Bitcoin Forum

Hi, apologies if this has already been asked .. I saw a few topics explaining a bit but I am still confused.

I have a little bit of money in bitcoin.. on Coinspot.. Is the Bitcoin Address my bitcoin key?? I assume it is.. but I am wondering why we need to put it in a wallet even tho I believe Coinspot will give out Bitcoin Gold after the fork? I do have a blockchain.info account... should I put all my bitcoin in there before the fork? Will that site automatically give Bitcoin Gold ? Clearly I'm a bit new to all this.. but any light you can shed on this would be helpful.

Thanks..

John Titor

I do not know anything about Coinspot. But blockchain.info enrolled all Bitcoin Cash, so if the fork happens then blockchain.info will pay you BitcoinFork. Only you have to wait a couple of weeks until the new fork starts accepting transactions normally.

You should own your own private keys. If you are trusting some service in doing what they are saying, you are going to be sorry. These services are known to change their word out of nowhere. Trust no one but yourself, so get a full node to have 100% control of your BTC (www.bitcoin.org, download a full node today). If you don't want to... at least get an Electrum wallet, it's definitely better than having them on some webpage.

What do you think about keeping the coins in Bittrex? Is it safe or should I go download wallets on my pc?

Nothing other then your own wallet is safe, remember that. You should always download your own wallet, there is no reason not to. It completely misses the whole point of Bitcoin if you don't have a local wallet, you gain to benefit from Bitcoin's security nor privacy.

If you really need to trade on these centralized exchanges, then fine, do the trade and get your funds out. These exchanges were hacked multiple times and they will get hacked again, it is just a matter of time.

Thanks for all the advice...

If my bitcoin is safe in a personal wallet,  will the Bitcoin Gold coins still appear in it post-fork...?

it will depend on how thee answers come up in the month of October. Apparently its about  the month of October the fork and wallets are about right?.

Yes. The amount of Bitcoins you have and the transactions that you have ever conducted on the Bitcoin Blockchain will be the same as the Bitcoin Gold Blockchain, up till the point of fork. To spend Bitcoin Gold, you have to download the Bitcoin Gold client to spend it, you can't spend it on a Bitcoin client.

Ok.. thanks.. I guess I will download this and then transfer my Bitcoin Gold into that from my personal wallet in order to hold or sell them?

My suggestions to everyone during the fork processing is to keep the bitcoin in a wallet where the private keys are owned by you and not some other third party. Currently if you are doing that then the forked coins are your to keep forever. But if it is an exchange no one can guarantee that after forking the coins will be given to you. Exchanges are known to make money from mistakes of people and though many may claim that they will support both chains its better to be safe than sorry. Get a desktop/Android wallet and transfer the fund there.

EDIT: I suggest Electrum for a desktop wallet.

Thank you.. what is the best desktop wallet that you recommend for BTC pre-fork?