There's been a lot of fears regarding Bitcoins about stuff like SegWit (November), Forks (August 1st), and Bitcoin Unlimited (November). Mostly is due to misleading information, partial information, and rumors. Here, I will cover what they mean, concisely.
A "Fork" is a technical word used by developers in open source projects. All it means is a "software update", hence a possible "disruption" like what happens when your PC needs to be updated from older version to a newer version. There are 2 types of forks . . .
Hard Fork is mandatory. This requires critical updates and bitcoins, like programs, they NEED to have it in order to run flawlessly. This is a GOOD thing for Bitcoins long term.
Soft Fork, as the name suggests, isn't mandatory and requires lesser update priority. Bitcoins and programs can continue to run, without disruption. Also GOOD for Bitcoins long term.
SegWit2 (soft fork) and Bitcoin Unlimited (hard fork) are 2 camps divided into what they need to do. Both options have an equal number of pros and cons. Mostly has to do with Block sizing and the fork of BTC and BTU.
Depending on where you hold your Bitcoins one out of three things can happen:
All of your Bitcoins will become BTC only
All of your Bitcoin will become BTU only
You will have doubled your coins and get an equal amount of BTC and BTU
This MAY cause the price of Bitcoins to drop significantly..at least initially. Overall, Bitcoins will continue to rise.
For maximum security, if you have a lot of bitcoins, use TREZOR or Ledger cold storage. For small investors, use Electrum or Exodus, a self -hosted wallet in which you have a private key to. Both of these options support BTC and BTU.
Second, get your bitcoins out of Coinbase, Kraken, BitPay, and BlockChain in which Roger Ver is heavily invested into. (His agenda is a political one rather than technical, so I will not explain here for simplicity's sake. He supports Bitcoin Unlimited..a hard fork). This way if a fork does happen you will own both currencies and won’t need to succumb to any exchange or wallet desires.
Last, if this concerns you a great deal, invest in Altcoins like Etherium and Ripple until the dust settles. It will be much less impacted.
BTW: 1OB will be keeping your coins safe and protected during all of this! To make sure you're safe, don't withdraw your coins! In fact, be on the lookout for more updates as we will need to lock down withdrawals for about two weeks while all of this is settled.
- thanks to Lee Woodsum for the info!