After much hemming and hawing over taking my bitcoin out of cold storage to collect on the Bitcoin Cash coins I finally decided to do just that. As I had most coins in a cold storage Electrum wallet it was rather easy but time consuming. I'll just give the basics on what I did. I had to create a new Electrum wallet and transfer all my coins to it. Once I did that I had the original Electrum wallet that was empty. I downloaded the Electron Cash wallet from HERE. Do not download this wallet onto the same computer you have your new Electum (Bitcoin) wallet on. Here is the proper way to handle the wallets from the Electrum website HERE. Please read everything before you do this. It is safe and you won't put your bitcoin at risk if you follow the directions.
When you setup your Bitcoin Cash Electron wallet I do not recommend you use the 'Select server automatically' option. Why? Because I did this and there is a 'bug' there that will try and transfer your Bitcoin Cash without your permission. When I saw this I freaked and, fortunately because the network is slow to confirm transactions, I was able to pick a new server manually. I recommend this and it worked flawlessly. When I picked a new server this unauthorized transaction disappeared. electroncash.casharia.com is what I used. If you forget and need to change it, just go to TOOLS - choose NETWORK and the window will be there. The link is HERE where I found how to do this. The forum page describes this bug. The answer is at the bottom of the forum page. Use at your own risk - it worked for me.
Once all your bitcoins are in your new wallet (or wherever you put them), take your seed from your old wallet and go to the Bitcoin Cash wallet. Go to FILE and click- NEW/RESTORE on the menu (enter whatever name you want) - click next -
It will be on Standard wallet - I left it there and clicked next -
Here you will have the option for 'I already have a seed'. I chose that one and clicked next -
Then I input my seed FROM MY OLD ELECTRUM WALLET - THE ONE THAT IS NOW EMPTY and continued. If your seed is correct you will see your new Bitcoin Cash in your wallet!
Now you have your bitcoin safe and you have your new Bitcoin Cash. How do you exchange it? Here's what I did—I went to Shapeshift. I have never been there before and had no idea how it worked, really. But if you've used it before you're good to go from here.
For those of you who have not done this before, keep reading.
You do not need an account here. It is completely anonymous (save coin tracking).
On the main page you see the option to transfer from one coin to another. Click on the Bitcoin icon under 'Deposit' and a menu of different coins will appear. Click on Bitcoin Cash. Then do the same under 'Receive' coin icon, choosing the coin you want to receive.
I chose bitcoin but you can transfer to whatever coins are on the menu.
I did the 'Quick' option—that's their default. Just make sure you copy the Order ID in case of a problem. Also copy your receive address for wherever you want your new coins to go and your Bitcoin Cash return address as well. These addresses are in your wallets anyway but this gets you in the habit of making sure it's correct.
Pay attention to the maximum amount of Bitcoin Cash Shapeshift accepts. Do not come close to this amount as the price changes constantly and the amount can drop below your deposit amount and the transfer will fail and they'll send the Bitcoin Cash back to you, minus miner fees.
I took this screenshot when I was learning the process. This shows what you will see while the transaction is processing.
Once your deposit is in and the process is started, Shapeshift will wait for three confirmations on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. It took hours for three confirmations when I did it. Yep, basically one block found per hour—it was brutal as I wasn't sure how many transactions Shapeshift was looking for at first. The Shapeshift process page will just sit there and spin until the third confirmation and then, if all your info was correct, your transfer will complete and the new funds will be deposited into your wallet. Once I knew how all this worked, every transaction went flawlessly. Just waiting for three confirmations was annoyingly slow. As of this writing the confirmations are about two to five minutes apart on average. Which means you won't have to wait hours for one transaction.
Well, there you have it. How I transferred my Bitcoin Cash into bitcoin without signing up for anything and it's fairly anonymous.
