I am pretty much a Bitcoin novice. Bought some a few years ago, they went into my Blockchain.info wallet and I only checked it again a few days ago. It says I can get the same amount of Bitcoin Cash as I had in actual Bitcoins. It's not very clear whether this will do anything to my Bitcoin value or whether it just gives you a load of Bitcoin cash too. I don't want to do anything to risk my Bitcoins obviously. What do I need to do to "download" my Bitcoin Cash to my Bitcoin wallet? Should I send my Bitcoins to a new Blockchain.info wallet to keep them safe while I get the Bitcoin Cash?
1 Answer
Bitcoin cash is a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, but it exists on its own separate network. So moving the bch coins will not affect your btc balance, but there are some safety considerations. If Blockchain.info has an option to 'withdraw bch' now, then you can easily send your bch to an exchange like Shapeshift, and change them into btc.
If there is not an easy 'withdraw' option, then you will need to:
- move your btc to a new wallet first
- get your recovery seed phrase from the blockchain.info wallet
- install some bch wallet software, and input your seed phrase into it
- this will generate the bch wallet that holds your funds, you can now send them to an exchange, or whatever
If you search, there are some comprehensive guides available with more info on splitting your bch.