Questions from a user worried about the network split!!

[hardcorefork]

I am a trader, but I'm currently with my hands tied due to the news about the network split. I spent the whole morning reading about the supposed network split, and from what I could understand, I should leave my Bitcoins in a cold wallet to make sure I get "a copy" of both coins, and leave them until the confusion is settled, to avoid being targeted in replay attacks.

Also, from what I could gather, there could be a forced split when BTU support reaches 51%, or there could be a peaceful transition when 75% of miners signal BTU support. In the case of a peaceful transition, BTU would gradually become the new BTC, so there would be nothing to worry about. And in the case of a forced split, exchanges could immediately halt trading, I could get stuck transactions, etc.

I've been following https://coin.dance/blocks for the last few days, and so when either "Estimated Hashrate by Bitcoin Client" or "Explicit Mining Pool Support by Proposal" reaches 51% (which one of them?), this race could immediately start, or will I have time to withdraw my coins and wait for them to be confirmed, etc.? The reason I ask this is because I prefer to keep trading instead of leaving my Bitcoins in a cold wallet, due to fear of the network split!

[tobacco123]

I think this is not going to happen suddenly. If you are a trader, please pay more attention to the news here, reddit etc. I am sure BU team will make announcement if they ever want to initiate a force HF. However, I don't think they are stupid- they will definitely secure 75% before taking any action.

The 51% was on April Fools day (correct me if wrong) and it only lasted for a day or so. BU is now back to 40%+-.

[achow101]

Contrary to popular belief, there is in fact no signalling activation threshold for BU. It requires miners to analyze the community and see how likely a larger block would be accepted by most nodes and to then manually change a configuration option to mine said larger block.

IMO it is unlikely that BU will activate any time soon. However, you should keep an eye on what the operators of many large pools are doing and what BU is doing to see if a hard fork is imminent. Prior to a hard fork, you should move all of your Bitcoins off of an exchange to a desktop wallet so that you will have BTC and BTU coins post fork. If you don't care about BTU, you can keep your Bitcoin on the exchange as nearly all exchanges said that BTU would be listed as an altcoin if and only if they have replay protection, and those exchanges will still allow BTC trading and withdrawals.

[hardcorefork]

Thanks so much for the answers! I was really worried!

[exadex.org]

Contrary to popular belief, there is in fact no signalling activation threshold for BU. It requires miners to analyze the community and see how likely a larger block would be accepted by most nodes and to then manually change a configuration option to mine said larger block.

I didn't know that before, thanks for the information. I'm relieved.