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

[shaggy404]

I don't own much BTC myself but it would be interesting to see how it all unfolds on and after 1st Aug

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[BanzaiBTC]

I got a error:
Method not found (code -32601)

That means that it doesn't recognize "walletpassphrase" as a valid command. Maybe you misspelled it.

Hi theymos,

Yea I thought the same thing, and copied it from the "help" menu which shows:

walletpassphrase "passphrase" timeout

so still unsure why it returns that error?

weird and frustrating

thanks!

***edit***

also ran a few tests and did:

walletpassphrase "passphrase" 60

Error: The wallet passphrase entered was incorrect. (code -14)


Also plugged in the correct passphrase, and it returned the original error which is weirder. - Method not found (code -32601)

So if it sees that the walletpassphrase is incorrect in the above example and using the same syntax with a correct password shows it as "Method not found (code -32601)" ?

thanks!

Are you sure you left out the ""?
As in: walletpassphrase passphrase 60

[Lauda]

Sorry if I have missed it, but why not compile a list of wallets that are *safe* or *recommended* for this event and add that into the OP? This is a question for theymos, as I've seen someone had started compiling a list somewhere in this thread. It would also be worth stickying this thread in the section (which is what I will recommend to the board moderator anyways). This will prevent:
1) Repetitive questions in the form of: "Is wallet X safe?".
2) Repetitive threads. Threads would be trashed and users would be directed to this thread.
It is clear that the majority of users are no longer people with satisfactory IT knowledge.

[Yefet]

Sorry if I have missed it, but why not compile a list of wallets that are *safe* or *recommended* for this event and add that into the OP? This is a question for theymos, as I've seen someone had started compiling a list somewhere in this thread. It would also be worth stickying this thread in the section (which is what I will recommend to the board moderator anyways). This will prevent:
1) Repetitive questions in the form of: "Is wallet X safe?".
2) Repetitive threads. Threads would be trashed and users would be directed to this thread.
It is clear that the majority of users are no longer people with satisfactory IT knowledge.

there's a danger, that  people with no satisfactory IT knowledge wouldn't be able to properly protect themselves in such situations

As the short answer/advice, I would propose to go to Bitcoin.org site and choose any of the desktop wallet which grant "full control over your money" (check the 1st line of the list)

[Lauda]

there's a danger, that  people with no satisfactory IT knowledge wouldn't be able to properly protect themselves in such situations

The reasoning is somewhat simple:
1) It's people who are refusing to learn.
2) Or people who refuse to pay someone else (regardless of the amount) to protect them.

As the short answer/advice, I would propose to go to Bitcoin.org site and choose any of the desktop wallet which grant "full control over your money" (check the 1st line of the list)

Do you really think that the users that I am referencing understand all of that? They would still ask whether "X wallet" is okay for these situations.

[aesma]

Great thread... thanks for all the valuable information.

One question.. I have been lead to believe that if I on on Poloniex and have placed all my bitcoin on altcoins... and remove all sell orders.. just during the 12 hours before and some time after August 1.. I should be ok keeping my Poloniex account funded with coin.  I'm just not sure.  Any suggestions?

Nothing will happen to the altcoins. Except that depending on what happens to BTC, the price of altcoins could drastrically change.

So there is no saying how much you will gain or lose with this strategy.

[Yefet]

Do you really think that the users that I am referencing understand all of that? They would still ask whether "X wallet" is okay for these situations.

Just tell 'em: get the desktop wallet with the green 1st line, put you BTC there before the 1st of August and do not touch until the 15th of November (when the BIP 148 stops), than everything would be OK

[atago]

Great thread... thanks for all the valuable information.

One question.. I have been lead to believe that if I on on Poloniex and have placed all my bitcoin on altcoins... and remove all sell orders.. just during the 12 hours before and some time after August 1.. I should be ok keeping my Poloniex account funded with coin.  I'm just not sure.  Any suggestions?

Nothing will happen to the altcoins. Except that depending on what happens to BTC, the price of altcoins could drastrically change.

So there is no saying how much you will gain or lose with this strategy.

What about altcoins that are running on BTC like Factom.

[hoop]

Do you really think that the users that I am referencing understand all of that? They would still ask whether "X wallet" is okay for these situations.

Just tell 'em: get the desktop wallet with the green 1st line, put you BTC there before the 1st of August and do not touch until the 15th of November (when the BIP 148 stops), than everything would be OK

But theymos mentioned in his post twelve hours before 1st of August and twelve hours after! to be able to send and receive bitcoin transaction.

[Mark537]

Fearmongering non-sense thread.

NOTHING will happen to the bitcoins you own as long as you keep them in your own wallet. And IF a split happens, which the chances of it happening are slim to none, you get to have all bitcoins that result from the split.

[Yefet]

Just tell 'em: get the desktop wallet with the green 1st line, put you BTC there before the 1st of August and do not touch until the 15th of November (when the BIP 148 stops), than everything would be OK

But theymos mentioned in his post twelve hours before 1st of August and twelve hours after! to be able to send and receive bitcoin transaction.

we've been talking about advices to the "people with no satisfactory IT knowledge" presumably - "hodlers"

as long as there are active BIP148 nodes in the network - the split danger remains.

I think that uasf.co won't get the support needed for the BIP 148 activation by the 1st of August, so there won't be any Bitcoin split, apart from HitBTC and Bitfinex   
the results depend on the people with power - miners, wallets and exchanges - and being human they can act irrationally sometimes, that's why society needs decentralisation

[Mad_Max]

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

Right now miners will not go for BIP 141. they will do segwit2x and bitcoin will fork. they don't like Bitcoin Core team. Bitcoin price already dropping.

segwit2x is compatible with BIP 141 until hardfork to 2 MB blocks occur. And 2 MB HF on segwit2x planned only 3 month after segwit activation. That is by November as the earliest.
No danger of fork/split from segwit2x before this point.

And IF segwit2x is succeed in segwit activation before 1st august there will be no risk of a split from BIP148(UASF) either.

[aesma]

Let's say I've got keep 1btc in my balance on 1 August will I get 3 btc after the split end?

No. 1st August only one fork at worse is going to happen, AFAIK, so you will hold 2 coins. And they will not be 2 BTC. They will be 1 BTC and 1 "forkBTC". With an unknown value.

[sandan2002]

Every Bitcoin transfer, no matter how tiny, creates a transaction. But blocks are limited not just by time, but by size: they cannot exceed 1MB in the current system. Currently, they’re about 400KB, but occasionally peak towards 1MB. Once transactions start to accumulate continuously at a rate faster than the number that can be baked into a 1MB block within that roughly 10-minute schedule, all sorts of terrible things will start happening, resulting in the worst case in a sort of currency meltdown.

[Mad_Max]

You would need to perform these commands with the block at the height of the fork on each chain.

For example, suppose that chain A has a block with the hash abcdef at the height of the fork. Suppose that chain B has a block with the hash 123456 at the height of the fork.

To use chain A, you would do

Code:

invalidateblock 123456
reconsiderblock abcdef

To use chain B, you would do

Code:

invalidateblock abcdef
reconsiderblock 123456

You can use those commands to switch back and forth between blockchains.

Note that switching back and forth may result in some undefined behavior and bugs. Since such a fork has not happened before, this method has not been tested in practice. Your mileage may vary.

Thank you very much for making this SO clear! I now understand where I got it wrong: I was thinking that the invalidateblock used the block height, so not sure how that would be different from any blockchain main or fork, but clarifying that I must use the block hash it makes perfect sense so that the specific "old" block would be identified to be removed, and the new one would start to be considered.

And now the only thing left to test is if there is a way to run two instances of Bitcoin core in the same machine...

Yes, of course. You just need to use 2 different data folders for it. And point Bitcoin Core to these 2 separate folders by command line option -datadir=....
For example 2 data folder on disk D: bitcoin-1 and bitcoin-2. Create 2 shortcuts/links to Bitcoin core with different options:

bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=D:\bitcoin-1
bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=D:\bitcoin-2

If you already use Bitcoin Core with default settings - you current data folder in your user directory. You can make copy of it to a new folder to avoid downloading / sync whole blockchain twice.

[kaicelyn]

wow! nice forum. Thanks so much for the info. It helps a lot.

[aesma]

So, your theory says: Now all bitcoin are worth 35bill dollars, if all people hold bitcoin and wait BTU then will double his money. So from where do you think that will be founded new 35 bill. for that? Do you really thinking about this?

Well, just like you cannot "duplicate" a car, but you can duplicate the CAD drawings for the car, the 35 dollar bill fiat example would mean a duplication of the actual bill.

This is the block chain, right? No actual bills. So, as soon as BTU forks, if I had $35 in BTC, then I will also have $35 BTU because now TWO blocks exist in this Universe. And the forking means that transactions will now be in different block chains.

I assume someone already realized this, and there might be a "security" feature, like for example, BTU will inspect BTC transactions? But if you have a new BTU address... will it track all the way to when it was BTC, to check then BTC transactions from the fork day to today? That seems almost impossible even with a ExaHash speed network that we have now for BTC.

By the way... I just had to research... what if I just cut in the middle a $100 bill, take one to one half to one bank and the other half to another bank? Well, it turns out you there is a centralized office that handles this, not the bank directly, and an accountant friend just shared that it seems that you must have at least 51% of the bill serial number, so that only THAT part of the bill will be replaced. If anyone turns with the other 49% it will be denied... interesting, right?

There is a misunderstanding. examplens understands what a fork is. He's talking about the dollar value of the new coins. A fork will cause each new coin to lose value, so that the sum of 1 new coin + 1 classic coin will be at best equal to the value of 1 coin before the fork (and probably much less).

So we will have twice more coins, but worth less than what we had before. At least at first. If both coins survive or if only one survives and we hold it, then the value could recover. If Bitcoin doesn't die from the fork and its consequences.

[MostHigh]

wow, this is very informative. i could had lost some BTC value on 1st August if i had not read this.

[Phoenil]

So, your theory says: Now all bitcoin are worth 35bill dollars, if all people hold bitcoin and wait BTU then will double his money. So from where do you think that will be founded new 35 bill. for that? Do you really thinking about this?

Well, just like you cannot "duplicate" a car, but you can duplicate the CAD drawings for the car, the 35 dollar bill fiat example would mean a duplication of the actual bill.

This is the block chain, right? No actual bills. So, as soon as BTU forks, if I had $35 in BTC, then I will also have $35 BTU because now TWO blocks exist in this Universe. And the forking means that transactions will now be in different block chains.

I assume someone already realized this, and there might be a "security" feature, like for example, BTU will inspect BTC transactions? But if you have a new BTU address... will it track all the way to when it was BTC, to check then BTC transactions from the fork day to today? That seems almost impossible even with a ExaHash speed network that we have now for BTC.

By the way... I just had to research... what if I just cut in the middle a $100 bill, take one to one half to one bank and the other half to another bank? Well, it turns out you there is a centralized office that handles this, not the bank directly, and an accountant friend just shared that it seems that you must have at least 51% of the bill serial number, so that only THAT part of the bill will be replaced. If anyone turns with the other 49% it will be denied... interesting, right?

There is a misunderstanding. examplens understands what a fork is. He's talking about the dollar value of the new coins. A fork will cause each new coin to lose value, so that the sum of 1 new coin + 1 classic coin will be at best equal to the value of 1 coin before the fork (and probably much less).

So we will have twice more coins, but worth less than what we had before. At least at first. If both coins survive or if only one survives and we hold it, then the value could recover. If Bitcoin doesn't die from the fork and its consequences.

With Coinbase am I ok? Or should i use another kind of wallet?

[petrosc]

Is it safe to convert BTC balance in Bittrex into USD Tether until the situation clears up?