Here's a simple way to look at the very confusing topic of August 1st and what could happen with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
Right now we have a single blockchain, the Bitcoin blockchain, there is no Bitcoin Cash aka BCC quite yet which is why we are so focused on August 1st.
On August 1st there is a good chance that something called the UAHF (user activated hard fork) will be implemented, and this in spite of the recent "good news" about BIP 91 activation, Segwit2X and so on . . so what does it all mean, and where does Bitcoin Cash come from?
If the UAHF does indeed happen, the Bitcoin blockchain will "fork" into 2 separate blockchains and a "new" coin is born - one blockchain continues as BTC and the other one starts the new coin BCC .
The interesting thing is this - at the moment the fork occurs, the balance you are holding in BTC at that moment will be the balance you also hold in BCC at the moment the coin is born.
The value of the new BCC will be interesting to watch, but will depend mostly on how well the Segwit implementation on the "original" Bitcoin blockchain goes - i.e. if all goes well one would expect the value of BCC to drop, and if there are problems BCC will likely rise in value.
One other thing to keep in mind, the other part of the Segwit2X solution is an increase of the Bitcoin block size to 2MB in hopes that this will be enough to restore good performance to the network. Many however believe this to be insufficient, and expect the problems with block size to eventually return. In such a case we would likely see BCC / Bitcoin Cash value begin to rise once more.
So, there is a quick explanation and attempt to make a really tricky and confusing topic simple. I failed in that effort (or made things even worse? :) please post a reply and I will be happy to add a bit more info.
Thanks for reading!