A step-by-step guide for how to safely move BCH (bitcoin cash) from an Electrum wallet. These are specific instructions for BCH but could be applied in a general case for splitting forked coins. Be very careful while following this guide as loss of funds is a possibility.

Before continuing you might want to read the guidance and follow-up from the Electrum team.

This is a step-by-step guide for how to safely move BCH (bitcoin cash) from an Electrum wallet. High-level steps are as follows:

  • Empty the Electrum wallet
  • Start Ubuntu in a virtual machine (or live-boot)
  • Install dependencies for Electron Cash
  • Download and install Electron Cash
  • Create a new wallet in Electron Cash using the seed from the old Electrum wallet
  • Wait for synchronization to complete then move your BCH to a wallet application that supports it

Empty the Electrum wallet

Before continuing on to any other steps, you must first empty your Electrum wallet. You can send the BTC to anywhere you wish, but you will probably want to create a new Electrum wallet with a new seed. After sending the BTC, wait at least a few confirmations before proceeding.

Virtual machine (or live-boot)

The reason to use a virtual machine (or live-boot) is to protect you from potentially malicious behavior from Electron Cash. The project is forked from Electrum and is open-source, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

The instructions in this guide worked with Ubuntu 16.04, but should also work with other versions without much difficulty.

Install dependencies for Electron Cash

Open "Software & Updates" and enable "Community-maintained free and open-source software (universe)" and then click "Reload" when prompted. This will download updated software sources information.

Install dependencies:

sudo apt-get install python-qt4 python-pip pyqt4-dev-tools
pip install setuptools

Download and install Electron Cash

Download Electron Cash. Use the green "Clone or Download" button to download the project as a zip archive.

Extract the zip archive.

Run the following command from within the electron-cash directory:

python setup.py install

Import old Electrum wallet seed

Start electron cash by running the following inside the electron-cash directory:

./electron-cash

Select "Standard wallet" on the first prompt.

Select "I already have a seed" on the second prompt.

Enter the old Electrum wallet's seed.

Provide a password to encrypt the wallet. Save this password because you will need it later to re-open the wallet and to send transactions.

Wait for synchronization to complete. The GUI might get stuck here, so wait a few minutes then close electron-cash and re-open.

You should now see the amount of BCH equal to how much BTC your wallet held at the time of the hard-fork.

Move your BCH to another wallet application that supports it, or directly to an exchange.

Recommended wallet(s) that support BCH:

Or you can have a look here for an up-to-date list of wallets with support for BCH.