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One suggestion I can make . If you know how to create paper wallets. Create a few wallets with $10 in them. When forks happen just use the small amount wallets to claim / test the forks . That way you will not exposed big amounts of BTC . That just how I do it. I test with small amounts.

i have to admit i am reluctant to claim any forks, as i am scared to lose my BTC and don't want to expose myself to malware. Thanks for the advice about creating small test wallets. Last night i cashed out 59 steem for 0.028 BTC , the price was really high for steem, the last time i cashed out was, 170 steem for 0.031 BTC, so you can see the price of steem is rocketing up. Keep well and rock on-David

If you first move your btc to a different paper wallet, then you would not be exposing it at all

if i move my btc then how do they know how much i had to claim of the free coin ?

Because the old paper wallet has all the history of any Bitcoin held in it PRIOR to the Fork, so it doesn’t matter that you’ve now moved the coins to a different address. The history is still left behind.

ok I haven't claimed BTG or any other forks - have you claimed any and was it safe and successful?

Yes. I would recommend coinomi to claim your forked coins as it’s a very safe wallet, but even so you should always move your Bitcoin out of your original address before claiming forked coins from that old address to avoid any possible issues