August 1st, and the Art of Not Getting F#rked
With the upcoming Bitcoin fork upon us, rivers of digital ink have been flowing to cover all the possible scenarios that could emerge out of the eminent event of August first.
However, after of all the theories and speculation there’s a certain subject that doesn’t seem to have gathered the attention it may deserve, despite the paramount importance it could hold deepening on how the events play out.
And that subject is: Taking the precautionary measures to insure that your bitcoins are protected.
The One Million Bitcoin Question
In almost every Q&A you can see about the upcoming Bitcoin fork, the most popular questions of all is probably this one:
“What’s going to happen to my Bitcoins safter the fork?”.
And the answers usually vary between “Nothing” and “Nobody knows” and everything in between.
That being said, there’s a tiny hint or observation that is often subtly thrown in the middle is very easy is to miss. A tiny observation that could turn out to be very significant.
And the sentence becomes:
“Nothing… If it’s YOUR Bitcoin”
You see, the sentence “if it’s your Bitcoin” doesn’t relate to the question if the Bitcoins actually belong to you, or that you’ve earned them with you hard work and sweat equity.
It means that if you control the private keys, as opposed to if having them stored in an exchange that holds them for you.
If that’s the case, you maybe should consider taking measures to assess the possible risks of leaving your Bitcoins in an exchange given certain possible scenarios.
If it's of any help, the USAF provides a lists of exchanges and companies that are supporting Bip 148 and what they are saying about it.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Bitcoin will crash (in fact I think it will pull up even more after the ups and downs, I think Bitcoin is almost anti-fragile actually) or that your BTC could be lost in some exchanges, or that Bitcoin will split in two currencies, or maybe it doesn't at all.
The truth is, I don’t know what’s going to happen, no one does. Every person should do their own research and make their own assessment, it’s a personal responsibility after all.
There are plenty of articles and videos out there about how to prepare for the upcoming fork. I shared only two, but please make sure do your own due diligence.
So in essence, it’s up to everyone to decide if they should take precautions or not when it comes to protecting their Bitcoins before the fork.
Better to Be Safe?
First of all, I don’t have all the solutions of course, and I’m looking for your inputs below.
In my personal opinion and according to my own research (please do your own) along with some conversations networking with certain people... I realized that it's better to be safe than sorry and control your own keys.
How do you do that?
There many ways to do that, the easiest probably is in a paper wallet, or a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S, Trezor or others.
Another option could be to keep it in exchanges but to change it in steem, or other crypto-currency that you prefer.
You can always buy back the Bitcoins when it stabilizes of course, but then again, could Bitcoin go up and you miss on that? It’s possible. Everything is possible.
That’s why it’s a personal decision that every person should make according to their personal assessment and research.
There’s still time before the fork, maybe something will happen, maybe not. Personally, I believe that Bitcoin in this case, and cryptocurrencies in general will come out stronger in time.
In the end of the day, nobody knows what’s going to happen, but also it never hurt to secure your investment.
I don't think BTC will hardfork. Once the uncertainty and doubt is gone, then BTC will rise back to the $3000 and I feel the alt coins will rise with it. In the meantime most of my crypto is sitting in LTC. I feel that is a safe coin right now.
When bitcoin forks to bigger blocks on Aug 1, $5000 bitcoin will happen within weeks, if not days.
So it sounds like Bitcoin is going through some major changes that are so complicated that even the most popular of exchanges and wallets can't fully comprehend or support it. That is bad news to me. Can someone layout a clear path to the safest wallet to store your BTC in?
As long as its a wallet where you keep the private keys, you'll be alright.
I think it will go to 3000 as well, I have no idea if it will fork or not, neither scenario would surprise me actually. But yeah, better play safe.
Definitely secure your keys! My thoughts? Steem can overtake BTC before then. Oh wait, August 1? Maybe not by then. August of next year for sure. :)
August 1st next year? Man I'll do anything in my power to see that happen :)
If uncertainty hits bitcoin people seem to think litecoin could do well , but how long would this last for ? Any ideas. Good article thanks mike
That's what I'm pondering all the time. If there's uncertainty in BTC, if people are gonna put some money on Ethereum, Litecoin, steem and others.
Great question!
If they do, use it to make a quick buck. Bitcoin is hardly going anywhere, even if it splits.
I personally not a lot but have some of each definitely going to get some EOS for the long run. Thank you for your reply mate cheers mike
Really thinks when it goes well we will see a huge increase in the market. What do you guys think? I see steem grow really quickly after aug 1st.
I see steem growing with or without BTC fork to be honest :)
Oh yeah most definately! Really hope a staggering growth from now on!
Me too!! :)
One thing that I'm a little embarrassed to admit and have failed to get an answer for after doing a fair amount of research is the answer to the question: how do I ensure that I get bitcoins A, B, ..., if I have all my bitcoins stored on a Trezor?
I know that the 24 seed words are the "master private key" to all my public keys for the Trezor, but I'm not sure how to take those seed words to claim the bitcoins from the different chains after a hard-fork, or how to get the individual private keys to the various public keys (I have something like 160 public keys on my Trezor at this time!). I've considered downloading the client wallet to transfer all my coins to in order to find out what my private key(s) is(are), but I'm fairly certain that this isn't necessary.
Does anyone reading this happen to know how this works, regarding the Trezor, and how I can ensure that I get all versions of the coin after hard-forks?
Oh you should never be embarrassed to admit these things we're all trying to understand as well.
From what I found out, everyone says that if it forks you should wait out a few weeks before choosing which one to go with the BTU or the other.. Basically it could be replicated, though the value could be less than the sum of the two coins.
I may be wrong, but if somebody has some insight maybe they can help clarify this for you.
I am trying to protect our tokens as best I can. Getting F#rked does not sound appealing.
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Thank you!
I hope you're protecting your token as best as possible man.
In any case, I would not put all my eggs in the same basket. This is at least what I can do. Steem is another possible basket, of course :)
I try to do the same as much as I can :)
Great write up. As a new kid to crypto I am in debate mode as to what to do at the moment. Thanks for this info, following for more :)
Haha we're all in debate mode these days :) Thank you btw!
I imagine the worst that can happen even if we fork, We will end like Ethereum and Ethereum classic. My guts tell me to hold to BTC on August 1st.
Yeah hold but protected, me too.
A significant portion of bitcoin hashpower is going to fork to bigger blocks on Aug 1. Banking interests will pump the segwit chain and dump the bitcoincash chain.
Smart move will be to hold your segwit coins at first, and sell for cheap bitcoincash as bankers pump price.
probably the bitcoin down but after up to 3-4K
Yeah my guess as well. Some people say it won't go down at all, but I don't know..