Accidentally sent Bitcoin Cash to Bitcoin address held by a third party

I made an exchange on Changelly to exchange my Bitcoins to Bitcoin Cash. These Bitcoin Cash would later be sent to my address. Unfortunately, I did not check twice and had the Bitcoin Cash sent to my Bitcoin address and not Bitcoin Cash address.

Is there a way for me to reclaim these Bitcoin Cash? They are on a Bitcoin Cash address, just not mine. I checked the address and it only holds my Bitcoin Cash, which means it probably does not exist as an address. Is there a way for me to custom create the address and claim them or how do I get them back?

This is the process of how it went

As BTC in Blockchain.info
Transferred to Bitcoin Cash via Changelly
Transferring done, Bitcoin Cash supposed to be sent to my Bitcoin Cash address, to my Bitcoin.com Wallet but after accidentally having written my Bitcoin address and NOT my Bitcoin Cash address, the Bitcoin Cash is now with that address. I can see the cash at the other address but don't know how to get it back.

Help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Ahmad Othman

Posted 2017-11-11T16:14:19.043

Reputation: 63

If BCH was sent to an address belonging to your bitcoin.com wallet, then I believe you have the private keys on your device and should be safe. Even better, the latest version of the bitcoin.com wallet supports BCH, so your BCH should be visible and available there. – tobixen – 2017-11-28T09:57:35.707

I just had a similar problem with the difference that both wallets belong to me. I got help from http://BitcoinMedic.com and got my funds back. I have read you also got it back, good!

– NDB – 2017-12-22T19:26:30.920

It feels bad to lose them in the first place but it feels very nice to retrieve them back. – Ahmad Othman – 2018-01-01T18:59:43.597

Answers

You'll have to negotiate with your service provider whether they can help you.

Whoever holds the private keys for your Bitcoin wallet should be theoretically able to generate a transaction that sends the BCH from the Bitcoin address to wherever you wanted them to go.

In practice this may be difficult or infeasible: To keep large quantities of Bitcoin secure, the private keys are often stored in hardware devices or otherwise hard to access. The service provider will likely at least need to manually intervene to help you.

If the Bitcoin address was SegWit (which I wouldn't expect in this case), it might be even more difficult to recover, as you'd need the help of a miner, additionally.

It is unfortunate, that the Bitcoin Cash developers used the same address format as Bitcoin, even after this problem was well-known and in the media recently with Litecoin switching to a new unique P2SH address format for this very reason. However, I've read that they are working on a new unique address format, so at least this should stop happening in the future.

Murch

Posted 2017-11-11T16:14:19.043

Reputation: 41 609

Who is my service provider in this case? Changelly, Bitcoin.com Wallet or some other third party? – Ahmad Othman – 2017-11-11T16:50:29.373

1@AhmadOthman: If I understand correctly, the Bitcoin address that you accidentally sent the BCH to was from your Bitcoin.com wallet. That means that Bitcoin.com has the corresponding private key. – Murch – 2017-11-11T16:52:29.957

I sent Bitcoin Cash to my Bitcoin address on Bitcoin.com wallet. Hope that was your question. Thanks, really appreciate your help. – Ahmad Othman – 2017-11-11T16:54:47.457

2@AhmadOthman: Then Bitcoin.com would be who can help you recover it. – Murch – 2017-11-11T17:02:44.167

Alright, I will write to them about it shortly, thanks! – Ahmad Othman – 2017-11-11T17:08:11.847

@AhmadOthman Is it one of these wallets? What platform? Seems to be a fork of Copay which should allow exporting a private key.

– Jonathan Cross – 2017-11-11T19:32:10.350

1If BCH was sent to a bitcoin.com-wallet, then one is in control of the private keys, and rescuing the funds should be as easy as upgrading the wallet (since it supports BCH by now). – tobixen – 2017-11-28T11:02:07.140

I was able to get them back, fortunately. Thanks for all the help! – Ahmad Othman – 2017-12-04T00:47:16.017

-1

Nope,impossible to get back, effectively you sent them to another bitcoin cash address that less likely might be for anyone or used..your coins are lost into the void on that address and you cannot have the keys to it, nor anybody can get them back You can though see them on the BCH blockchain stuck there Sorry to deliver the bad news

Michel Sakr

Posted 2017-11-11T16:14:19.043

Reputation: 11

2That's not true, the keys to the address are the same for both chains if it's a 'normal' bitcoin address so it should be recoverable – MeshCollider – 2017-11-12T21:06:22.090

Ahh,apologies, correct the keys are same, misread question – Michel Sakr – 2017-11-13T21:20:24.273

I was able to get them back, fortunately. Thanks for all the help! – Ahmad Othman – 2017-12-04T00:46:56.420

@Ahmed, could you please let me know how you got the coins back? Did bitcoin.com give you the private keys or did they reverse the transaction themselves? I'm in a similar situation having sent LTC to a BTC wallet held at CEX.io. Their support is terrible though, so I'm having no luck so far getting the coins back. – Runny Yolk – 2017-12-12T15:14:32.300

@AhmadOthman for Runny Yolk and others that read this it would be helpful if you could explain what you did to resolve your problem. – Adam Millerchip – 2017-12-18T16:10:15.643

I apologize for the late answer Bitcoin.com responded to me by sending a long email explaining some details concerning BTC and BCC. The email is too long to copy-paste and it is more directed towards users that use bitcoin.com I would say, but you might be able to find something helpful.

You can do the following to retrieve your BCC from your BTC wallet:

Go to Home > New wallet (press the '+' icon) > New personal wallet. Select the Bitcoin Cash option, as you want to recover your BCC. Enter a name for the wallet (I would suggest BCC recovery) > Show advanced options > Wallet key – Ahmad Othman – 2017-12-21T17:09:24.827

Copy from wallet... > Select Wallet To > [Your Bitcoin [BTC] Wallet] Create new wallet This will create a Bitcoin Cash (BCC) wallet from your Bitcoin (BTC) wallet seed.

Once it has been created, go to Settings > [BCC recovery wallet] > More Options > Wallet Addresses > Tap 'Unused Addresses' at least 20 times / until you get an "Empty addresses limit reached" message Tap 'Scan addresses for funds' Your BCC will now appear in your BCC recovery wallet.

(If this did not help, which is likely) If you have an email I can resend the full response. Just write to me at Ahmadmso1995@gmail.com – Ahmad Othman – 2017-12-21T17:13:20.563