Btcpop’s Preparation for Potential Hard Forks

Bitcoin is a decentralized solution which has been rapidly spreading truly free commerce throughout the world. Bitcoin not only acts as a free currency and store of value, but a base technology that allows trustless and completely voluntary interaction between its participants. Because of this, Bitcoin inherits the competitive nature of the free market where ideas compete for voluntary participation, as they cannot be forced on those who disagree.

Over Bitcoin’s recent years of rapid growth, several different development paths and proposals have emerged within the Bitcoin community. Some have advocated for expanding the block size in order to handle more transactions and increase network throughput. Some have proposed introducing a new transaction format and upgrading the data structure (SegWit) and developing second layer technologies such as Lightning Network in order to increase transaction throughput. These competing solutions bring with them a chance of the Bitcoin network splitting into different chains. While Btcpop holds an opinion on the debate (pro-emergent consensus), competition is always welcomed as we believe the free market will select the best solution.

Btcpop has committed itself to being a representative of the free market and prides itself on simply stepping out of the way and letting the market decide in as many situations as possible within the platform and outside of it. Therefore, Btcpop will support all competing forms of Bitcoin and grant each option to our users.

Btcpop is preparing for the upcoming potential Bitcoin forks with the following policies:

When Segwit2.x locks in, which could be as early as 7/20/2017, we will be increasing the minimum number of confirmations on Bitcoin deposits from 3 to 12 Confirmations due to potential technical risks such as replay attacks, forks, and other issues that may cause network instability. We advise that you deposit Bitcoin in advance in order to not affect your trading, loan repayment, lending, or other activities at Btcpop. Btcpop’s owner as been involved with Bitcoin for over 6 years and is proficient in managing and securing Bitcoin holdings. Every precaution including running additional servers and armory wallets will be taken to secure user funds.

If there is no fork, and the network is stable, we will resume Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals as normal as soon as possible.

If Bitcoin is split into several blockchains, Btcpop will for every blockchain give users their rightful ownership of their Bitcoin. In addition, Btcpop will take steps to support trading for every type of Bitcoin. However, trading will commence on split chains only if there is replay protection. If no replay protection is provided, only withdrawals will be enabled. Btcpop will designate the token “Bitcoin Cash” (BTCC) to the possible split coin led by the activation of UAHF. BTCC will be listed as an altcoin and user’s account will be credited with the appropriate amount representing their Bitcoin holdings in instant account, saving account, main balance, buy orders, and funding. Withdrawals of BTCC will likely be delayed 1-5 days depending on how quickly the transactions confirm.

In all these circumstances, the easiest way for uninterrupted trading is for users to deposit Bitcoin in advance and Btcpop will handle all resulting technical issues related to the potential Bitcoin forks. If unexpected events occur during the potential Bitcoin fork period, Btcpop may temporarily suspend affected services. If a hardfork does happen, following a sufficient number of days we will list the longest chain as Bitcoin and that will remain the base currency for Btcpop. Operations including but not limited to: loan repayments, bond repayments, dividend payments, altcoin markets, share markets, voucher transfers and any other Btcpop function will be done in Bitcoin.

http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/6/

“It is strictly necessary that the longest chain is always considered the valid

one.” ~ Satoshi Nakamoto

Btcpop Encourages All Users to Take Precautions with their Bitcoin

As a precaution, Btcpop encourages all Bitcoin holders to keep their Bitcoin in wallets where they hold the private keys and to not send transactions until all splits are known and final. An alternative would be to keep their Bitcoin idle in an exchange that promises to credit all chains such as Btcpop.co.

If Bitcoin is held in wallets where the private keys are not held, there is the possibility Bitcoin from a split chain could end up in the wallet providers possession or mismanaged. Transactions during a split could also happen on one chain and not the other effectively losing the coins on the split chain.

It is important that deposits to Btcpop during the potential forking time of 2017-07-31 to 2017-08-02 are sent via the main chain with Btc1. The main chain will work with btc1 and with BU/Classic/Core ( note: segwit is not on some of them) until the 2mb HF. BTCC will only work with BitcoinABC. Users not updating anything should be on the correct chain by default.

There are rumors that Bitcoin Unlimited could follow BitcoinABC to follow the UAHF (which would be against Emerging Consensus). To ensure users Bitcoin is kept on the longest chains, users should run Btc1 or Core. And Btcpop suggests users not do any segwit transactions before the split, as Segwit2x could activate earlier than 8/1/17 and BitcoinABC has no segwit code. So in the case of a split, segwit transactions would be lost on the BTCC chain.

We believe in the years ahead, after a long period of market competition, one or several versions of Bitcoin will be widely adopted.

Let us all work towards that future together.

Btcpop

Some text was taken from OKEX’s Blog post regarding the forking issue.