Topic: Sent BTC to BCH address (Read 243 times)

Here are some very important concepts to learn if you are going to continue to use Bitcoin. Please take a moment to read through this post:

The reason that "blockchain" couldn't help

The company called blockchain that runs a website called blockchain is not THE blockchain.  Imagine if I were to create a company called "Internet Services", and that my company has a website that lists the names of all the internet email providers that I know of.  That doesn't mean that I am in control of THE internet or of any of those company's email services.  If you were to send an email from Google's gmail service over THE internet to someone else's AOL email address, and that email were to fail to arrive...  Calling my company that publishes the list of email service providers isn't going to accomplish much.  I'm not Google (the provider that you sent from). I'm not AOL (the provider that you sent to). I'm not THE internet (the technology that you used to send the email).

That's what happened when you tried to contact "blockchain".  There is a company called "blockchain". They provide a website that lists all the blocks that they know about in THE public blockchain. That does not mean that they are in control of the blockchain, or any of the services that make use of that public blockchain.  When you sent bitcoins from Coinbase through THE blockchain to someone else's service and those bitcoins failed to arrive... Calling the company that publishes the list of known blocks isn't going to accomplish much. They are not Coinbase (the service provider you sent from). They are not the service provider that you sent to. They are not THE blockchain (the technology that you used to send the bitcoins.

It can be confusing that there is both a technology called blockchain and a company called blockchain.  The company did not create the blockchain (they came along later and just named themselves after the existing technology).


The reason Coinbase couldn't help

Coinbase provides you a place to acquire bitcoins, and sends them elsewhere on your behalf.  Bitcoins are not an electronic "account" like you are used to with a bank.  It works more like an electronic representation of a CASH (paper and coins) transaction.  If you pay someone $100 with an electronic account (like a credit card) you can contact the company that provides that account and they can cancel the transaction.  If you hand someone a $100 bill, and they walk away...  The money is gone.  There is nobody to call.  The only person that can give you that $100 back is the person that you gave it to.  When you "sent a transaction from coinbase" what actually happened was that you asked coinbase to give some of the bitcoins that they were holding on your behalf to someone else (more specifically, to a bitcoin address that was not under their control).  Once they turned over those bitcoins, there isn't anything coinbase can do to get them back.  The only person that can give you the money back (or access the money at all) is the person (or company) that controls the address that you sent to.


The reason the receiver is having difficulty getting their service to fix this

Managing control over crypto-currency requires the use of digital keys.  Each address has a key that will allow controlling of any funds at that address. The ONLY way to control those funds is with that key... AND... ANYONE with control of that key (or a copy of that key) can control those funds.  Now imagine you run a service (similar to Coinbase) where you are managing the funds of thousands (or millions) of people on their behalf.  That means your service has thousands (or millions) of keys to keep secure. If a disgruntled employee can get their hands on any of those keys, then they can steal funds from your customers.  Therefore, you need to have extremely strict control over who can access the keys and how they are accessed.  Also, if you were to lose any of those keys, the funds would become permanently inaccessible.  It is possible to copy keys, but it is not possible to re-create a key without a copy of the original. Scammers, thieves, and other criminals will contact the service regularly, pretending to be a customer with an unusual situation and ask them to do something out of the ordinary with the keys in hopes of gaining control of the funds or tricking the service into sending funds.  It is this high level of security and caution with their customer's funds that makes it time consuming and difficult to subvert their normal security processes to acquire a BTC key for a BCH address.  Because of the time, difficulty, and risk... many services will either refuse to help or will require a significant fee to help in a situation like this.

However, the receiver's service is the ONLY entity that CAN fix this

Since the receiver's service is the entity that controls the digital keys of the address that you sent to, and since it is impossible to control funds without that digital key... You are at the mercy of the receiver's service.  If they are unwilling to help you, then you either need to find a way to force them to help, or you need to consider this an expensive lesson in being careful about where you send your crypto-currency.

Topic title and main topic confrontational each other. However, realized from post that you bought BCH and sent it to btc address instead of BCH address. There is 2 way to recover your fund.

If btc address holder have private key of this address then it would be recover simply by import private key of on any BCH supported wallet where support import private key. If receiver doesn't hold private keys and he create address from web wallet or from some other exchange then he have to contact with them. Most of them do not have opportunity to recover but there is some who help to recover if fund is really big. Like Bittrex have recover option with fee, and fund should be above $5K and they will charge 0.1BTC. So you need share more details if you like to get help. Sharing transaction id and wallet name wouldn't harm you.

Well, at least you start with the main problem
Being your own bank comes with certain responsibilities, and mistakes won't be forgiven, as there's no central authority that can "undo" transactions. I know none of this helps you now, but I think it had to be said.

That's the exact opposite of what you said in the topic title.

Can you share the txid (transaction ID)? It's probably in the attachment you mentioned.

If you paid to "a service", it means they can access your funds, but most likely they won't for security reasons. It requires access to private keys, and with a decent (secure) setup, nobody in the company should have easy access to those. That means it's going to be labour intensive and thus expensive to recover funds.
Some exchanges offer this, some don't, but if they do they likely charge a considerable amount of money for it.

To which wallet/website/exchange/service did you send the BCH where it was a BTC address? If it was to an wallet you own, it’s fairly simple to recover your coins.

The only way to retrieve the funds is to get the private keys of the receiving address.

To whom have you sent the funds to? A merchant (and which) or an individual?

First I have to apologize as I know NOTHING about BTC or BCH. If I am posting to wrong forum or this has been asked a million time, sorry. I'm just hoping someone can walk me through a solution to my problem.

I sent BTC to a BCH address accidentally on Oct 11, 2019 to fund an account. The account holder says they can "see" the transaction and are working with their "service?" to fix this. But seeing as how it has been almost a month now and nothing has happened I feel I need to at least pursue on own.

I set up an account at coinbase. I bought bit coin cash (I have a receipt) and then sent the money to what I thought was a bit coin cash address. (I have a receipt) I guess I really sent the money to a bit coin address.  I contacted Coinbase and they said that after the money is sent there is nothing they can do. The account I was trying to fund sent me an attachment showing the funds in a blockchain account? I contacted blockchain and they were very nice but advised me that there are many blockchain sites (I don't really know what they said)  and the gist of it was they couldn't help.

I can provide more info but I do not know what to provide, for security reasons, at this time. If someone has a urge to help and old man recover his money and can walk me through the steps in a childs language I would greatly appreciate it.