The advice to use another computer is a precaution. Bitcoin cash wallets are new and may have bugs or malware in them. So you should be careful not to expose the private keys, wallet and computer you normally use.
I don't quite understand bitcoin cash, but if I'm not mistaken, we have to send private keys to bitcoin cash wallet, right?
Right.
So, how is it gonna be safe?
It should be safe if you moved your bitcoins out of the original wallet first to another wallet you control. If you did that first and the wallet is empty you can import the private keys to the bitcoin cash wallet without fear of losing your bitcoins. For added safety you should install the bitcoin cash wallet in another computer or in a sandbox or something.
And I thought Aug 1 should be soft fork, why is BCH for? A hardfork meant for replacement to bitcoin?
Don't think it will replace it. But some people weren't happy with the direction the development of bitcoin was taking so decided to create another version of bitcoin. It's basically another altcoin. Distributed to everyone who already had bitcoins.
So you are telling me that as long as i had bitcoin in my electrum during the fork, then i would get the amount of bitcoin no matter what?
Of bitcoin cash, yes. An equal amount to what you had in bitcoin.
How long do i have before i could claim these bitcoin cash?
There is no time limit. And you don't have to claim it. It's already in the addresses where you had bitcoin. What you have to do is import the corresponding private keys to a bitcoin cash wallet. After you moved the bitcoin out of the original bitcoin wallet of course. In case the other wallet has any problems or is malware.
So as of now, if i send any btc to sites or anyone else, this has no effect on my bitcoin cash right?
Shouldn't have. But you may want to make sure it can't by following the advice posted above first.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/aug-1-summary-2059111If you have private keys of your current BTC wallet holding your balance then create a new wallet on a new machine and send the BTC from old wallet to the new one.
Then install the BCH wallet and import your old wallet's PK (which now contain 0 balance) in that.
Is there a way to check the bcc balance of an address before executing the private key export process?
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin-cash/blocks maybe? Haven't tried it very well yet.