Accidentally sent BCH to BTC address?

[Leebob50]

I accidentally sent BCH to my wife?s BTC cash app address? Can I still get it? She never received it and I?ve tried contacting cash app and they?re no help and Bitcoin dot com keeps telling me to contact cash app? Any help would greatly appreciated.Might even have a little reward in it too!

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[nc50lc]

Cash app have your addresses' private keys which is the only way to recover your Bitcoin Cash.
It's simple if you just sent it to a "real" bitcoin wallet like Electrum/BitcoinCore; unfortunately, 'Cash App' is a custodial service.

Do as what Bitcoin(.)com told you because they are the only one who can help you with this.
Tell them that it's Bitcoin Cash [BCH] that you've sent to your (wife's) Bitcoin [BTC] address.

[HCP]

Essentially, all you need is the private key for the BTC address that you sent BCH to. Do you have this or a way to get it?

Ways to get the private key:
- Export private key from "cash app" wallet
- Do you have a 12/24 word seed mnemonic backup for "cash app" wallet? If so, private key can be derived from this


I'm not familiar with what "cash app" is exactly, so I can't be more specific. Is it a custodial wallet or do you have access to private keys/backup mnemonics? Do you have a link so I can look further into it?

If you're referring to this: https://cash.app/ Then, as nc50lc has noted... it's a custodial wallet, meaning that only they have access to the private keys. you will need to contact Cash.app support.

[Leebob50]

Yea I contacted cash app several times and they’re clueless and have been no help. I have all the information from my wife’s cash app and the word phrases and addresses and everything but the BCH is just in limbo it isn’t in my bitcoin dot come wallet or my wife’s cash app . So where is it? Is it lost ?

[hosseinimr93]

Yea I contacted cash app several times and they’re clueless and have been no help. I have all the information from my wife’s cash app and the word phrases and addresses and everything but the BCH is just in limbo it isn’t in my bitcoin dot come wallet or my wife’s cash app . So where is it? Is it lost ?

As nc50lc and HCP  said, the wallet your wife is using is a custodial wallet. It means that she is not the one who has full control of BTC or BCH sent to her wallet.
When you receive BTC or BCH in a custodial wallet, in fact those BTC or BCH are sent to a third party (here the third party is cash app) and instead of that the third party (cash app) shows a number as your balance.
When you use a wallet like this, it's like that you have deposited your money to a bank and bank has control of your money. They can do whatever they want with your money.

So, those BCH haven't been lost. They can be found in the blockchain. They exist in the address you have sent BCH to. But as has already been said only cash app has control of that address. In other words, they are the real owner of that address. Because they are the owner of private key. Therefore, the only thing you can do is contacting them again (If they are not responsive, unfortunately you can do nothing)

I haven't used cash app. But usually third parties like exchanges display a warning when you copy the deposit address and it says that they cannot give back your fund if you send BCH to a BTC address. (Usually they can do it but unfortunately they don't help users)

Keep in mind that you should always keep your BTC, BCH, ETH, etc. in a wallet which you have full control of that.

[nc50lc]

-snip- but the BCH is just in limbo it isn’t in my bitcoin dot come wallet or my wife’s cash app . So where is it? Is it lost ?

FYI, it's in Bitcoin Cash's blockchain, not in any wallet.
To check if it went through, paste the address here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer?view=bch_blocks When prompted to select a chain, select BCH.
Note: It will be displayed as BCH address (starts with 'q') instead.
Cashapp didn't received it because their system is designed for Bitcoin and isn't connected to a Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

Like previously said, you need to get the private key of that address to be able to restore the address to a wallet that's connected to Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

Yea I contacted cash app several times and they’re clueless and have been no help. I have all the information from my wife’s cash app and the word phrases and addresses and everything

Customer service must be for non-technical queries or they are clueless of those issues because they just added this "virtual currency" feature lately.
I can't believe they don't include a warning about sending forked coins to the address and doesn't have a forked coin recovery policy.

But I've found this from their TOS2:

Deposits.
We are not responsible for any erroneous or delayed Virtual Currency Deposit for any reason, including erroneous instructions or address information.

Looks like they wont help you recover your coins after all.
You mentioned "word phrases", is it from cashapp? AFAIK, cashapp doesn't have a seed phrase.

[Leebob50]

Well that sucks. Looks like I’m out $250 then I’ll try again and hopefully can get through to someone who’s somewhat intelligent everyone I’ve spoke with is clueless on what I’m even asking them. Thank you very the advice everyone

[The Cryptovator]

Yea I contacted cash app several times and they’re clueless and have been no help. I have all the information from my wife’s cash app and the word phrases and addresses and everything but the BCH is just in limbo it isn’t in my bitcoin dot come wallet or my wife’s cash app . So where is it? Is it lost ?

Sorry to say but likely your fund has gone. Cash App isn't integrated with BCH blockchain, so balances should not reflect on your Cash App wallet. Still your fund stuck on BCH blockchain and it will remain forever if Cash App doesn't recover it by themselves. Its lost for you sadly. Only way to convince them get private key of btc address which is almost not possible. Or they might recover themselves and send back to you and this is also very difficult process. I have search over Google about your issue, but sadly there is more similar issue and they lost fund unfortunately. However, that's your mistake and you can't blame Cash App someone how. You may just try to convince support team. Just noticed now Cash App founded by Jack Dorsey the creator of Twitter.

By the way, this is a lesson for you and others as well, hope you will be more careful in future during make transaction.

[tranthidung]

Process of retrieving coins sent to wrong blockchains is a very hard case and you have to hope and wait for some factors which will help you to recover your funds:

• Supports of receiver's service: Especially their support history on the same issue. If they have not yet supported any same case, it is unrealistic to hope that they will support yours. It seems Cashapp has not yet had a history for such case. It's obviously not good for you.
• Their time and their genorosity: To retrieve your coins, they have to retrieve the corresponding private key and go to process in order to credit the amount you mistakenly sent away. It is totally depends on their support team as well as their support policies.
• Receiver' service might (or not) charge fees to do this: If their platforms have rules which don't mandatorily support such cases. If they answer (if you are luckily enough) your support ticket and require fees, you have to consider cost-benefit and accept fees or not.

I believe your fund has been lost, sorry to say this, but maybe you have to accept it and learn from this lesson.

From all exchanges, you will always see the warning phrases that state "It is a BTC (bitcoin) address, sending other coins to this one will make your fund lost". It is not exact warning and it will be different from exchanges but they always include such warning.

Next times, whenever you move your funds, you have to pay attention on:

• The name and ticker of coin you will send your fund too
• The warning message when you make transaction. Don't skip it, instead read it carefully.
• The receiving address you will send your fund to (check it characters carefully)

If you are not sure that the receiving address is what you intend to send with your deal (BTC sends to BTC address), you can use the site to check it yourself. Doing this will help you to avoid carelessness of your wife, your relatives, your friends, whoever. In case mistakes belong to receivers, it is not bad for you but if you check it, it will result in a win-win situation.

I meant sometimes senders are not aware of wrong blockchains they send funds to; OR receivers are not aware of wrong address on wrong blockchain they provide to senders. Double-check (even you are senders) is a good step to do.

• https://multihash.net/

Genearlly, that one is a good answer (from @DannyHamilton) for your case too: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5199833.msg53023854#msg53023854

[Pmalek]

Tell them that you sent $250 worth coins to the wrong blockchain, and the only way for you to recover your deposit is if you have the corresponding private key of you Cash App address. If they refuse or don't understand what you are talking about, ask to speak with their supervisor. But be professional. Hopefully you will get through to them.   

[DannyHamilton]

As several people have already pointed out, Cash App has the private keys. The people that work at Cash App are therefore the ONLY people that can help you.  The only way to access those coins is to convince someone at Cash App to either:

• Provide you with the private key for the address that you sent to.

or

• Use that private key on your behalf and send the coins to a BCH address that you control.

You can try being professional and understanding.
You can try being assertive or demanding.
You can try being threatening.
You can try getting law enforcement and/or attorneys involved.

If you can't convince them to help, then you aren't going to be able to access those BCH coins.

[d.kevin29]

Tell them that you sent $250 worth coins to the wrong blockchain, and the only way for you to recover your deposit is if you have the corresponding private key of you Cash App address. If they refuse or don't understand what you are talking about, ask to speak with their supervisor. But be professional. Hopefully you will get through to them.   

It's worth the try, definitely better than doing nothing. But they might not do much to help out with the situation for just $250. It might be a large sum for a lot of people, but for a company it might not be worth the efforts. I've personally seen some exchanges adopt the same policy: they only help you out in case the sum is large enough to consider it a big loss.

Leebob50, whether this case ends in a positive or negative way for you, take it as a learnt lesson. We learn from mistakes, this is how you get experience. I lost about $150 a few years ago and never got it back but trust me, losing $250 now means earning experience and avoiding another even larger loss next time. Meanwhile, try to keep in touch with them and they might help you out in the end.

[Theb]

Unfortunately I don't see any way you can retrieve your BCH back without the help of Cash.App itself. Since like what they have said they are a custodial wallet and custodial wallets are the ones controlling your private keys, without their help of giving access your private keys you won't able to retrieve it by yourself. Aside from that your only other option is a cross-chain deposit recovery (if they have one), a lot of custodial wallets (even exchanges) have what they call cross-chain deposit recovery in their services for customers who have sent crypto on the wrong blockchain. So maybe they aren't that too familiar with your concern but may know your situation if you say this was a cross-chain transaction.

[Leebob50]

Ok I cantacted then just waiting on a. Response . Thank you everyone for your help! I’ll keep you updated!

[blockforge]

Oh goodness, good luck with this - In my experience, Cash App is one of the most difficult companies to work with when it comes to anything. Its definitely possible to recover the funds, but this is contingent upon them cooperating and doing it for you since they hold the private keys to all user wallets. I couldn't even get a direct answer from them as to why my account was closed, so don't expect too much from them. Hopefully the amount you sent wasn't much. Either way, good luck.

[verita1]

This accident is very strange but perhaps it may happen. I do not know Cash App and I do not know how it works but if I can say that https://www.blockchain.com/ wallet would not allow me to make a transaction with a wrong address. Because the address of each crypto has a different form.

I just tried and it tells me
"Invalid Bitcoin address"

I wish that your mistake could be solved. Try using a safer and more recognized wallet. It is very common to see these types of errors in crypto users.

[hosseinimr93]

This accident is very strange but perhaps it may happen. I do not know Cash App and I do not know how it works but if I can say that https://www.blockchain.com/ wallet would not allow me to make a transaction with a wrong address. Because the address of each crypto has a different form.

Every BCH address which starts with "q" has a legacy format too. We have one address with two formats.
I just created a BCH address: qpj6l74xs9g93yuz67lrkqvjpfunr9rewqpuz4pq09
There are some tools that gives you the corresponding BTC address. Here is the bitcoin address (legacy format of that j format address): 1AGg4cofDoMHatd2wCcMuFHUz7WYERq6jh
The j format address is also called "CashAddr" format.
The private key of both of addresses is L3unCBMZZLJxHbJyNtDiAupX8mqBx5xDGESzQ8Kz7869ECsBnWgd.
You can test it. You can use this private key for unlocking the legacy address in bitcoin network and also the CashAddr address in Bitcoin Cash network.
The new format of BCH addresses was created so people don't get into trouble. But there are always some people send BCH to BTC address or vice-versa.
If you send BTC to a cashAddr address you will get an error. But if you send BCH to a BTC address or BTC to legacy format of a BCH address, you won't get any error.
In the case you use a custodial wallet and you don''t access private key of the address, you will lose your fund, unless support of the wallet helps you to recover your fund.