We are all somewhat aware of the efforts taking place now to update bitcoin and the terms thrown around, BIP91, BIP148, Segwit, Segwit2x, UASF, UAHF, Bitcoin ABC, BTU, BTCC ...
All that does is create FUD in the market, if you do not know what FUD is read about it here:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@joseph/fud-and-trolls
As an expert/casual bitcoin investor, or a holder of Bitcoin for any reason. What should you do to keep your Bitcoins safe and avoid all this nonsense?
You do not need to know anything about segwit activation or any of the other terms, names of possible forks. What you need to know is how to store your bitcoins safely, and in case of forks how to recover all the coins that will result from this.
Right now it seems we are looking to have one bitcoin that stays strong and no forks, but that is not 100% certain, there are many parties interested in splitting Bitcoin into branches and vowing to fight to be the top chain. Each wants his own Toy to play with as he pleases.
No matter what happens, if we end up with one strong bitcoin or 2 or 3 like ETH/ETC, you should make sure you get all these coins. Leaving your Bitcoins on an exchange will subject you to what that exchange deems as a valid forks, exchanges are not obliged to give you anything but what they approve as a valid chain, chains that might start trading on other exchanges could be completely ignored by your exchange.
So move your bitcoins to a wallet that will give you access to your private key. Move all your bitcoins to one address, with one private key.
I recommend using Electrum https://electrum.org/#download
once you create your wallet, save your seed and create a password, export the private key/s as shown here:
Since this is a wallet I have used often, it has 85 private keys. You should not have that many. You should save the file on a USB stick, do not save the file on your hard drive. It's also better to do this process while you computer is not online.
once you have the wallet private keys, and the seed. Save a copy of your public receive address in a text file on your desktop.
- As a safe measure, write down the seed on paper, this will allow you to restore the wallet and all the keys in case your USB stick is lost/damaged.
Now delete the Electrum wallet and associated files from your PC. Send your bitcoins to the public address you copied to your desktop.
Now your Bitcoins are safe. Hold on to them until all the drama of the forks is over, sometime in late august or maybe as late as the end of September.
This process will give you control of all the coins that might result from possible forks. The process to load your wallet and send the coins to exchanges for trading while avoiding possible replay attacks is the subject of another post.
I recommend doing a full scan of your computer for viruses/malware before attempting this. For this I use Kaspersky Total Security.
Your wallet seed is not related to your password, a seed will give access to all your keys without the need of a password.
A newer version of Electrum might be available now that's different from the screenshots shown, that does not change the validity of the seed or private keys, wallets are only tools to sign TX's with your private keys.
More to read?
The more you read about this the more you will get confused. Just save your bitcoins and wait for this to pass. Whether there will be forks or not you will be on top.
Joseph, thanks for a well thought-out post. You are right. Sit tight and be right. Get those keys printed on paper, or engraved in silver... whatever it takes to get them OFF THOSE EXCHANGES. What BTC-C may have done here is introduce that straw that will break the camel's back for the exchanges. If they don't get a hold on all their derivatives in the next week, they are not going to be able to say anything sensical to their customers who come asking about their Bitcoin-Cash. I mention @stan's response to this in my post about BLACK SWANS
This post received a 4.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @thomasaquinasftw! For more information, click here!
Excellent article, Joseph! Here is another article (by me) exploring the reason why this $BTC fork will probably cause a short squeeze and drive Bitcoin to new record high in the next few days:
Why the $BTC Fork Will Cause a Short Squeeze in Bitcoin That Affects You
electrum is my favorite
Electrum is the best! it has so much potential!
Yes the way to go is keep it int he electrum wallet. $ZCL and $BTC fork to $BTCP Bitcoin private is a good one. You can use Bitcoin Private for those transactions you don't want to be 'seen'
Treeeezzzzzoooorrrr!
Great suggestion...now the million dollar question, when to get back into Bitcoin from Tether. I def want to be in bitcoin before August 1st, just need to figure out when.
Place your bids around 2460-2380.. and get back..!
i'm putting them on a paper wallet
confused is the word for me... what about paper wallets? where do they fit in?
Is Electrum similar to a Trezor or nano ledger? Does it store every type of crypto onto a usb?
It is not the same as Trezor or Ledger Nano since your seed is entered online (hot storage - bad) and therefore is not as secure since the seed could be intercepted. This is not likely as long as you're on a SSL (and not on public WiFi!) but using a hardware wallet such as Trezor or Ledger Nano S prevents this security hole. The main point of the these hardware wallet is exactly that... your private key is never, ever connected to the internet (cold storage - good). Since there are now over 800 cryptos I don't think Electrum stores every one of them but it does store all the major currencies. The key point of this post being about bitcoin forks, I think Electrum covers that well. Or you could even do a simple wallet holding your seed/private bitcoin keys yourself on paper -- just don't lose it ;)
@sky77, your answer is substantially inaccurate, because Electrum is a wallet that supports Trezor hardware generated keys.
However, @queeneleanor, Electrum is a Bitcoin only wallet. You can use the Trezor online wallet for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and various ERC-20 tokens, which most of the ICO coins are. As long as you are using it with the Trezor, you are 99% safe.
This article goes into detail as well:
Why the $BCC Fork Will Cause a Short Squeeze in Bitcoin That Affects You
Ok great. I was wrong about Electrum compromising your private key. What's the value of using Electrum with Trezor? Where's the value beyond Trezor's own Bitcoin app? Also, ERC-20 token support is available in Trezor 1.5.0 firmware in conjunction with MyEtherWallet.
This is a good solution For me and my friends. At first I thought our bitcoin would be safe alone Without the need to do special security Like the way that @joseph describe. Before I say thank you very much for this interesting informaai. Let me Follow the latest information from you @joseph.
Please help me Upvote and Follow Me
bitcoin is again gone down that effect the other currency
i upvote
Trezor sounds great....too bad there is a waiting list of forever to get one.
Thanks for the info. Great read. Ive heard that ppl are saying hardfork is happening in an attempt to drive down the price so they can aquire more on the cheap. Not sure if true or not though.
Hey there @joseph,
thanks a lot for your detailed Post. It´s good to get some easy information on what´s going on and what´s the best to do :)
Hardware wallets are just perfect for that
This is a great countermeasure! I was going to buy a hardware wallet, but I'll probably do this instead.
You can always convert to USD or other crypto while you wait for this update to calm down.
Follow me @Yehey
Thank you.
Thats what I plan on doing as well. Although since bitcoin is number one, it has a big impact on how crypto prices trend
My plan was to sell to USDT but no I've decided I'm just keeping what I have on a paper wallet and will cash out bitcoin cash after the fork but only after sweeping all my BTC to another paper wallet.
The new coin should now officially be referred to as bitcoin crash because that's all that's gonna happen to it
I would suggest that you don't ever leave coins on echanges, only sending them there to sell or trade and safely removing them to an address you control when done. This will remove (or reduce as much as possible) the risk of losing coins in a Mt Gox style exchange collapse.
Further more, of you are holding more than a token amount of bitcoins etc I would strongly suggest a hardware wallet. Trezor or Ledgers are availiable. I have never used the ledger but have a Trezor and think it's an excellent device
Your advice is appropriate if you are buying and holding. One caution though - if you are trading actively (in small quantities or on a daily/weekly basis), the mining fees to transfer can very quickly erode your coin holdings. Evaluate the relative risk/reward and decide accordingly.
Agreed, but if you are trading for small quantities, you are probably less concerned about loss in the event of a corrupt or failing exchange. Still a very valid point though.
Was hoping to avoid this forking fork...
Thanks for the useful info :) Exodus a possibility as well as far as im aware
Thanks @joseph for sharing this helpful information about securing BTC wallets... learnt a lot!
Thank you for the information. Now to put the process into action! Hoping to see better days for bitcoin in the coming months.
This is a great easy to follow guide thanks!
It seems quite likely that we will see a bitcoin hard fork on august 1st into bitcoin cash, its already supported on a few exchanges, and the electrum wallet supports this UAHF.
for more info on bitcoin cash check their website
https://www.bitcoincash.org/
They just made an announcement today agreeing to implement strong replay protection, which is an essential step in the Trezor hardwallet fully supporting the fork as well.
Lots of news today.
This is s great post about BTC!!
My BTC are all safely in wallet and waiting :) Good article - written very clearly!
It's such a shame that the Chinese decided to take advantage of the situation and fork off with their own bitcoin :/
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@cardboard/bitcoin-update-war-has-come
Another good way to story your bitcoins to prep for the split (assuming you don't mind them being on an exchange) would be to use http://btcpop.co . I've been there about a year as a hobby investor/trader/chat troll, and they will be allowing withdrawals and trading of your BCC after the fork. Hope to see you there. :)
muchas gracias por esta informacion de verdad que es de mucha ayuda para todas aquellas personas que trabajamos en esta valiosa criptomoneda llamada BITCOIN y estaremos atentos a tus recomendaciones fefliz dia.
Wow this is amazing really 😮 a fork would be the last place I'd look for Bitcoins haha.
Cheers :)
Thank you very much for this!
Thank you. @joseph
What Do you think? Hard fork is still possible?
⚡️Find out:
This look awesome
I find this very helpful, pls keep the information stream flowing ! I intend to put one of these advice to test very soon!
Good)
Dat ia nice...
I have just got my ledger wallet to store and protect them until the storm is over.
Good news! :)
thankyu for shared brother...
Very informative! Thanks! I won't sell my BTC for anything!
Good content i think the best plaxe to safe bitcoin is to convert on steem power@joseph
Thanks @joseph Love the picture btw lol made me laugh.
i also used electrum for saving my bits you know what its good way to secure things like bits , but the info you given in this post is really good its detailed i was not have such info about fud and the link you give in this post about fub is so much informative thanks for sharing this fud article and the way you explain things its quite easy for all to understand, stay blessed
Thanks you, but there will not be Hard Fork ?
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Hello sir. I read this text and I need help to u sir l. No matter what happens, if we end up with one strong bitcoin or 2 or 3 like ETH/ETC, you should make sure you get all these coins. How sure that to do and Iam still learning about bitcoin. I will wait your latest post about it. Thanks for help sir. Gladly to read your blog.
If you are free lets walk to my blog sir.
i wonder when will they add spoon lol.. then chopsticks haha. thanks for the share btw. this a good post.
Joseph, Thanks for writing a very 'confusing' post. Should we read your future posts? :)
Thanks for this wonderful post
Get you a hardware wallet
Weldon!
Great article. The part I did not get is the public receive address. How do you get that?
you go the wallet receive section and get your public address the one you give people to send you bitcoins, or the one you withdraw from exchange to.
My plan is get transfer to other currencies for a while and let it all settle down.
Might miss big gains but also safer from big losses.
Joseph, I dont typically vote on the bitcoin post because usually the information isnt correct. But you my friend have nailed it. Uou got my upvote and. A new follower. Nice job.