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Should i buy bitcoin before the hard fork

should i buy bitcoin before the hard fork

Hidden categories: Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages. Below, we’ll walk through many of the most important forks to the bitcoin blockchain over the past several years. Views Read View source View history. In response, a group of developers launched Bitcoin Classic in early However, it may have helped to prompt hard forks after it was originally proposed. However, it differs in terms of the proof-of-work algorithm it requires of miners.

A Summary of Best Practices for Cryptocurrency Forks

How to claim coins can differ depending on which platform you have your Bitcoin on. If it is third party platform that supports the fork, they will o your account at a date determined by the platform. Below we explain the process of being in for the fork and claimed forked coins in step-by-step detail and offer some extra notes. WARNING bitcojn If you are going to claim coins from a fork, move your Bitcoin balance to another address first shuold be in for the snapshot, but then move you balance before you claim the forked coin. You should never try to claim a forked coin with an address that has the non-forked coins in it, as this could result in you losing your original coins if something goes wrong. You need to move all your funds… not just your ETH.

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should i buy bitcoin before the hard fork
Antonio Madeira Mar 14, Worried about being stuck on the wrong side of a potential Bitcoin hard fork? Bitcoinist explores what regular users and holders should expect. Although the scaling debate has been going on for years, never has it been so urgent as it is now. However, this would be the first time that Bitcoin would go through a hard fork with supporters on both chains, a moment that could create two coins. Following the split, exchanges reacted by adding Ethereum Classic as another altcoin pair due to support for the original chain. The Bitcoin scenario would not differ greatly from what was seen in Ethereum.

How to claim coins can differ depending on which platform you have your Bitcoin on. If it is third party platform that supports the fork, they will credit your account at a date determined by the platform. Below we explain the process of being in for the fork and claimed forked coins in step-by-step detail and offer some extra notes.

WARNING : If you are going to claim coins from a fork, move your Bitcoin balance to another address first so be in for the snapshot, but then move you balance before you claim the forked coin. You should never try to claim a forked coin with an address that has the non-forked coins in it, as this could result in you losing your original coins if something goes wrong. You need to move all your funds… not just your ETH.

TIP : This page uses Bitcoin as an example, but essentially all cryptocurrency forks work this way see some exceptions. Thus, this page covers how to get free coins from any cryptocurrency fork and how to claim forked coins in general, but uses Bitcoin as an example.

How do hard forks work simple? This creates two identical ledgers thus anyone holding coins on one chain now holds equal parts of the coin on the new chain by default.

When the new chain goes live, everyone who held Bitcoin will have access to the new forked coin assuming they held their private keys or were on a platform that supports the fork.

If you want to know more about software forks in cryptocurrency, see our page on cryptocurrency forks. Forks vs. Airdrops : In general the terms fork and airdrop sometimes get thrown around interchangeably, even though each has a different meaning.

Forks are well explained on this page, it is when a blockchain splits in two directions. Learn more about Airdrops. Token swaps : There are also token swaps when coins migrate to a new chain. See KIN token swap as an example. This is a completely different style of creating a new coin, here you are swapping an old token for a new one, not getting additional tokens.

With that said, in some cases a token swap may be handled with an airdrop or fork and then the old chain might be discontinued. If you are on an exchange or third party wallet that supports the fork, make sure to follow their directions and not the above steps! That said, if you want to ensure you get each fork, you must be in control of your private keys.

Only forks that are supposed to result in a new tradable asset like Bitcoin Cash need to be claimed. Thus, only forks like Bitcoin Cash require the best practices noted above to be followed.

Move every token : Move all your funds after a fork, and never move them. The private key associated with your old wallet now only has one use, claiming the new forked coin. Malware : Some forks are scams, and almost every major fork will have malware wallets launched along side of it by malicious developers preying on confused users. If you are unsure how to protect yourself from replay attacks, you may simply want to avoid sending your coins between wallets until the dust settles and replay protection has been confirmed.

If you are unsure, do nothing : If you are unsure about anything, it is probably best to do. There is no rush to claim a forked coin, if you are in for the snapshot, you own the coin on the new blockchain forever.

Super simple version of claiming coins from an airdrop from any coin like Ethereum this works regardless of why an airdrop is happening :. That is all there is to it, but to really follow best practices and know every detail, you should at read the rest of the information.

Doing that should result in you having balances of the new coin in proportion to the old coin in a address for the new coin, where you now own the private keys of the new coin. From here you can do anything you want with the new coin. TIP : You should no longer use your original wallet address after this, do keep your keys, but never put funds in it.

This results in the private keys used to claim for the fork now being associated with no funds, this means if somehow your private key got compromised in the process of claiming the fork, there is nothing anyone can do with it. TIP : You can wait to claim a coin.

I almost always wait because new software tends to be wonky. However, sometimes selling a forked asset on the initial pump is a good. If you are going to HODL, consider waiting until everything is stable. As you can see, it is much simpler to have an exchange or platform do the heavy lifting for you. However, exchanges and platforms can be fickle. If you want access to your forked asset right away, and if you want to ensure you get it no matter what, it is almost always best be in control of your private keys.

Above was the simple TL;DR version of dealing with forks, below is a detailed step-by-step guide that uses Bitcoin as an example essentially all forks for all cryptos work the same way. Anyone in Bitcoin before that block height will end up owning equal parts of the forked coin by default if they are in control of the private keys. Meanwhile, if one has their Bitcoin on a platform that supports the fork, they should by all means be credited for that as well although its at the discretion of the platform.

With all that said, being in for the snapshot block is only step 1. Bitcoin and the forked coin no longer have any relation after the snapshot block. With forks the block height AKA block number matters, the date is just an approximation. For example Binance and hitbtc have done this in the past. Futures can be great, they allow you to trade a coin before it even goes live! However, if the fork occurs and is stable, you could end up trading away a coin with a hefty future price tag for pennies on the dollar by trying to unload it right out of the gate.

Thus, taking advantage of early access to a coin via this type of future product is a mixed bag. Once you trade away your futures, you no longer get the coin. Step 2 is waiting. You have to wait for the chain to go live the main network should go live around the same time. The idea here is that the developers need to double check everything went as planned before taking the main network online. The only way around the waiting step is if you were on exchange that offered futures of the forked coin described.

Remember, if you get futures and you trade them, realize that you are trading away your forked coins. Sometimes, like with Segwit2x, this is great. The Segwit2x fork never occurred, so only users who traded futures benefited holders of Bitcoin did not. However, this can be pretty rough if the fork ends up doing. TIP : Some may want to wait for a stable wallet and not just any wallet to go live.

Some forked coins I have seen have had rather wonky first attempts at full node wallets. For every fork, there is a fake wallet and a fake set of instructions attempting to trick you.

If you are in control of your private keys : Once the devs announce that the new forked chain is live and thew wallet is live, you are ready to claim your coins. Because this is how forks work, it is important to retain access to all wallets in which you held Bitcoin during the snapshot. It is also important to wait until you know the new chain and wallet software is stable. If the wallet has a bug, something could go wrong. Since this is true, it is best practices to move your balance before you try to claim the forked coin so all addresses used to claim forked coins should have a zero balance at the time you go to claim the forked coin; that is VERY IMPORTANT.

If you are in a wallet that supports the forked coin : You need to follow the directions of the wallet and configure the wallet for the new forked coin. If you are on an exchange or managed wallet like Coinbase that supports the forked coin : Wait until they credit your account. With the above said, I strongly suggest not trading away all your coins out of the gate unless you are ready to buy them back strategically. However, what you do with your forked coins really depends on your personal goals and the confidence you have in the fork.

That is really all there is to it. Super simple version of claiming a fork from a coin like Bitcoin : Be in a wallet where you control your private keys before the snapshot block. Move your funds to a new address after the snapshotbut retain your private key for the old address. Download the new wallet once it is live. Super simple version of claiming coins from an airdrop from any coin like Ethereum this works regardless of why an airdrop is happening : Be in a wallet where you control your private keys before the snapshot block of an event to send out an airdrop, a snapshot of the ledger must be taken.

Configure wallet to show the new token. A fork when you control your private keys : Have crypto in a wallet address where you are in control of your private keys before the fork. Wait for the snapshot to occur check the official site, Twitter, and GitHub for updates on the snapshot block height ; if no block height is given, be in by the time given. You can move your crypto at any time after the snapshot block has been should i buy bitcoin before the hard fork to the chain, but you must retain access to that address i.

Open the wallet and wait for the new wallet to sync to the blockchain. The goal here is to have a zero or near zero balance on the address you had coins on before the snapshot so you can safely claim your forked coin with the corresponding private key.

As, if something goes wrong, you only lose your forked coin and not your existing coins if your wallet is. That generally means copying your private key in your old wallet and then importing your private key to your new wallet. Wait for the exchange platform to credit you for the forked coin. In other words: You must have your balance recorded on the ledger before the block the transaction must be recorded to the blockchain before the snapshot block occurs.

Quickly sell the initial pump. Forked assets tend to pump in the first few days after the fork and then the best of them see higher values far down the road.


All Quiet on the Western Front

Blockchain What Is SegWit2x? Segregated Witness. One way to begin to assess options ahead is to look at how other traders are already responding. Compare Investment Accounts. Bitcoin Vefore was one of the first notable hard forks of bitcoin. Bitcoin forks are defined variantly as changes in the protocol of the bitcoin network or as the situations that occur «when two or more blocks have should i buy bitcoin before the hard fork same block height». Bitcoin Classic. Fhe XT is technically still available, but it is generally seen to have fallen out of favor. This addition, known as SegWit2xwould trigger a hard fork stipulating a block size of 2 megabytes. Technical analysis wise, it was also looking interesting. Gauging sentiment Since many notable cryptocurrency exchanges announced support for the fork, a few have even launched futures contract-like trading for future blockchains that could be befire as a result of the split, which essentially act as placeholders until the fork is complete.

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