BitPay launches beta wallet support for Bitcoin Cash

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Heeding the growing number of requests for Bitcoin Cash support, Bitcoin payment processor BitPay recently rolled out the beta version of its open source Copay wallet.

The wallet promises to make it easier for users to spend and store their Bitcoin Cash (BCH) alongside Bitcoin (BTC), giving them “the freedom to choose—or to use both BCH and BTC.”

The BCH-compatible Copay wallet has been enabled to access the BCH balance created during the August 1 hard fork, which means that those that have wallets with BTC before the hard fork event will receive a BCH balance equivalent to their BTC balance.

To enable Bitcoin Cash support in the Copay app, users only need to turn on the “Bitcoin Cash Support” switch in the settings tab and select “Chain: BCH” before the new wallet will start operating on the Bitcoin Cash network.

“You can use it like you would use any other Copay wallet,” BitPay said on its website.

The company, however, warned its users to refrain from sending BTC to a BCH address or BCH to a BTC address, as it will result in them losing access to their funds. BitPay said it has already adopted “a few new conventions” to ensure that its users won’t accidentally send BTC to a BCH wallet and vice versa.

“While we are working with other wallet providers and exchanges to adopt these new conventions, not all services that support Bitcoin Cash have done so,” according to the team.

BitPay is the latest to join the wallets that have announced support for Bitcoin Cash, including Electron Cash, Ledger Wallet, Trezor, Coinomi, WebMoney Transfer, Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin ABC, Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Unlimited, and BTC.com.

To access BitPay’s wallet beta release, Android users will have to install the update on the same device that hosts their current Bitcoin wallet, and then add themselves as a beta tester. iOS users, meanwhile, will need to email the BitPay team to get access to the beta Copay.

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