There are many people who are new to bitcoin, and who haven't yet experienced a "hard fork." In this article, I'm going to explain what it is and what you have to do so you are a winner, and not a loser, when the next hard forks occur.
A hard fork occurs when miners disagree or have a different solution that they want to put forward. These solutions create a "fork" in that one group of miners goes on their way, with their solution, and the other group of miners goes forward with their solution. When this happens, a new coin is created, but the blockchain ledger is the same up to that point.
Imagine that you're driving down a road. The road ahead is about to split and go in 2 different directions. Instead of having to choose which direction you want to go, when you get to the fork, your car turns into two cars, one going in each direction! The cool thing is, you now own both cars.
How To Make Sure You Get Your Free Hard Forked Bitcoin
There are two hard forks coming up:
-- On October 25, BitcoinGold will fork off of Bitcoin
-- Sometime in November, BitcoinSegwit2X will fork off of Bitcoin
The key to making sure you get your FREE forked versions of Bitcoin is to make sure you have your Bitcoin OFF of exchanges before 10/25 (I would suggest before 10/22 to be on the safe side) and hold them in your own private bitcoin wallet.
When BitcoinCash forked off of Bitcoin, anyone who had their Bitcoin in an account at Coinbase did NOT receive their BitcoinCash. They are supposed to receive it sometime in early 2018, but who knows? To avoid this sort of stress and drama, just move your bitcoin into your own private wallet. One in which YOU control the private key.
You can use a bitcoin paper wallet or my favorite, a Ledger Nano S. I prefer the Ledger Nano S because it adds additional safety features and when BitcoinCash forked, they were on their game and offered immediate support and instructions. There is no reason to believe it won't be the same when BitcoinGold and Segwit2X forks in the near future.
The big thing to understand is, DO NOT have your Bitcoin on any exchange when the forks take place or you might not get your forked coins. Also, expect withdrawls of Bitcoin to cease for at least 24 hours before and possibly 24 hours or longer after the hard forks occur. This is because exchanges don't want anything happening within their system that might cause them to loose money, so they will stop all withdrawals until after the dust has settled, so to speak. That's why I recommend you have your Bitcoin in a wallet where you have both the Public and Private Keys at least a couple days BEFORE the hard fork takes place.
My recommendation is move your bitcoin no later than 10/22 into a wallet that you control so you'll get your BitcoinGold. If you don't have a Ledger Nano S, get one. It's one of the best investments you can make for protecting your cryptocurrency. We don't know the exact date for the Segwit2X hard fork, but the same rule applies, have your bitcoin off any exchanges and in your own private wallet a couple days BEFORE the fork takes place to make sure you get that version of Bitcoin, too.
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