Jimmy Song comes through again with a Bitcoin Cash guide in advance of this week's likely fork. I excerpt the key parts for BTC holders.
Current BTC holders get Bitcoin Cash for free without having to do anything?
if you own Bitcoin (that is, you control your own private keys) prior to the fork on 2017 August 1 12:20 UTC, you will have the same amount of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash after the fork.
Lest you think these BCC isn’t worth anything, BCC futures are currently trading at about $475 on ViaBTC.
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash offers three new features. First, it offers a much larger block size of 8MB.
Second, it offers replay and wipeout protection. The transaction signature is slightly different and the forking block has to be greater than 1MB.
Third, it offers a way to adjust the proof-of-work difficulty quicker than the normal 2016 block difficulty adjustment interval found in Bitcoin.
What to do?
One thing is for certain: if you want to maximize your holdings, it’s in your best interest to get your Bitcoin off third-party services and control your own private keys before August 1st.
I 100% agree with this recommendation. I intend to make sure all my BTC are off Coinbase this week. Crypto is never boring, that's for sure. Stay safe out there.
