Electrum/Bitcoin core if you're looking for your Bitcoin, import them in electroncash if you're looking for your Bitcoin Cash


If my small guide didn't make much sense; i'm pretty sure this is still accurate.

It's actually pretty easy to recover BTC sent to BCH address (or BCH sent to BTC address), assuming you control the private keys for the address that the coins have been sent to...

Unfortunately, with regards to the Ledger, the methods required for recovery will require that you use your wallet seed (there is not other way to get the private keys out)... this could potentially expose all the wallets you have created with that seed.

Basically:

1. Goto: https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ and create an offline copy of it ("Offline Usage" instructions at bottom of page)
2. Using offline copy on offline computer, enter your seed as BIP39 Mnemonic
3. Select "BCH - Bitcoin Cash" as the "Coin"
4. All you addresses/private keys will be displayed at the bottom
5. Find the address you sent to, copy the matching private key
6. Either import or sweep that private key into the BTC wallet of your choice.

Optional, but recommended: Create a completely new seed for your Ledger and send all your coins to the new wallets.

[meerownymous]

Worked, you are the best! My BTC are back \o/

Thanks a lot for helping me out.

So I also think I understood:

- the mnemonic is the "global" seed, from which the private keys for every coin are derived
- deriving has a "path", where every coin has its own number, so this is how the BTC and BCH deriving differs
- since keys are the same in both networks, and networks don't care about a "coin number", using keys in one another works
- when I add new accounts to my ledger, I assume it just iterates through the derived addresses

Is this correct?

[HCP]

So I also think I understood:

- the mnemonic is the "global" seed, from which the private keys for every coin are derived
- deriving has a "path", where every coin has its own number, so this is how the BTC and BCH deriving differs
- since keys are the same in both networks, and networks don't care about a "coin number", using keys in one another works
- when I add new accounts to my ledger, I assume it just iterates through the derived addresses

Is this correct?

You're definitely on the right track... your explanations are pretty close, especially with regards to the mnemonic generating the "global seed"... However, just to clarify a couple of points:

- deriving has a "path", where every coin has its own number, so this is how the BTC and BCH deriving differs

In theory, this is correct... however, it is not compulsory that a wallet follows a specific derivation path for a specific coin. In some instances (in the case of forks), you may actually need to follow a derivation path of a different coin so you can get the private keys you need to be able to access forked coins.

- since keys are the same in both networks, and networks don't care about a "coin number", using keys in one another works

In the case of BTC and BCH yes.. but not necessarily for ALL coins/networks. It really does depend on the networks in question. In your instance, because BTC and BCH share a common base and use the same format of private key, then yes you can use the private keys from one (and generate public keys/addresses) on the other. However, this may not be true for ALL coins/networks.

- when I add new accounts to my ledger, I assume it just iterates through the derived addresses

It doesn't iterate through the derived addresses... it iterates through the "accounts" in a given derivation path.

The format for a BIP44 derivation path is: m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index

As you can see, there is an "account" value... so, in your ledger, when you first setup a BTC "account" it defaults to the one that uses the "0" account value... which starts with m/44'/0'/0' as the derivation path. So the path to the individual receive addresses in that account would be:
m/44'/0'/0'/0/0
m/44'/0'/0'/0/1
m/44'/0'/0'/0/2
...
m/44'/0'/0'/0/n


If you were to create a 2nd BTC "account", it would start generating addresses underneath the m/44'/0'/1' path. And the path to the BTC addresses in that "account" would be:
m/44'/0'/1'/0/0
m/44'/0'/1'/0/1
m/44'/0'/1'/0/2
...
m/44'/0'/1'/0/n

A 3rd account would be: m/44'/0'/2' with address paths:
m/44'/0'/2'/0/0
m/44'/0'/2'/0/1
m/44'/0'/2'/0/2
...
m/44'/0'/2'/0/n

etc etc.

[meerownymous]

Thank you for the clarification.