Photo By @fraterralph
Without a doubt this is going to be the shortest article with the longest title I have thus far written for Steemit.
The reason for writing is to share some information I found concerning the Bitcoin split we will likely see on August 1st, 2017 in which Bitcoin will split into BTC and Bitcoin Cash (BCC). I use the Electrum Desktop Wallet and I became concerned when I heard that Electrum will not be supporting BCC. But Electrum does let you claim BCC after the split, you just have to transfer the coin to another wallet sometime after the split if you wish to keep it for trading. Yesterday Electrum released a statement concerning claiming your BCC on the Electrum Wallet and complete instructions for transfering the BCC to another wallet later on.
You can read the entire Statement by using the link at the bottom of this article. Being a newbie to all this myself, I found the statement very helpful. Some key points which I have paraphrased are:
You will automatically receive your BCC after the split
To move your BCC you will need to import the private keys from a BCC compatible wallet to the Electrum Wallet.
Because of security concerns you should move all of your BTC assets out of your Electrum Wallet sometime after the split, but before importing your BCC private keys. This is to guard against theft from possible intruders. You can move your BTC to another Electrum Wallet with different keys and seed. Once your BTC is secure, you can import your private keys from a BCC compatible wallet into the Electrum Wallet and transfer your BCC out.
After both your BTC and BCC is secure DO NOT REUSE your old Electrum Wallet for BTC. Again this is for security reasons to guard against unknown intruders who may access you wallet during the downloading of private keys from the new BCC wallet. Still many unknowns here, so better play it safe than sorry.
The Complete Electrum Statement Can Be Found Using This Link:
I plan on rereading it a few more times to make sure I'm ready with my assets by August 1st. If you have any other thoughts or ideas concerning this topic, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
Statement concerning Electrum and BCC from electrum.org. All other text is the work of the author @fraterralph.
How long should we wait before trying to access out Bitcoin Cash? Are these the only wallets? I really just want to hold my Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for the long term and hope that they will be worth something on day.
Should be able to access BCC by now. There is a trick to it I am still trying to figure out. The BCC did not show up immediately in my Electrum Wallet. May not be able to see it until after importing private BCC keys. I'm going to study more on it and give it another try later.
Hello. I wouldn't get too excited about this BCC, it is likely going to die on the vine. Segwit2x is already in and excepted by most of the miners this new coin demands the elimination of segwit so it will be isolated. I am not sure if you can separate it from bitcoin, you may have to use one or the other. Is anyone going to go for a $300. coin in favor of one almost $3000. I think not. Because it demands elimination of segwit it likely won't work as another crypto currency either. It might even screw up your whole bitcoin set up if you go to use it. I'm not touching it. Good luck. Peace.
Thanks for your observations @jameswhite. I plan on looking into this more carefully over the weekend and see what my favorite BTC people are saying about this. I like Jimmy Song and Tone Vays input. If there is any chance BCC may corrupt BTC then I'm staying away from this too. Looks like I got my homework cut out for me this weekend! Thanks. :-)