Last time there was a Bitcoin fork (the Bitcoin Cash fork) people who held Bitcoin on some exchanges had an advantage. The blocks weren’t being consistently mined and the transactions were sporadic. People who held coins on certain exchanges were able to sell off their Bitcoin cash right away, while people who held their own private keys had to under go a complicated process to split their coins and then wait for transactions to go through.
You may be tempted to park your Bitcoins on an exchange this time around to avoid the hassles. I recommend you don’t do that. One of the rules of Bitcoin is NEVER LEAVE YOUR COINS ON ANY EXCHANGE EVER.
I recommend that you hold your coins either on a hardware or paper wallet where you control the private keys. There are disadvantages to doing this. You will have to split your own coins, which can be a complicated procedure. You might not get the best price for your forked coins. You may have to wait a long time for transactions to process if you’re sending to an exchange.
Why do I think its a good idea to put yourself at an obvious disadvantage? Because if you don’t control the private keys its not your Bitcoin. In my opinion keeping your Bitcoin safe is more important then getting some smaller amount of free money. Exchanges are targets for hackers and such because they have a lot of crypto currency in a focused location, not to mention all the other potential problems exchanges can have.
In conclusion, KEEP CONTROL OF YOUR PRIVATE KEYS AND NEVER LEAVE COINS ON ANY EXCHANGE.
