Bitcoin will be upgraded on August 1st*
They want to activate UASF(user activated soft fork
A lot of questions about August 1st
I'll try to explain this and keep it as simple as possible
To be clear, if the UASF activation date is August 1st, then what will happen is as follows:
Oh, let's talk about what uasf us in the first place
UASF stands for User Activated Soft Fork. It’s a mechanism where the activation time of a soft fork occurs on a specified date enforced by full nodes, a concept sometimes referred to as the economic majority.
On the other hand is MASF
MASF stands for Miner Activated Soft Fork. It’s a mechanism by which miners trigger activation of soft forks when a majority signals the readiness to upgrade.
Now, there's BIP 148
BIP148 is a UASF that is designed to cause the existing SegWit MASF deployment to cause activation in all existing SegWit capable node software (which currently is 80% of the network nodes)
How does BIP148 Work? From August 1st, 2017, miners are required to signal readiness for SegWit by creating blocks with the version bit 1. This will cause all SegWit ready nodes, which make up over 80% of the network, to activate and begin enforcement
To be clear, BIP 148 isn't a hard fork
Let me just skip to how this may affect ur bitcoin then
Instead of all this grammar lol
If a majority of miners (by hash power) does not signal support for SegWit on August 1st, but at least some do, Bitcoin's blockchain will split in two.
In that case, there would be two types of Bitcoin tokens
That's 2 different coins
I'll refer to them as "BTC 1" for coins on the soft forked chain, and "BTC 2" for coins on the chain that did not activate the soft fork.
Now
The good news is that each bitcoin would effectively be copied to both chains. If you hold bitcoin right now, you will hold both BTC 1 and BTC 2 after the split
Eg
If you have 1 BTC now, you'll have 1 BTC ONE and 1 BTC TWO
So, 1 BTC each for each blockchain
The bad news is that this coin-split can be messy and risky. And if you're not careful, you could lose funds.
So, how do u make sure u r safe before then?
Before August 1
First off, be aware that a chain-split create a high-risk situation. There is a chance that some sort of cyber-battle will break out between the two camps, perhaps even escalating to the point where bitcoin's exchange rate(s) drops sharply, possibly to zero. Make absolutely sure you are not holding more value in bitcoin than what you are willing to lose.
Change some of ur BTC to USDT
And hold
Or even naira
It might get messy
If you do decide to hold onto your bitcoins, the single most important piece of advice is this: Ensure that you control your own private keys.
If you are storing your bitcoins on an exchange, in a custodial wallet like Luno, Coinbase, Circle or Xapo, or on any other service that holds your private keys for you, you may or may not eventually receive coins on both ends of the chain. In fact, if these kinds of services aren't well-prepared, there could be scenarios where you don't get any coins at all. So far, no exchanges have given any kind of guarantee.
So if you're using any of these kinds of services to store your bitcoins, you need to create your own wallet . Send your bitcoins to one or several Bitcoin addresses in this new wallet. This wallet now holds your private keys.
Converting to alts is also an option
But also very risky
Best bet in my opinion if you don't want naira is USDT
As it stores ur value as is
Only RSK can help bitcoin now
Here's how it works
If you convert $2000 of BTC to USDT, it's gonna remain $2000
No matter what the price of BTC is
The problem here is that we do not know what exchanges like poloniex would do
If you now want to convert back to BTC
I predict a downward trend in BTC from the days leading to August 1
As people panic and hurry to convert their BTC into Fiat
Price is going to tank
All this is just speculation at the moment
Just to be on the safe side to avoid stories that touch
My advice
Only hold BTC worth you can afford to lose
Recommended wallets:
Copay, Mycelium, Coinomi
Basically any wallet that lets u hold ur private keys
Let's fast forward a little
On, and Perhaps (shortly) After, August 1
If a majority of hash power signals support for Segregated Witness on or before August 1st, the protocol upgrade will activate smoothly. In that case, you're fine, even if you didn't prepare at all.
But it's also possible that a majority of hash power will not go along with the BIP 148 UASF on August 1st, in which case the chain could split. If you hold your private keys, you will then have both BTC 1 and BTC 2
Alts are totally unaffected by this
Infact
They'll rise in value significantly if the chain split occurs
If on or after August 1st, BTC 1 chain becomes the chain with most accumulated proof of work, both BIP 148 nodes as well as Legacy nodes would switch to the BTC 1 chain. As such, the Legacy BTC 2 chain should be discarded, resolving the situation. It would have been a temporary split, and you should be fine if you held onto your private keys. You can now continue to use bitcoin as usual.
This is what we are all praying for
So, to Recap ...
Control your private keys.
To be on the safe side, avoid any transactions on and shortly after August 1st. (How "shortly after" depends on what happens.)
If there are still two chains when the dust settles, split your coins into different wallets.
Anything can happen
copied
So, just be safe