Who you should be in control over your Private Key.

[Kprawn]

I recently received this email from Xapo :

Hi Bill Gates,

Time's running out for you to withdraw or convert your Bitcoin Gold (BTG) available balance!

Right after the Bitcoin fork that took place on Tuesday, October 24th, anyone owning Bitcoin at Xapo received an identical amount of Bitcoin Gold in their newly created BTG Pockets.

Since March 14th and until June 14th at 23:00 GMT, Xapo has made it available for you to withdraw your total BTG balance to an external BTG address. Xapo may also, at its sole discretion, allow you to convert your BTG balance into BTC through the Xapo app.

After June 14th, a mandatory conversion process will take place according to the information that is already available in our FAQ section.

You can also visit our FAQ section to review a step by step process on how to withdraw or convert your BTG.

For more information feel free to contact us. We will be happy to assist you!

Best regards,
Xapo Team

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you managed your own Private key, then you can chose when you want to claim your forked coins and nobody will force

you to take action, before it is too late.  We use these services and many of them "claim" the forked coins, even without

your concent, because they control your Private key. 

[freesia_pnp888]

i just hate how manipulative they are toward what is ours!

[Kprawn]

i just hate how manipulative they are toward what is ours!

I doubt if this is really manipulative in this scenario, because I think this is a exercise or project that they want to finalize,

before the forked coin lose all it's value. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a failed fork and it is pretty soon going to zero. The point is, if

you own the Private keys to your Bitcoin (BTC) ...then YOU have the sole decision... when you want to extract those forked

coins. Nobody can rush you into a decision and possibly cause you to sell those coins. My forked coins are still safe on my

paper wallets. 

[dothebeats]

i just hate how manipulative they are toward what is ours!

I'm prefty sure they are sending newsletters and alerts prior to the due date, so no, this is not manipulative in any sense. From a service's perspective, these wallets are taking up resources just to be there, and the space that could be used for other utilities are being used by these wallets. The point of this post is to teach us that we have the option to do whatever we want with our coins if we own the private keys and not mandated by third-party services. They have the right to do that, as it is under their ToS which you agreed to once you signed up with them.

[OmegaStarScream]

i just hate how manipulative they are toward what is ours!

I'm pretty sure that It's legally theirs. You were registering for using their services to store your BTC, nothing else. The TOS didn't mention anything about forks and you knew that they control the private keys.

[ladydark]

I think that they were just reminding their users either to withdraw their forked coins now itself or to do it later as they wish.There is nothing manipulative in this.It seems to be just an official reminder.

[virendarnagpal]

Before mandatory conversion after June 14th the company is advising to do it as soon as possible by the owner or otherwise they will be doing it on their own.  So before taking any action they are intimating about their future action.
Though their are number of cheaters in the market but this letter seems to be genuine one. 

[fritzwalter195]

Yourself!

[eternalgloom]

i just hate how manipulative they are toward what is ours!

I'm pretty sure that It's legally theirs. You were registering for using their services to store your BTC, nothing else. The TOS didn't mention anything about forks and you knew that they control the private keys.

This is also how I see it. You've willingly given them control over your private keys when you've registered. This is the case for pretty much any web wallet.
I'm not even sure if they're your private keys or what kind of ownership you actually have over your assets.

I don't really see it as something to be angry about... They're offering a service and everyone is free to look elsewhere.

[franky1]

the funds you hold in YOUR private keys is yours.

the thing with xapo. is about the funds that were in xapo's private keys at the time. they allowed the customer who deposited coins before a fork to also get the other coins automatically.

xapo is now saying that they cant just keep hold of their private keys forever and will eventually need to sweep the addresses. so time is running out on xapo customers getting free coins.

remmber if its not on a private key you own. its not your funds. and you have to rely on the kindness and ethics of a business to serve you and hope they offer you bonsues if a event occurs which outsiders would get.

i personally have a hoard i have not touched since 2013 (yea and a second and third wallet of smaller amounts i do play with more regularly). but my hoard is in my control meaning i still have full control and access to all the forks should i care/want to use them.

if your using online wallets long term. dont expect that same guarantee

[Kprawn]

the funds you hold in YOUR private keys is yours.

the thing with xapo. is about the funds that were in xapo's private keys at the time. they allowed the customer who deposited coins before a fork to also get the other coins automatically.

xapo is now saying that they cant just keep hold of their private keys forever and will eventually need to sweep the addresses. so time is running out on xapo customers getting free coins.

remmber if its not on a private key you own. its not your funds. and you have to rely on the kindness and ethics of a business to serve you and hope they offer you bonsues if a event occurs which outsiders would get.

i personally have a hoard i have not touched since 2013 (yea and a second and third wallet of smaller amounts i do play with more regularly). but my hoard is in my control meaning i still have full control and access to all the forks should i care/want to use them.

if your using online wallets long term. dont expect that same guarantee

Yea, on top of that... this pose a unnecessary risk. Every time there is a fork, we have to take those "cold storage" coins out

of their secure hiding place to redeem the tokens and consequently having to use a new "Paper wallet" ... I never re-use a

paper wallet, when I swept the coins. So I have to move the coins and then use that Private key to redeem these Forked

coins. It takes a lot of effort, when you use multiple "Paper wallets" like I do in my strategy. 

[lizardbtc]

At least XAPO offered to give you some forked coins. I know many online services that don't mention to you even that there is/was some fork. Yet you still don't have full freedom to claim every fork, either way most of the forks are shitcoins that won't have any value and are msotly used for dumping on exchanges. Of course that we should keep our coins safe. Although some people prefer centralized online wallets due to its nature of acting as a bank and so you can ask them when you need any kind of support etc. But honestly this is not something that only hihg-tech savy can figure out, I think that most important thing is to take care and not lose your private key which some people don't want to think about.

[Sum24]

I think that they were just reminding their users either to withdraw their forked coins now itself or to do it later as they wish.There is nothing manipulative in this.It seems to be just an official reminder.

Yeah exactly it forks are not relative to your bitcoin private key they are trying to alarm the users to keep private key safer and secret so no one would be able to know about it. Let them see it but don’t let them to use it, for me there is nothing to do just avoid sharing it, as much as you will remain possessive the more it will remain safe.

[vinbitpon]

You know the answer to that. You are the only responsible for securing your PK. If XAPO is doing something like that to you then it's for securing the forked coins but in terms of handling your assets is another issue.

[Deathgamer]

Yourself definitely.You are the only one who is responsible on your private key so you must keep it secure and safe all the time because once you lose or forget it you will no longer recover it so you must be aware of that to avoid any problem with your wallet.

[darkangel11]

Maybe this has something to do with tax laws. According to the majority of interpretations if you own BTC and don't claim your forked coins, you don't owe any taxes, but this changes once you claim the coins which is exactly what xapo wants you to do. To show that you are aware of the existing forked coins.
However we look at this, it's forcing the user to take action, or it will be taken in his name, which is similar to what they're doing with KYC laws. "You didn't have to show us your ID before, but if you won't do it now, we won't allow you to withdraw."

[jpnl0002]

Looking at the word private it means for your own use, your own personal use you are the only one who is entitled to it  and not to be shared or given to another.So keep your private key private so as to save you from problems and losses  thanks.

[Marlo0619]

Private key is something that is very important for bitcoin users. Because it is the key to open our MEW account. There, we can exchange tokens, eth and more. But the question is who should be in control over you private key? Ofcourse, the first one is you. You are the ones who must know it and save it in a file that will never seen by anyone. Second is your very trusted friend, member of your family, relative or etc. If you really trust them. You wont be afraid to share it because you trust him that he will not hack it or share it to anybody.

[BrewMaster]

am i the only one who realizes that OP is using the name "Bill Gates" for his XAPO account?
i thought they required KYC stuff when you open an account and require you to submit your documents with them!

[peterpeterpeter]

Well . First of all the most important when you are in Blockchain technology is the private key. Because when you have no care on this.
For sure your money will become like a bubbles. They are easily steal from you by the hackers. Nowadays. Be more widely when we talk about money are valuable things .