What You Should Know About the Bitcoin Hard Fork (BCC)
With an announcement from BitMain(1) coming through today that they intend to proceed with the UAHF (User Activated Hard Fork) of bitcoin on August 1st, tensions are high. They will be calling the token created by the bitcoin hard fork Bitcoin Cash (BCC). Bitmain claims that anyone holding bitcoins can claim BCC with their current BTC holdings.
This UAHF raises more questions than answers really. Their website(4) claims to have three new features:
- Increasing the block limit size to 8MB;
- Protection against Replay and Wipeout;
- And a New Transaction SigHash;
Not everyone is on-board but the exchanges and currency converters are what you want to keep your eyes on. Who will be in support of this new coin and who opposed? Most likely a lot of them will be unbiased, but Bitstamp and ShapeShift(3) have already addressed their intentions to [basically] wait and see but not jump on board right out of the gate. While others like Kraken and ViaBTC are ready to support the new token.
Bitstamp(2) said as it stands, they see the BCC / Bitcoin Hard Fork as an alt-coin. Personally, I feel the same way.
How to Secure Your Bitcoin Now
I strongly urge you to get all your bitcoin off of exchanges before the August 1 2017 Hard Fork activates and BCC floods the markets.
Here is why… If you don’t own the private keys to your wallet, you do not have control of your bitcoin. Some exchanges may split, others may not. Either way, your bitcoin will be safer in a paper wallet or desktop wallet like Electrum or Bitcoin Core.
You can download a wallet from a number of sources, though the most popular wallets can be downloaded from github or bitcoin.org.
What are your thoughts on the future of bitcoin and bitcoin cash?b
Sources:
(1) https://blog.bitmain.com/en/
(2) https://www.bitstamp.net/article/bitcoin-hard-fork-our-position/
(3) https://info.shapeshift.io/blog/2017/07/27/important-bitcoin-hard-fork-information
(4) https://www.bitcoincash.org/