If the blockchain splits. Several potential outcomes can happen with these particular three ideas; The user activated soft fork(UASF) that begins on August 1, Segwit2x which starts around mid-July to October, and the more recent Bitcoin ABC (UAHF) that might deploy in August.

There’s a number of things that could happen with any one of these plans, but the biggest fear is the possibility of a chain split. A chain split is when the blockchain fractures into two chains due to the fact that consensus was not met during an upgrade. That means a particular portion of the Bitcoin network participants disagreed on the plan and chose to ignore the other side’s rules or protocol upgrade. This happened with the Ethereum network, and now there is another blockchain called Ethereum Classic. Now, just because the Bitcoin blockchain splits it doesn’t mean the smaller chain will survive. But the first and foremost thing every bitcoin holder should know if they both survive; If you hold your private keys during a chain split you will be able to retrieve tokens for both chains.