Bitcoin - Prepare for War! Part 1
Welcome my Steemit friends. Big Changes are coming to Bitcoin. You need to prepare and be ready!
There is much talk about changes coming to the code of Bitcoin. Like Ethereum which split into two coins, the other one being Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin could split.
Source:
As you watch the arguments over who has the better changes you need to pay attention to the timeline in which changes will occur as it will affect the value of your Steem. Fortunately, as an owner of Steem, Steem is also tied to Ethereum!. You can trade Steem for Ethereum.
Who Are The Sides In The War?
- Bitmain Corporation - the maker of mining hardware, a consortium of larger companies such as Coinbase, also Merchants
- Bitcoin Developers - those who write the software. There are several camps
- Bitcoin Users and Merchants
Why Are They Fighting?
Source: coindesk.com
- Speed and Cost of Transactions
- Centralization versus Decentralization
- Block Size
- The Ability to Add Additional Software
- Control over Bitcoin
- Return on Investment, especially those who have invested billions
Source:
This is the beginning of the timeline July 1st, so in just two weeks.
On July 1st, Bitmain will have ready a UAHF, User Activated Hard Fork to stop BIP 148, a developer activated Soft Fork.
For those who do not understand what mining is - Mining is the processing of transactions. Miners run cryptocurrency networks like Bitcoin. Their machinery is what powers the network.
Greed set in and special machines and their computer chips called ASICs, Application Specific Integrated Circuits were invented to process the transactions faster. The companies like Bitmain, the maker of 80 percent of all mining hardware or computers for the novice, are now very necessary for the workings of cryptocurrencies or many of them.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could originally be mined on your cell phone or your personal computer. That is the way most were designed. The first switch for speed was when a graphics card and the processors or computer chips in the graphics card were reprogrammed to mine. Miners are paid a reward when they solve a transaction called a block.
For Bitcoin, the miners want the block size increased to 2 megabytes. Inside that block, there will be many Bitcoin transactions, not just one like there used to be. That way, transactions will be much faster and less expensive.
What Is Wrong With That?
Source: cryptocoinsnews.com
There really is nothing wrong with the idea. Bitcoin already made the size of the block 1 megabyte just a little while ago and Bitcoin became very fast again. However, some day there will be no more coins for Bitcoin Miners to receive for solving the transactions. When that happens, there are a couple of choices:
- All the miners go broke
- The number of Bitcoins is increased
Source: newsbtc.com
If the miners go broke, oddly there will be no real effect on Bitcoin. Your computer or phone not competing with huge banks of dedicated mining computers will solve the transaction but probably not as fast. How much slower? That part is hard to say.
One advantage is that Bitcoin will again be completely decentralized. That bad part is how big will the database be? Most people place their cryptocurrency wallets with a company. Why? In order for you to download and run your own wallet the amount of data is insane. Bitcoin's blockchain is 100+ Gigabytes and growing every second. That is about 25 DVD's.
After you download just one wallet, your computer must process the data and then your wallet is up and running. That can take days. We just went through that with the Steemit Hard Fork.
Good news - Steem is worth a lot more. Bad news, it took a month
The same thing could happen with Bitcoin although it is not predicted to take place. Why, one of the changes being proposed is the Segregated Witness that is used here at Steemit. Litecoin just did this last month. They have reported no problems as of the June 14th. The Segregated Witness fork know as SegWit was successful.
Bitcoin Developers Want SegWit - Miners Want Segwit2X
Source: qzprod.files.wordpress.com
BIP 148 Implements SegWit and will be right around July 1st. The miner consortium say they will put in the UAHF if BIP 148 is implemented to stop the change. Most people say the miner consortium is bluffing especially after LiteCoin and its successful implementation of SegWit.
The next change might be August 1st!
If Bitmain does decide to do the UAHF in response to BIP 148, on August 1st, Bitmain plans to implement SegWit2x.
During these times, Bitcoin could become very volatile.
Those of us who were with Steemit when it Hard Forked know that serious changes occurred and one thing that happened was no one received any awards of any decent amount for awhile. It was tough and it was tough to stay motivated to post. It was also a great time for a vacation from posting.
Why are these changes coming?
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Cost
- Decentralization (This might be number one!)
What You Can Do
- Watch the Markets
- Know your Avenues of Escape
- Be Aware that fairly soon, just like with Ethereum, LiteCoin, Dash, Monero...and so many other coins - Once achange is accepted they could rebound so fast and jump in price so high that you lose big.
Source: @jeff-kubitz
Steem can be exchanged for Ethereum on Poloniex and other Exchanges.
Bitcoin is the standard and can be exchanged for just about any coin that there is, including USDT and CASH, or fiat currency.
That means that if there is a problem in Bitcoin, expect the values of other coins to go absolutely wild. As with anything else, you could go broke or you could also become instantly rich.
GOOD LUCK!
Series Parts:
Bitcoin - Prepare for War! Part 1](https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jeff-kubitz/bitcoin-prepare-for-war-part-1)
Bitcoin - Prepare for War! Part 2](https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jeff-kubitz/bitcoin-prepare-for-war-part-2)
Bitcoin - Prepare for War! Part 3](https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jeff-kubitz/bitcoin-prepare-for-war-part-3)
Article Sources:
Game of Bluffs? With UAHF
Litecoin Foundation Reports 'No Issues' Since SegWit Activation
Bitcoin Scaling: How to Give Everyone More Control
Bitcoin Scaling Proposal Segwit2x Moves Ahead With Initial Code Release
Thanks for the awards and recognition @steemitboard:
If you like this post don't forget to 
Upvote or Resteem
[My Facebook Home Page:](https://www.facebook.com/jeffkubitz.5)
Now I see the big picture.
I've been hearing back and forth a talks through various media channels the last couple weeks and could not pinpoint which camp was where.
Thank you for for clearing all this up @jeff-kubitz! The fog is lifting from all the raucous.
Thanks for the heads up, time to move all my BTC into a wallet that will have both currencies from the hard fork. Cheers!
Hello my friend
Post is awesome
Thanks Thanks! my dear friend @mars9
I have been trying to keep up on this because on thing is for sure the drama will be entertaining! I have a feeling things will work out because of the amount of people investing into crypto these days. Anyone holding basically wants to see the value go up. Thanks for the thoughtful post.
Like gambling, don't put all your eggs or coins in one basket.
Haven't seen crypto roll craps yet? I hope you're right
Liked ur post, Look into my last post to get a active follower base !
Thanks
Very informative article, sir.
Thank you very much.
Good read I'm new to the cryptocurrency and reading a lot about it but I ran into an article by Forbes and the analyzer that wrote the article saying that cryptocurrency is a bubble and he also compared it to the dot com bubble what is your opinion on the feature of cryptocurrency?
Some said the internet would die in the 1990's as well. We know the opposite happened.
This is a wave towards the future.
Great post Jeff. I have followed you and look forward to reading more of your articles.
Thank you for explaining!
Excellent article Jeff-kubitz. I bookmarked it to come back to as changes take place. I'm just learning about mining, and about the time I finally get it, things will probably be more difficult.
Someone should offer a course in mining. I think they'd do very well.
Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks Thanks! @livingwaters. Mining can be easy depending on which coins you go after, especially if the coin is new. After a bunch of folks with ASICs jump in it is more difficult. Steemit is mining by writing articles and commenting! The easiest!
A light bulb just went on. Now to get all the other ones to light up. :) Easy always works best.
Thank you, sir!