If you have been using BCH for some time, sending it around, and receiving some, you might have had problems with your address. Getting the message that the wallet address you are sending to is not BCH or unsupported. If it is the case do not worry as there are tools for this.

A shallow dive in BCH addresses

What are the different types of BCH addresses

Legacy eg: bitcoincash:qrrz507kl809r55avlamacrc56mdleakjsghlxlgqh

CashAddr eg: 1K4oQXBc4WiNo4qV2MwKzK7ZrujLXbkyEU

In short and shallow, the 2 different kinds of Bitcoin Cash addresses are Legacy and CashAddr. Legacy as the name implies it is directly inherited from the fork from Bitcoin and has the same structure. CashAddr is the new format and starts with the prefix bitcoincash followed by a colon “:” before the base32 address and checksum. Some other prefix can be used on let’s say the testnet or for SimpleLedger Protocol (SLP) with the prefix simpleledger. I was made to differentiate BCH addresses from the BTC ones. I won’t go any deeper into technicalities as this is ta topic for another article.

The same new address format can technically also be used without the prefix. However, the new format has been thought and made that way so I recommend using it.

The converters

Here are some of the converters I use. Mostly the one from bitcoin.com as it is genuine and legit. Just make sure you don’t use some other sketchy site as they could change to some other address without you knowing and you could be sending funds to scammers.

Converters can convert your addresses going both ways. From CashAddr to Legacy and the other way around.

The one from Bitcoin.com

https://tools.bitcoin.com/cash-address-converter/

The one from BitcoinCash.org

https://cashaddr.bitcoincash.org/

To know more about the structure behind the CashAddr format you can check this link:

https://reference.cash/protocol/blockchain/encoding/cashaddr