x-post from slack
Q. "we do not know the full details on either the Cryptopia nor the local wallet method"
RE: LOCAL WALLET METHOD
At block height 1657200 nothing will happen. That block will come and go. We will not be launching the new Helium chain immediately after.
We will wait several days for the Spreadcoin network to settle down and any transactions that have not confirmed to confirm.
The nature of blockchains is that they fork pretty much every few days. Bitcoin forks roughly twice a week. It is normal and part of the system design as miners battle to produce a block that wins them a block reward, so the network consensus rules kick-in and the nodes on the network agree on which chain is the longest and therefore is the chain they will follow.
This means that if there are two or more chains on the network at any one moment in time, one of them will become the longest and the official chain and the others will die off. Again, this is normal blockchain behaviour and nothing you should be too concerned about.
So from a practical point of view, the snapshot block height comes and goes and we don't suddenly rush into activity. We wait for everything to settle down and then jump into action.
If you have sent coins to your own local wallet, you will be in control of the private keys. You can then ask an escrow to engage with us to allocate you your Helium coins (you may have to pay them a fee and we are only supporting 'smooth' on BCT at the moment, but you can propose someone else); or you can ask us directly if you don't mind us knowing how many coins you have (we won't charge a fee).
* You can sign a message with a Spreadcoin address you control and send us the message confirming your Helium address. This proves that you are in control of that Spreadcoin address and the private keys. We'll look-up that address in the snapshot database and then send you the coins that correspond with that address on the block height. How to sign a message is a video we produced a while back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV8l6MPOtSU* If that is too complicated, you can send one of our team your coins and we will check your balances at the date of the block height and then send back those Spreadcoins and also send you your Helium coins.
All these local wallet support options require you to have a Helium wallet or a Helium address (you could use an address on an exchange, for example). You will not be able to get a Helium address until we have launched the network and provided Windows, Mac and Linux wallets which will be Gitian builds.
Please only follow links to the official wallets from the Bitcoin Talk OP or this slack #announcements thread.
Do not download from any other links.
see #snapshot thread for other questions asked about the snapshot. Please do not post in that channel so people can find answers quickly.
