There is a very long winded, technical and political civil war happening right now in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is set to soft fork on August 1 2017 (via BIP148 UASF) and potentially hard fork shortly after.
With the potential chaos that may soon be upon us, it might be wise to diversify and hedge yourself into some top-tier altcoins.
Some recommendations would be Decred (DCR), Litecoin (LTC) and possibly Zcash (ZEC).
Some reasons to do this are,
If the soft fork sees trouble and price drops, some altcoins could go way up, in turn netting you more Bitcoin assuming problems are solved and price goes up.
If the soft fork goes well, then you can transfer back into Bitcoin (possibly at a small loss) and have minimized your risk.
If the soft fork explodes and Bitcoin hard forks itself to death (probably won't happen) then least you have some coins.
You could move into USD if you want to play it real safe, but that's not an option I'm reccomending here.
Play it safe, make your own choices based on your own research. Never just copy someone online.
Remember that you must control your own private keys in order to play it extremely safe!
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I just learned about decred earlier today. Why do you think it is up there with cryptos like litecoin?
Great team behind it, great tech in my opinion, innovative and unique approach to decentralized governance which most coins lack. Check it out the webpage and see for yourself. https://www.decred.org
If anyone has deeper questions about this issue please ask and I'll try to answer 😉
What will happen if I just keep my BTC on an exchange like Poloniex when the soft fork or hard fork happens?
OK. Well first off, if you keep your Bitcoin on an exchange like Poloniex, then they control the private keys to that Bitcoin and NOT you. So depending on how Poloniex chooses to support the various forks means that translates to you. If a hard fork happens and they don't support both chains then your missing out on gaining those coins in the other chain. Possible other conflicts may occur depending on how an exchange chooses to handle a situation like this. It's similar to the ETH and ETC fork where Coinbase mis-managed the fork and, from what I've heard, did not retrieve the other chains coins (ETC). To be safe, control your own private keys or transfer into altcoins during the turbulance. If you decide to keep your Bitcoin on an exchange you must understand fully how they plan to handle the forks. If you control your own private keys then your golden. I recommend anyone with a good amount of Bitcoin to invest and buy a Trezor hardware wallet. Hope that helps!