Problems with claiming
chain split coins first surfaced during the issuance of bitcoin gold: fake wallets stole users» coins, with the total taken running into millions of dollars.
Not exact matches
So, when the
chains will
split, you are at risk of losing your
coins on one
chain on making transaction at the other.
On that date Bitcoin might
split into two
chains, one
chain is likely to become the dominant
chain and it's
coin will be more valuable.
«To safely
split your
coins, we will first wait for the
chains to diverge significantly.
One hardware wallet provider in particular, Trezor, has explicitly acknowledged that users will have access to their
coins on both ends of the
chain if a
coin -
split happens.
A
chain split creates a new
coin with different properties than the old one, separate ledger, and a new independent market.
One argument is that owning bitcoin cash is different from the original bitcoin, because otherwise why go through the trouble of a
chain split, if not to create a new
coin with different properties?
Although Bitcoin just went through a
chain split, the one that created BitcoinCash, as well as a soft fork, the one bringing about SegWit, the price of Bitcoin has remained above $ 4000, and is poised to go even higher if Litecoin is any judge of how SegWit will affect a
coin.
Users holding BTC
coins before the
split will end up holding
coins of both the old and new
chain once the
split occurs.
With less bitcoin holders bothering to claim forked
coins, the public's appetite for
chain splits is clearly diminishing.
For example, if you sent or received any LegacyBTC after the
split, but before the LegacyBTC
chain was overtaken by the 148BTC
chain, the LegacyBTC
coins you sent or received would disappear.
Bitcoin cash is a result of the
split in the
chain of Bitoin back in August of 2017 when a group of developers wanted to upgrade to a
coin that would provide for larger block sizes.
This effectively
splits the
coins into different addresses («outputs») on both
chains.