The Easiest Way to Split BCHABC and BCHSV

The Easiest Way to Split BCHABC and BCHSV

DISCLAIMER: None of the following is intended to be investment advice. This is only meant to be a description of what has worked well for me so far, and my own opinions. Also, full disclosure, my links to various exchanges are referrals which I profit from. It actually benefits you to use them because we will both get an extra $10 worth of BTC for free if you deposit at least $100 to Coinbase. Thanks in advance if you follow the links when you make your accounts - and even if you don’t, I hope you find this article useful! Remember: Always do your own research. This is not financial advice, so do not make any purchases or sales based on the opinions written on this website.

Are you tired of forks yet? I know I am! Nevertheless, several months ago on November 15th, 2018, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was forked into Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC) and Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV). As time passed, people realized that BCHABC would be the longest chain, and as a result it has retaken the old BCH ticker on many exchanges (although Binance and some other exchanges and sites still call it BCHABC for clarity).

If the preceding paragraph seems like a disgusting and hilarious mess of verbiage, don’t be alarmed - it is. I think these sorts of contentious forks - and their resulting lengthy, goofy names - make the entire cryptocurrency community look bad. I’m not going to get into the ideological details that lead up to this fork. It suffices to say that very rich people were having a slap-fight over block size caps. Roger Ver and Jihan Wu were the BCHABC side. Craig Steven Wright (also known as “Fake Satoshi”) and Calvin Ayre were on the BCHSV side. The resulting hash war likely had a big part in depressing the entire market for months.

I digress. This article is about the dangers of splitting and how to circumnavigate them. Let’s discuss. 

Replay Protection

Unlike the fork between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, this was a much more dangerous thing due to the fact that there was no replay protection. Replay protection is any feature which makes it so that transactions on one chain are invalid on the other chain. As a result, transacting on one chain cannot inadvertently send coins on the other chain as well. It also protects against a third party maliciously issuing what’s known as a “replay attack” to spend your coins on the other chain.

Now that several months have passed since the fork, the dust has more or less settled: BCHABC is the longer chain and - in my opinion, anyway - is likely to remain that way. BCHSV is also suffering from social issues, insofar as Craig Wright can’t seem to stop legally threatening people for failing to believe that he is Satoshi. In fact, this has become so tiresome that exchanges have recently started delisting BCHSV:

If you’re like me, you were probably waiting for some kind of event like this; something which makes it obvious that one side of the fork was doomed to obscurity. It seems pretty clear which coin is dominant, at least for the time being. In most places BCHABC is now referred to as BCH - retaining the old ticker - and BCHSV has become known as BSV. So, if you still have old unsplit coins, now is a good time to take care of it.

If you had unsplit BCH at the time of the fork, the lack of replay protection made splitting your coins a precarious affair. Thankfully, splitting your BCH is now much more straightforward. Follow this step-by-step guide and you will soon be quickly, safely, and easily splitting your BCH and BSV.

How to Safely Perform the Split: Step by Step

•  Ensure you are using the latest version of the Electron Cash wallet. It can be found here. If you don’t have your backup word phrase, click “Wallet” at the top and then “Seed.” You will need this, so write it down. Another wallet should work as long as you know or can export the word phrase associated with it.
• Download the Electrum SV wallet. It can be found here. This is what we’ll be storing our new BSV in. Run it, and keep clicking “Next” through the screens with all the default settings. We are creating a brand new “Standard wallet” - we are not importing Bitcoin addresses or private keys. When you get to the screen that asks you about seeds, stop and click “I already have a seed.” Click “Next.”

• Write your seed phrase - the one you exported from Electron Cash - in the provided box, then click “Next.”
• When you arrive at the wallet itself, you should see your old Bitcoin Cash transaction history. You’ll notice a tab titled “COIN SPLITTING” - click that.

• Click “split,” and then when it’s ready, click to proceed. The most annoying parts of the process will proceed to be automated for you. You’ll notice some new transactions in your history which are obviously marked as split funds. Wait for those transactions to be confirmed.
• Once the transactions are confirmed, it is safe to send your BCH - or your BSV - somewhere else. Remember that your Electron Cash wallet controls your BCH, and your Electrum SV wallet controls your BSV. You should move at least one of them as soon as possible, even if it’s to a different wallet you control. You might consider sending your BSV to Kucoin or Changelly so you can trade it for something less worthless. Ha ha, just kidding - but not really.

And that’s it! You’re done. You’ve successfully split up your BCH and BSV. Now let’s hope that no more mainstream forks come along and introduce further headaches into the crypto community… at least for a little while.