New guy going off the deep end, what 'the fork' is what?

[drgrah]

The more I read, the less I seem to know and it's driving me crazy.  Over the past week I've seen so many different bitcoin tickers I am pulling my hair out.  Is BCG an actual thing?  BCH or BCX?  It sounds like BCC is.

So, I bought a little BTC last week and some more today and it's a all in a Trezor.  

I know there's a fork coming up and 'something' will happen but what???  Should I be worried that one of these off shoots will replace BTC because it's intrinsically better? (BCC seems to be on a tear right now, why?)  Should I still try to get some more BTC so I get some more BTwhatever in mid November for 'free'?  Will BTC drop and whatever is coming go up so that the sum of the two roughly has the same value as BTC does currently?

I guess I'm just worried what if one of these new ones will be the new standard and that BTC will end up disappearing.  It also seems that the two 'sides' are diametrically opposed so nobody knows who is right?  What's the best strategy here?

It ain't easy being a middle aged dude trying to learn all this, I can tell you that!

[ChinkyEyes]

Safest strategy is just to do nothing and hold both BTC and segwit2x after the fork. This way you will never lose your investment.
With the very high price of BTC now I suggest not to get more BTC, because it might dump hard a day before the fork and after the fork.

The weeks/months before the BCC fork everybody was panicking but after the fork BCC got dumped hard. I personally expect the same will happen with segwit2x.

[drgrah]

Safest strategy is just to do nothing and hold both BTC and segwit2x after the fork. This way you will never lose your investment.
With the very high price of BTC now I suggest not to get more BTC, because it might dump hard a day before the fork and after the fork.

The weeks/months before the BCC fork everybody was panicking but after the fork BCC got dumped hard. I personally expect the same will happen with segwit2x.

Then would it not be wiser to sell BTC now and buy back more at a discount?  Or will the price of 2x be enough to compensate for the temporary loss in BTC do you think?  Just want to be smart about it.  I think I'd like to try not to panic, just sit here, and double down on the drop.  Does anybody think it's entirely possible that this new one will be the new standard and BTC will just fade away?  Did this whole forking thing just start or have there been a bunch in prior years?  I'll tell you, they couldn't have devised a better strategy to scare the bejeezus out of new people trying to come in!!

[ChinkyEyes]

Safest strategy is just to do nothing and hold both BTC and segwit2x after the fork. This way you will never lose your investment.
With the very high price of BTC now I suggest not to get more BTC, because it might dump hard a day before the fork and after the fork.

The weeks/months before the BCC fork everybody was panicking but after the fork BCC got dumped hard. I personally expect the same will happen with segwit2x.

Then would it not be wiser to sell BTC now and buy back more at a discount?  Or will the price of 2x be enough to compensate for the temporary loss in BTC do you think?  Just want to be smart about it.  I think I'd like to try not to panic, just sit here, and double down on the drop.  Does anybody think it's entirely possible that this new one will be the new standard and BTC will just fade away?  Did this whole forking thing just start or have there been a bunch in prior years?  I'll tell you, they couldn't have devised a better strategy to scare the bejeezus out of new people trying to come in!!

Depends on the price you bought your BTC for. If you bought it above 6k usd I think 2x might not compensate you enough. But I have no idea what the price of 2x will be. I can only guess. What I've seen so far is that the original bitcoin is unkilleable and I think it will keep on growing the next few years. Bitcoin has been forked before but the recent forks have attracted a lot of attention because of bitcoins rise in the beginning of 2017.

[HabBear]

Bitcoin Gold is no longer a thing. I mean, people could have some Bitcoin Gold in one of the few wallets that supports it but there's no liquidity and the Bitcoin Gold website isn't operating.

Forks are good thing for a cryptocurrency. It's a test to see if a new proposal could improve the existing code. Bitcoin could be replaced by Segwit2x, but if it is i'll mean that the marketplace, the distributed network of node operators have agreed that the new proposed code will make "bitcoin" stronger. The cool thing is that anyone who owns bitcoin wallet private keys gets access to an amount of the new currency equal to what they own - this makes the transition a lot easier for users. You don't need to buy the new coin, you just need to see what the market decides.

[drgrah]

Bitcoin Gold is no longer a thing. I mean, people could have some Bitcoin Gold in one of the few wallets that supports it but there's no liquidity and the Bitcoin Gold website isn't operating.

Forks are good thing for a cryptocurrency. It's a test to see if a new proposal could improve the existing code. Bitcoin could be replaced by Segwit2x, but if it is i'll mean that the marketplace, the distributed network of node operators have agreed that the new proposed code will make "bitcoin" stronger. The cool thing is that anyone who owns bitcoin wallet private keys gets access to an amount of the new currency equal to what they own - this makes the transition a lot easier for users. You don't need to buy the new coin, you just need to see what the market decides.

Understood, thanks.  So this bitcoin gold only lasted a couple months?  scary!  Although if there was a way to figure out if segwit2x was going to be the new thing, it would be nice to load up on it while everyone is getting rid of it!  (if that prediction comes true)  I wonder how long it will take before a clear winner can be figured out?

My avg from my recent purchases is mid $6k, Im probably in the 'just ride it out' area I guess.  I was going into this with the hodler mindset, as they say...

[The Sceptical Chymist]

off shoots will replace BTC because it's intrinsically better?

I highly doubt this is going to happen.  As in, not a snowball's chance in hell.  As far as what all these knucklehead coins mean, they mean free money for those who own some bitcoin at the time of the fork.  I think that's one of the reasons why we're seeing this enormous spike right now--people want the free coins.  And why not?  Even if they all shit the bed, which they will initially, there's no risk of owning them.  Only upside potential. 

Bitcoin gold is kind of a dumbass idea.  I think I could claim some if I wanted to, but I think that's destined for the Yobit 1-satoshi graveyard/trashcan.  Bitcoin cash, I think I own some of that, and it's doing a little better but it's still crap IMO.  I don't have a desktop or laptop right now and thus have no way of claiming it.

Don't freak out--there's no reason to.  There could be a thousand forks coming up, and they're all like airdrop freebies.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

[ladydark]

Don't ever consider BCC even as a part of BTC also.Its just a shitcoin created due to hard fork in august 1.But the thing confusing you is,that its price continuously rising.Its just being pumped.

Just hold your bitcoins in your wallet and stay cool.Segwit 2x activation would occur on november 15th.Most of bitcoin holders who care about bitcoin do not need it to succeed.But the annoying fact is that it has more miners support and has 85% hash rate.

If segwit 2x fails to get more support,then definitely there would be a split in the chain and you will be getting free segwit 2x coins.

If segwit 2x succeeds in getting major support which we don't want to happen,then we would have bitcoin segwit 2x coins replacing the legacy bitcoin.

By any way,you would be safe.just hold your bitcoins in your wallet.

[drgrah]

Don't ever consider BCC even as a part of BTC also.Its just a shitcoin created due to hard fork in august 1.But the thing confusing you is,that its price continuously rising.Its just being pumped.

Just hold your bitcoins in your wallet and stay cool.Segwit 2x activation would occur on november 15th.Most of bitcoin holders who care about bitcoin do not need it to succeed.But the annoying fact is that it has more miners support and has 85% hash rate.

If segwit 2x fails to get more support,then definitely there would be a split in the chain and you will be getting free segwit 2x coins.

If segwit 2x succeeds in getting major support which we don't want to happen,then we would have bitcoin segwit 2x coins replacing the legacy bitcoin.

By any way,you would be safe.just hold your bitcoins in your wallet.

I wish I could even pretend to understand what hashrate is, lol.  How long do you suppose it takes to be decided about which one has more support?  Will it be clear which is the winner in a month or more or right away?    I've nearly given up on trying to understand the technical aspect, I'm just excited about the mainstream attention bitcoin is starting to get in general.  And that's what got me to jump in.  Sadly, when it was just a couple hundred bucks not too long ago, I gave up because I was too intimidated   Thanks for your post!

[ReLieD]

New fork is highly discussed among people because it's like free coins for them and who doesn't like free coins ! Basically if you own like say 0.5 btc in your wallet and then at the time of fork you can claim that amount of coins . The same happened at the time of Bitcoin cash .

Also these forks will keep on arising and people who have alot of BTC in their wallets will keep earning free coins.

But all this matters if that coin is able to succeed and shows its significance in order to have a good/decent price.

[Kprawn]

Do not get confused by all the different Alt coins with a Bitcoin in their name, none of these are real competition for BTC for

now. You will not find any merchants accepting any of these Alt coins, so people are just using it to trade in and out of BTC,

to make some profits. You will see a definite shift, once more merchants start to accept these coins as a payment option. 

[farhaan]

F2Pool which earlier signed in the NYA to support segwit 2x activation has withdrawn its support and many more mining pools are also expected to withdraw their support very soon.So,its really a great development and a celebrating aspect for bitcoin core team.

But still,its not clear that segwit 2x would have how much hash rate support.So,that still remains a mystery.Most of exchanges have decided to stand in favor of core bitcoin.