With the upcoming Bitcoin fork upon us, rivers of digital ink have been flowing to cover all the possible scenarios that could emerge out of the eminent event of August first.
However, after of all the theories and speculation there’s a certain subject that doesn’t seem to have gathered the attention it may deserve, despite the paramount importance it could hold deepening on how the events play out.
And that subject is: Taking the precautionary measures to insure that your bitcoins are protected.
The One Million Bitcoin Question
In almost every Q&A you can see about the upcoming Bitcoin fork, the most popular questions of all is probably this one:
“What’s going to happen to my Bitcoins safter the fork?”.
And the answers usually vary between “Nothing” and “Nobody knows” and everything in between.
That being said, there’s a tiny hint or observation that is often subtly thrown in the middle is very easy is to miss. A tiny observation that could turn out to be very significant.
And the sentence becomes:
“Nothing… If it’s YOUR Bitcoin”
You see, the sentence “if it’s your Bitcoin” doesn’t relate to the question if the Bitcoins actually belong to you, or that you’ve earned them with you hard work and sweat equity.
It means that if you control the private keys, as opposed to if having them stored in an exchange that holds them for you.
If that’s the case, you maybe should consider taking measures to assess the possible risks of leaving your Bitcoins in an exchange given certain possible scenarios.
If it's of any help, the USAF provides a lists of exchanges and companies that are supporting Bip 148 and what they are saying about it.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Bitcoin will crash (in fact I think it will pull up even more after the ups and downs, I think Bitcoin is almost anti-fragile actually) or that your BTC could be lost in some exchanges, or that Bitcoin will split in two currencies, or maybe it doesn't at all.
The truth is, I don’t know what’s going to happen, no one does. Every person should do their own research and make their own assessment, it’s a personal responsibility after all.
There are plenty of articles and videos out there about how to prepare for the upcoming fork. I shared only two, but please make sure do your own due diligence.
So in essence, it’s up to everyone to decide if they should take precautions or not when it comes to protecting their Bitcoins before the fork.
Better to Be Safe?
First of all, I don’t have all the solutions of course, and I’m looking for your inputs below.
In my personal opinion and according to my own research (please do your own) along with some conversations networking with certain people... I realized that it's better to be safe than sorry and control your own keys.
How do you do that?
There many ways to do that, the easiest probably is in a paper wallet, or a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S, Trezor or others.
Another option could be to keep it in exchanges but to change it in steem, or other crypto-currency that you prefer.
You can always buy back the Bitcoins when it stabilizes of course, but then again, could Bitcoin go up and you miss on that? It’s possible. Everything is possible.
That’s why it’s a personal decision that every person should make according to their personal assessment and research.
There’s still time before the fork, maybe something will happen, maybe not. Personally, I believe that Bitcoin in this case, and cryptocurrencies in general will come out stronger in time.
In the end of the day, nobody knows what’s going to happen, but also it never hurt to secure your investment.