Crypto If you have any Bitcoin (BTC) you'll also likely now have some free BCH (Bitcoin Cash).

For anyone that has Bitcoins you may or may not be aware of this?

I had a fraction of a coin left on the exchange and kept getting e-mail about a "hard fork". It made no sense to me at all. When it finally clicked that it meant after the fork a new currency would be created and distributed to current BTC holders, (Bitcoin Cash - BTH) I frantically created a new, (what I though was a BTH wallet), as deadline was near for the forked currency to deploy to at the fork and my exchange wasn't going to support it.

Stupidly, I had no idea what I was doing and opened another Bitcoin BTC exchange instead, using that address as a wallet for the new Bitcoin Cash, so lost them. Never mind, they were free anyway.

It suddenly hit me today, what about people that had their BTC on paper wallets or USB ledgers etc, so I did some Googling as I have BTC on a paper wallet.

It seems for every one BTC you held in "cold storage" at the fork date you were given the equivalent amount of BTH Bitcoin Cash. BTH is currently worth north of $2k AUD, so not a bad deal!

If you have a paper wallet with BTC on it, you can input your PUBLIC key here and it will tell you your BTC and BTH balance.

blockchair.com

My understanding is that your paper wallet now contains both the BTC and BTH automatically, (there's tutorials for Ledger & Trezor users if you Google), and that you can send both BTC and BTH from that original paper wallet address.

My understanding is that there was also a previous fork that created Bitcoin Gold Tokens, so there's a fair chance you'll also get another batch of free crypto currency shortly based on your BTC holding at the time of the Gold fork, but from what I can tell the, mechanics of extraction and access from current wallets are still being ironed out?

 

Fork on 1st August?

 

Yes, I think that was the one @Xenia

 

The shame of it is there'll be plenty of crypto Luddites out there like me that just about managed to work out paper wallets but would have no idea those wallets now hold BCH too. If they ever empty the BTC into and exchange or transfer to another wallet then dispose of the "empty" paper wallet private key they'll have no idea they are chucking away BCH

 

EDIT to original post, BTH should read BCH (Bitcoin cash code). Told you I was a crypto-Luddite!!

 

I'm trying to learn about crypto currency, and your post has just scared the absolute bejeesuz out of me - I think I would have made more sense of it if it had been written in a foreign language. The only forks I know about are in my kitchen drawer, and cold storage is my freezer. And what the heck is a public key?

Wow - you clearly understand this stuff (and you call yourself a Luddite.........). Any chance you can point me in the direction of how to learn more?

 

Hahaha... hardly. If I was so clever about Crypto I wouldn't have lost the 4 Bitcoins I had on Mt Gox exchange in 2014.... that's the easiest $100k I would have ever seen!! I cry every time I see the value go up ;-)

A great place to start is The Bad Crypto Podcast, just start at episode 1 and work your way through. Listen to the first half dozen or so as they are basically a history and intro into crypto, once you've got your head around that you can cherry pick the episodes that sound interesting. the first few episodes explain the Block chain, how to buy & sell, what the "Keys" are etc. They're pretty funny too, especially later episodes when they relax a bit more. One of the early episodes goes into the Forks as they happened around the time the podcast launched.

 

Thanks. I've been trying to 'read up', but I think I'm now totally lost. I know I need a wallet, and to buy/sell the various currencies (then transfer them to the wallet), but there are so many wallet types (online, mobile, computer, hardware etc) and trading places (of which only some are Aus-friendly), trying to get it 'right' from the outset is proving harder to plan.

I'm worried that I'll stuff it up in the early stages, then lose the coins, or lose access, or not be able to trade because I set up the wrong type of account etc. It's very overwhelming.

 

A good way to learn is to just do... @KayTea sign up for somewhere like CoinSpot.com.au where you can trade a lot of coins, buy some of the cheap ones so you're playing with a few dollars only then play around sending them to and from paper wallets, that way, if you stuff up you've only lost a few bucks.

 

Just take your time to learn, this is a relatively complex sphere at first.
In terms of wallet you can get the exodus wallet for your desktop computer to get an idea of how it works. Google exodus wallet and download it. It supports multiple currencies like bitcoin, ethereum, etc.

To buy coins you can register at btcmarkets or you can try coinspot.
Once your account is approved on the exchange, you can start by buying a small amount, sending it to your wallet to see how it works.

 

Thanks everyone. The hardest part is the amount of information to sift through when deciding upon the wallet, and the buying/selling process. There seem to be so many providers out there (for both) - knowing which ones are the best (easiest to use, secure, and work with AUD/transactions) is the tough part.

At the moment, I'm considering BTC or CoinSpot to trade from, and I'm not too sure about the wallet options yet (I can't even decide if I want online, mobile, or desktop). Any suggestions, or your experiences, would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can also check YouTube there is this intro:



In terms of wallet it depends what you want to do with your cryptos. As a rule, do not leave your cryptos on the exchange once you have bought them, bring them to your own wallet.
If you want to invest in them and hold them you probably don’t need a mobile wallets this is more for use in everyday situations.
Cold storage (paper wallets) or hardware wallets are the safest bit if you intend on regular trading a desktop wallet like exodus or Jaxx are good options.

 

Just out of curiosity, if you had 1 bitcoin, how much bitcoin cash would've you received?

 

1

 

Now, before I start I must be honest and declare that from everything I’ve read I still know nothing about bitcoin even though it’s in the news every day.
It makes no sense to me.
I’m fascinated to know has anyone actually cashed out their bitcoin for real money? I have heard of people who put in 2k a few years ago had their bitcoin turn into 20mil etc. have any of these people actually been able to pull out their 20mil or large windfalls? Or is it stuck as bitcoin/too expensive to covert to normal currency?

 

I put in 10k across 5 coins just a few weeks ago.
Put in sell orders for half at double for each.
LTC hit my sell a few days ago, I cashed out the original 2k into AUD and it's back in my account.
So while not 20M, pulling money out isn't too bad - just need to consider withdrawal limits of your exchange.

 

Apparently there's another 4 updates aka forks coming in the next few months. This crypto stuff is pretty cool.

@Propagate there's many people who lost there coins so don't beat yourself up