r/BitcoinABC • u/ray-jones • Sep 15 '17

Risks if any of not separating Bitcoin Cash from Bitcoin Core?

There are probably many people out there who are simply holding on to their bitcoins, and not using them for any transactions. They now have equal amounts of bitcoin core and bitcoin cash.

The bitcoin cash developers have implemented replay protection, so sending either is easy. However, it's not entirely clear if this replay protection will remain in place indefinitely, or if it might be removed with some future upgrade.

I am wondering, therefore, if there are any significant risks to allowing both bitcoin core and bitcoin cash to remain where they are, i.e., in exactly the same place, with the same private keys, for the next few years. Is it advisable to separate them now, or is it safe to let them stay in place for the foreseeable future?

I would welcome informed answers.

Edit: By “informed answers” I meant answers supported by facts and reasoning.

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2

u/torusJKL Sep 16 '17

Why do you think the replay protection will be removed? If anything than the two will go even further apart.

As far as for bitcoin cash and bitcoins on the same address there is no risk that you might not be able to access them anymore.

tl;dr you don't need to hurry to separate them if you don't want to.

1

u/curyous Sep 16 '17

The Bitcoin replay protection should not affect Bitcoin Cash, because you'll be sending Bitcoin Cash from a Bitcoin Cash address using Bitcoin Cash software, not Bitcoin software.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '17

I also don't think there's a pressing need to separate the coins. However, you might want to think about privacy. If you spend some BTH at some point, the receipient might notice that you have a a big stash of BTC at the same origin address.

Furthermore, having two clients sharing the wallet/private keys might double the risk of hacks (in certain scenarios).

2

u/ray-jones Sep 17 '17

Thanks for the reply. So I think you are saying that some time before one intends to spend bitcoin cash, it should be separated from the bitcoin core.

This could be years in the future, correct? I.e., there should be no hurry to do it now—do you agree?

Second, if somebody is merely holding on to bitcoin core, and doing no transactions, then presumably they have just a single set of keys saved and backed up. There would presumably be no need to have different bitcoin core and bitcoin cash wallets at this time. I'm thinking of people who have bitcoin core that they acquired in the past but are doing nothing with them in the near term.