[Guide] Handling splits: UASFs, BIP148, etc.

[The One]

Kuthululamb : wallets are just pieces of software you use to access your coins. If you own your private keys, you're safe.

Personally I'm thinking about using a paper wallet to store my coins and wait some days in August to see what happens, upgrade my wallets, let others report eventual bugs, etc.

Is transferring bitcoin to a wallet the only way?

Lets say that btc is £2000 and there is a split 80/20. It stands to reason that the value would be roughly £1600ish/£400ish = £2000.

Lets say you have one btc. After the split you will have 2 "btc." Total value of 2 "btc" = 1*£1600ish/1*£400ish = £2000.

The idea that after the split the value jumps higher than £2000, without any new money coming in, is preposterous.

One can sell their btc for £2000 and wait as the drama unfurl itself. If one thinks that £1600 coin is the winner and the £400 coin will fade into nothingness, one can spend £2000 buying 1.25btc @ £1600 and profit from this drama.

What we're talking about here is how to safely live through the possibility of a fork.

What you're talking about is taking a huge gamble that could cost you everything.

Yes it's a way to do things, but not comparable at all.

As for the others talking about selling everything, do you think early BTC adopters that are still around did this ? No, they held, and they were right to.

Nope. btc already fallen over $500 since i last sold some bitcoin. No gamble at all.

I was mainly thinking about the other part of your plan, buying only one of the forked coins. Obviously if you stay out of it you can only lose "potential gains". Which could still be huge, I can see BTC rising a lot very quickly if all goes well.

No worries, plenty of leeway. If, and a big IF.

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[1714095885]

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[blacklig]

I think that just this uncertain situation of what will happen will move lot of people to sell BTC before Aug 1st and wait in fiat and see what will happen. But if lot of people is selling BTC and willing to wait in FIAT, that will Crash the price! And once the price starts crashing, more and more people will sell so before Aug 1st we can really see some huge price drop.. and then some rocket price rise as well

But do you think some alts can "disconnect" from this correlation of bitcoin value and maybe even rise its value because of this uncertainity? Like wait in ETH to see what happens.. but for now ETH is so correlated with BTC price that if price crash comes, then price of alts will also crash...

[QueenW]

Tell me please, is it safe to store your bitcoins on blockchain.info ?

[kendari]

If this split occurs, is the bitcoin price still as stable as usual, or even a threat?

[akamit]

Tell me please, is it safe to store your bitcoins on blockchain.info ?

Previous posts suggested to use bitcoin core instead of blockchain.info
Read all the posts from the beginning. I think it will help a lot.
Though I still have some questions in mind and I am searching for it. If I don't get those answers then I will ask it here later.

Follow this thread, because it contains useful suggestions regarding August 1. Theymos & Staffs are also posting here to keep us updated.

If this split occurs, is the bitcoin price still as stable as usual, or even a threat?

It is tough question to answer for all. But most probably the bitcoin price will be effected. This is just my opinion.
So many peoples are confuse and panic about August 1. Everyone is just looking for answers to safe their bitcoins.

[hihihishi]

When this happens, what will likely happen to the other markets like ETH and LTC?

[mrcash02]

I have no way to download a desktop wallet, I can only use online services to keep my money.

What do you recommend? Don't you think with so many services here on BitcoinTalk Forum there isn't at least few trusted sites where our money can be safe?

[Sr.Urbanist]

How do I check to see if my wallet will hold both the currencies?

Trezor and Mycellium are the only two reported ready¹.

I'll bounce around on their website but does anyone have any pointers? Thanks in advance!

Try to get your hands on a Trezor or Mycellium. Just make sure you don't hold them on an exchange, such as Coinbase.

I don't think anythings is going to happen, unlike a lot of the Internet trolls - spreading Uneccesary Fighting and Division - it's really, really technically unlikely to succeed.  It's simply a good idea to have a hardware wallet, like Trezor ... KeepKey ... or Bitbox.

[Sr.Urbanist]

I have no way to download a desktop wallet, I can only use online services to keep my money.

Trezor has a great web interface.  You just need to be able to plug in a USB. Only keep on website what you are okay with losing.

Here is a good video:

Bitcoin Q&A: Hot vs. cold wallets,
A. Antonopoulos

Don't you think ... there is at least few trusted sites where our money can be safe?

Nope.

[theymos]

I have no way to download a desktop wallet, I can only use online services to keep my money.

What do you recommend? Don't you think with so many services here on BitcoinTalk Forum there isn't at least few trusted sites where our money can be safe?

Some Android wallets should be OK. You want one that allows you to export your private keys. (I don't know which ones allow this, though...)

If you really need a Web wallet, I guess I'd go with GreenAddress. Make sure you either use a 2of3 account (preferable) or that you get your nLockTime transactions emailed to you.

[VoskCoin]

So let's say you use jaxx or exodus

You can export your private key

But you still hold your BTC in that wallet

What difference does it make if I hold my BTC in exodus / export private key? I'd have the private key regardless?

[Quickseller]

Is Blockchain wallet safe for this? (Blockchain.info)

No. They aren't even safe to use normally.

pls elaborate in detail.

They have had a small number of security incidents in the past however to my knowledge they made their customers whole. I also believe they had issues regarding wallet backups at one point however this was several years ago. There have also been controversy regarding their policy on what transactions to display on their block explorer and have had problems with their block explorer in the past.

IMO, the primary reason why some people say that bc.i is unsafe is because blockchain.info is a supporter of larger blocks (they have a different political position than those giving the warning).

[covfefe_]

This is how the word ends.
People fighting which right thing to do (The one that favors them).

[pooya87]

UASF.co advocates thst users should not run UASF software unless the economic majority shows support to UASF. How should users check this?

the problem that i find with UASF and its relation with "economic majority" is the fact that their support is not set in stone. they can and may change it in the future if the UASF chain encounters problems such as having low hashrate, slow blocks, be under attack, PoW change and risk of another split,...
that is why despite me liking the idea of UASF i find BIP148 a terrible idea.

to those talking about electrum, the new version which will be released soon will have a lot more options for dealing with the split in the GUI to make it easier. you can read about it on the github repo.

edit for the lazy: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/ca220d8dbbee6a7221a95e619301fe40dca2678a/RELEASE-NOTES#L1-L6

[shamzblueworld]

Concerning the bitcoin we have on different exchanges, is it a good idea to invest all of it on various alts, because no matter what happens to bitcoin(split or no split) the altcoins will be at least remain usable on these exchanges and may not lock out or anything.

[micky123]

Very useful thread that explains the scenarios well!

I went through the entire thread, but nowhere did i see anyone replying categorically to this question:

Will an electrum wallet be safe enough to store your coins before the possible split?

I don't really have the bandwidth to download a 125 GB + blockchain for a core based wallet. I guess, even if i use a bootstrap, it would take me several weeks to sync the blockchain anyhow, by which time this event would have already unfolded.

Concerning the bitcoin we have on different exchanges, is it a good idea to invest all of it on various alts, because no matter what happens to bitcoin(split or no split) the altcoins will be at least remain usable on these exchanges and may not lock out or anything.

My POV is that once the coin of choice is established, people will be in a mad rush to convert their alts back to BTC or BTX or whatever other coin is selected to be the king, in a manner of speaking. If people rush to convert back, they may crash the price of the alts and you may have a tough time recovering the exact value which you placed into the alts now! I hope that makes sense.

[cerad]

Guys don't be naive. Nothing will happen and those who panic until August 1. will lose they $$$. 

[EuSouBitcoin]

I exchanged all my Bitcoin (BTC) for Monero (XMR). If the BTC fork happens without any problem, BTC/USD will go up and take the alts up too. If the BTC fork has problems, then I'm safe in XMR. Why take the risk when you don't have to? There are reliable alt coins that you can exchange into and side-step the whole problem until the dust settles.

[nizamcc]

Which will possibly prove to be the best way to store our coins if we are not safe to keep our coins handy at any third party wallets like blockchain, electrum and/or any other services? This is making everyone worried about the possible loss of their coins from anywhere, and unless we know which part of the "assumed upcoming split" will be winning, we are bound to the risks of losing everything we have. Why are so many difficulties rising up with the growth of Bitcoins atm? 

[KNK]

Guys don't be naive. Nothing will happen and those who panic until August 1. will lose they $$$. 

That's my expectation too, so those who sell will let me buy some more at lower prices.

What we're talking about here is how to safely live through the possibility of a fork.

What you're talking about is taking a huge gamble that could cost you everything.

Yes it's a way to do things, but not comparable at all.

As for the others talking about selling everything, do you think early BTC adopters that are still around did this ? No, they held, and they were right to.

I am not from the very early adopters, but long enough to witness MTGox's crash from the first row of seats and trying to catch the price swings - this time I'll just wait on paper even I am running two full nodes.