BITCOIN Forks! : The Safe Way To Store Your Bitcoins
We are all somewhat aware of the efforts taking place now to update bitcoin and the terms thrown around, BIP91, BIP148, Segwit, Segwit2x, UASF, UAHF, Bitcoin ABC, BTU, BTCC ...
All that does is create FUD in the market, if you do not know what FUD is read about it here:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@joseph/fud-and-trolls
As an expert/casual bitcoin investor, or a holder of Bitcoin for any reason. What should you do to keep your Bitcoins safe and avoid all this nonsense?
You do not need to know anything about segwit activation or any of the other terms, names of possible forks. What you need to know is how to store your bitcoins safely, and in case of forks how to recover all the coins that will result from this.
Right now it seems we are looking to have one bitcoin that stays strong and no forks, but that is not 100% certain, there are many parties interested in splitting Bitcoin into branches and vowing to fight to be the top chain. Each wants his own Toy to play with as he pleases.
No matter what happens, if we end up with one strong bitcoin or 2 or 3 like ETH/ETC, you should make sure you get all these coins. Leaving your Bitcoins on an exchange will subject you to what that exchange deems as a valid forks, exchanges are not obliged to give you anything but what they approve as a valid chain, chains that might start trading on other exchanges could be completely ignored by your exchange.
So move your bitcoins to a wallet that will give you access to your private key. Move all your bitcoins to one address, with one private key.
I recommend using Electrum https://electrum.org/#download
once you create your wallet, save your seed and create a password, export the private key/s as shown here:
Since this is a wallet I have used often, it has 85 private keys. You should not have that many. You should save the file on a USB stick, do not save the file on your hard drive. It's also better to do this process while you computer is not online.
once you have the wallet private keys, and the seed. Save a copy of your public receive address in a text file on your desktop.
- As a safe measure, write down the seed on paper, this will allow you to restore the wallet and all the keys in case your USB stick is lost/damaged.
Now delete the Electrum wallet and associated files from your PC. Send your bitcoins to the public address you copied to your desktop.
Now your Bitcoins are safe. Hold on to them until all the drama of the forks is over, sometime in late august or maybe as late as the end of September.
This process will give you control of all the coins that might result from possible forks. The process to load your wallet and send the coins to exchanges for trading while avoiding possible replay attacks is the subject of another post.
I recommend doing a full scan of your computer for viruses/malware before attempting this. For this I use Kaspersky Total Security.
Your wallet seed is not related to your password, a seed will give access to all your keys without the need of a password.
A newer version of Electrum might be available now that's different from the screenshots shown, that does not change the validity of the seed or private keys, wallets are only tools to sign TX's with your private keys.
More to read?
The more you read about this the more you will get confused. Just save your bitcoins and wait for this to pass. Whether there will be forks or not you will be on top.
Joseph, thanks for a well thought-out post. You are right. Sit tight and be right. Get those keys printed on paper, or engraved in silver... whatever it takes to get them OFF THOSE EXCHANGES. What BTC-C may have done here is introduce that straw that will break the camel's back for the exchanges. If they don't get a hold on all their derivatives in the next week, they are not going to be able to say anything sensical to their customers who come asking about their Bitcoin-Cash. I mention @stan's response to this in my post about BLACK SWANS
electrum is my favorite
Electrum is the best! it has so much potential!
Yes the way to go is keep it int he electrum wallet. $ZCL and $BTC fork to $BTCP Bitcoin private is a good one. You can use Bitcoin Private for those transactions you don't want to be 'seen'
Treeeezzzzzoooorrrr!
Great suggestion...now the million dollar question, when to get back into Bitcoin from Tether. I def want to be in bitcoin before August 1st, just need to figure out when.
Place your bids around 2460-2380.. and get back..!
i'm putting them on a paper wallet
confused is the word for me... what about paper wallets? where do they fit in?
Is Electrum similar to a Trezor or nano ledger? Does it store every type of crypto onto a usb?
It is not the same as Trezor or Ledger Nano since your seed is entered online (hot storage - bad) and therefore is not as secure since the seed could be intercepted. This is not likely as long as you're on a SSL (and not on public WiFi!) but using a hardware wallet such as Trezor or Ledger Nano S prevents this security hole. The main point of the these hardware wallet is exactly that... your private key is never, ever connected to the internet (cold storage - good). Since there are now over 800 cryptos I don't think Electrum stores every one of them but it does store all the major currencies. The key point of this post being about bitcoin forks, I think Electrum covers that well. Or you could even do a simple wallet holding your seed/private bitcoin keys yourself on paper -- just don't lose it ;)
@sky77, your answer is substantially inaccurate, because Electrum is a wallet that supports Trezor hardware generated keys.
However, @queeneleanor, Electrum is a Bitcoin only wallet. You can use the Trezor online wallet for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and various ERC-20 tokens, which most of the ICO coins are. As long as you are using it with the Trezor, you are 99% safe.
This article goes into detail as well:
Why the $BCC Fork Will Cause a Short Squeeze in Bitcoin That Affects You
Ok great. I was wrong about Electrum compromising your private key. What's the value of using Electrum with Trezor? Where's the value beyond Trezor's own Bitcoin app? Also, ERC-20 token support is available in Trezor 1.5.0 firmware in conjunction with MyEtherWallet.
This is a good solution For me and my friends. At first I thought our bitcoin would be safe alone Without the need to do special security Like the way that @joseph describe. Before I say thank you very much for this interesting informaai. Let me Follow the latest information from you @joseph.
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I would suggest purchasing a Trezor wallet. They are a great investment and make keeping your Bitcoin in cold storage a breeze.
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Trezor sounds great....too bad there is a waiting list of forever to get one.
bitcoin is again gone down that effect the other currency
i upvote
Thanks for the info. Great read. Ive heard that ppl are saying hardfork is happening in an attempt to drive down the price so they can aquire more on the cheap. Not sure if true or not though.
Hey there @joseph,
thanks a lot for your detailed Post. It´s good to get some easy information on what´s going on and what´s the best to do :)