@bitbee99 I understand you use Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Core uses a wallet.dat file to store and manage your private keys. A key with BTC per August 1 represents the same tokens on the same key on different networks it represents BTC, BCH and BTG.
Bitcoin Core, BU-cash and Bitcoin Gold Core can all read your wallet.dat file and send from the private key. (the clients above are all full node implementations)
There have been reports of developers who created the BTG wallets, steeling the coins stored on the same keys used on the other chains, so I don't trust BTG much at all.
You as a user who is not responsible for securing close to 0.3 Trillion dollars you don't need to run a full node. Running a node that is not mining is just taxing the network using bandwidth that ultimately slows down the network.
I don't recommend you run a full node, and I defiantly don't recommend using the default wallet attached to a full node. It is less secure than an offline wallet and less secure than well secure SPV wallet on your phone.
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if you are paranoid about security as I am, I recommend you back up your wallet.dat file (never discard your wallet.dat ), I can not read code so I can't see what the code does. I just use cold storage with keys generated form a source I can trust.
So if you relate to my position, you don't need to download about 140,000MB on each chain to make a single transaction . (this is extremely inefficient despite what the Core developers tell you) if you don't want to download all 3 block chains then use the link above to extract your keys off line.
otherwise download all 3 blockchains it's conceptually simple but you will be taxing each network by doing so making each one less effective - a nothing problem at this scale you just need to take the time to do it.)
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You should abandon using the wallet.dat file after you have opened it in the Bitcoin Gold Core, you don't want any BTC there that can be stolen by the BTG client. Any one of the 3 developer teams could have put code in there to send your private key to a third party. And unless you can check the code you will never know. (I trust Core and BUcash because it is used and written by many trusted people, - I cant trust BTG)
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So if you are going to be prudent you need to abandon your old wallet for a new one. If you don't mind being robbed or taking an elevated risk of being robbed by broadcasting your nodes IP address 24/7 effectively saying "hack me I'm a bitcoin user" just keep using the same wallet on a full node.
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TL;DR send your BTC, BCH and BTG to a new wallet. (archive your old wallet)
I have all 3 wallets ready on my desktops, bitcoin core, bitcoin abc, and bitcoin gold
best to use an SPV or offline wallet but it's OK to use a full node.
what i am confused about is, am i supposed to send by btc bitcoins to a new btc wallet
Yes, for reasons explained above your old BTC Core wallet could be compromised if you open it using bitcoin core gold.
however if you just extract the single key you can import it into each wallet, just move the BTC to a new address if you want to use full node software, then you dont need to use a new wallet because the all the other keys are still secure. you can import a new key into BCH and BTG node wallets using this method:
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5941/how-do-i-import-a-private-key-into-bitcoin-qt
I've done all the above to extract keys securely and can say the fastest secure and most simple way is to use a SPV wallet like coinomi, keep your private keys secure and off-line, and sweep the key using coinomi. I then sent the coins I you want to save back to my cold storage on new keys.
if i send the btc to a new wallet, wont the bch be gone from that wallet?
No. neither the BTG they both have what is known as replay protection.
from the link you sent me,
all i have to do is get the private key from each address in my btc wallet
then import that private key into electroncash or any wallet, and boom my bch bitcoins will appear?
Boom it just appears like that it's amazing.
but why do i have to send my btc to another wallet first, this part i am confused
what happens if i don't send my btc to another wallet
nothing happens, but I can't be sure unless you audit all the code. its just multiple programs have seen the private key, while I trust Electron Cash, the developers of the Electrum Gold and other wallets were not so honest, they secretly stole private keys and the BTC stored on those keys, if you moved the BTC first, then the BCH neither can be stolen.
