Dos And Don’ts In A Bitcoin Hard Fork

What an exciting time to be alive amidst this crypto revolution! Don’t you agree?

We have seen a lot of ups and downs in Bitcoin and other altcoin markets and have learned that HODLing is the way to go forward if you have picked your cryptocurrencies in the right manner. (#RIP Bitconnet investors)

HODL” is slowly becoming a lifestyle of many cryptocurrency lovers which, I think, is the right thing to do if you can’t time the in & out from the market.

The “HODL” strategy will reward you in your long-term journey of crypto as well as open up new avenues of earning profits from the resulting hard forks and airdrops in the cryptosphere.

This year could well be unprecedented in the number of hard forks and airdrops. That, however, is just a gut feeling considering I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you the exact truth!

But by learning from past experiences, we can say that we may see a good number of hard forks of popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum which will eventually benefit the holders of these tokens.

In the past CoinSutra has notified you about such forks and also helped many claim their free forked coins such as:

  • Bitcoin Cash
  • Bitcoin Gold
  • Bitcoin Diamond (WIP…)
  • Ethereum Classic etc…

However, while claiming these forked coins, many people outside the CoinSutra community complained of being scammed and robbed of their Bitcoin because they used malicious wallets to store their coins.

That is why I think, in the sight of these ongoing scams and many forks coming up, an article on “Do’s & Don’ts in a BTC hard fork” would be of help to many.

Do’s In A Bitcoin Hard Fork

1. HODL Bitcoin in your Ledger Nano or similar kind of wallet: As most of our CoinSutra readers might be aware, we recommend against holding your BTC in an exchange on any day. Similarly, if you hold your BTC in an exchange during a hard fork, chances are slim for you to claim your forked coins unless the exchange explicitly gives you access to those coins. In short, you will be at the mercy of these exchanges and the decision they take for that particular fork.

2. HODL your bitcoins in a non-hosted wallet: Keep your Bitcoins in wallets like Ledger Nano S, Trezor, etc during a hard fork because these wallets make sure you are in control of your funds as well as your forked coins by controlling its seed or private keys.

3. HODL in software wallets: If you don’t have a hardware wallet, use software wallets like Mycelium, Coinomi, and Exodus to control your private keys. You can also hold your bitcoins in a paper wallet but I won’t recommend it for two reasons. First, because we now have hardware wallets and secondly claiming through paper wallets is rather tedious.

4. Know how to sign a message with your Bitcoin wallet: This is a new way of claiming your free forked coins. I also think it is a much safer way of forking and claiming free coins. By signing a message with your BTC wallet, you avoid the risk of exposing your private keys or seed directly to a third party service. Learn how to do it here.

5. Check for segwit support in the fork: Also, check if the fork supports segwit. That is because just in case it doesn’t while you are holding your BTC coins on a segwit address, you won’t be able to claim your forked coins.

6. Check which wallet to use for claiming your forked coins: Do check whether the wallet you plan to use to claim your forked coins is supported by segwit or legacy. It is important to check because if you hold your coins on a segwit address, you will need a segwit wallet to claim your forked coins. Similarly, if you hold your coins on a legacy wallet, you will need a legacy-supported wallet to claim your forked coins.

Don’ts In A Bitcoin Hard Fork

  • Don’t keep your bitcoins in an exchange during the fork if you want your free forked coins.
  • Don’t put your seed or private keys anywhere until you are sure that the chosen wallet or service for claiming your forked coins is trustworthy. In the Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Diamond fork itself, people lost millions due to usage of malicious services for splitting or claiming their coins.
  • Never put your original seed or private keys in a wallet before you have sent your Bitcoins to a new wallet with a new seed or private key.
  • You can keep your BTC on any fork-supported exchange too but only if you need quick access to your forked coins. This, however, is highly risky and not recommended from us. If you do, please do it at your own risk.
  • Also, it is best to avoid software wallets to keep a significant amount of coins because they are also inherently risky. But if you still wish to use them, educate yourself about their security risks here.

Conclusion: Your Safety Is In Your Mindfulness

Some of you might be overwhelmed after reading this as there are so many dos and don’ts and must be asking if all this hassle is worth it. However, when a new Bitcoin fork happens, don’t let greed get the better of you. In comparison to 1 genuine forked coins, there are more than 10 scam forked coins. These scam bitcoin forks are created to lure you to give them your private key resulting in you losing your precious Bitcoins.

Personally, I would say it is all worth it as well as significantly rewarding if you do it cautiously.

Just to put in perspective how much all this hassle is worth, you should look at the prices of the past forked coins from Bitcoin.

  • Bitcoin Cash (BCH)-All time high of $3600
  • Bitcoin Gold (BTG)-All time high of $460
  • Bitcoin Diamond (BCD)-All time high of $500
  • Super Bitcoin (SBTC)-All time high of $436

You can see how these forked coins are worth a significant amount and free money is always good as long as you know how to secure your existing money to claim the new one.

That’s it from my side in this article and I will be soon back with some secure ways of claiming Bitcoin Diamond and Super Bitcoin which we haven’t claimed yet.

Until then, stayed tuned at CoinSutra and don’t get caught in trouble.

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3 thoughts on “Dos And Don’ts In A Bitcoin Hard Fork”

  1. abhishek

    superb…you are doing wonderful job.thanks

  2. ninja33410

    You never mention Coinbase, which is a Segwit Wallet correct?

    1. Sudhir Khatwani

      Not segwit wallet yet.

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