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Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

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Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#21

Post by jpdus »

Does anyone have an opinion on the Blockchain.info wallet? This is, what they wrote:

"""Hello,

At this time Blockchain.info has no official stance on this debate. We are actively monitoring bitcoin network conditions and will work to minimize any potential impact to our users. In general, we follow the longest chain, as outlined in the white paper (https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf).

With that said you always have 100% control over your funds and private keys. Your wallet recovery phrase is compatible with any other BIP39/BIP44 wallet. So in essence no matter what happens you have control of these funds and can import them into any other wallet that our mnemonic/seed is compatible with. """

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#23

Post by Keeeeeeeks »

briantmaurer wrote: post #19
dogma1138 wrote: post #9

You don't have bitcoin on Coinbase you have an entry in a database that says Coinbase owes you X amount of bitcoins. Yes it's a little more complicated than that but the analogy still stands. Coinbase is a hosted wallet with no key control meaning that you do not have any control over the transactions of that wallet. The other aspect of Coinbase is a nice interface for the GDAX exchange with about double the fees. In…

What is a good way to create a personal bitcoin wallet? p.s. I studied computer science, am reasonably fluent in computer security, but not a crypto or bitcoin expert.

Blockchain.info, but not sure how they intend to handle the fork. May be best to set up a personal wallet using the mentioned link

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#24

Post by paxpelus »

burger_moon wrote: post #11
zazpowered wrote: post #5

I moved mine to my own wallet on Electrum https://electrum.org/#home

This is where I store my bitcoin. Is there anything I need to do or be concerned about with this fork for users who keep their bitcoin local? As a side note, does anyone have a suggested wallet for storing ether?

MyEtherWallet is a sane wallet. They have their code in github so you can run locally, they have a .com website and a chrome extension. Personally I create some paper wallets and keep them safe, then I use MyEtherWallet chrome plugin for read-only access to the wallets. When I want to spend some ETH I scan the private key and spend immediately. All the excess funds form the transaction goes into another "locked" paper wallet.

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#25

Post by Grangar »

Keeeeeeeks wrote: post #23
briantmaurer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a good way to create a personal bitcoin wallet? p.s. I studied computer science, am reasonably fluent in computer security, but not a crypto or bitcoin expert.

Blockchain.info, but not sure how they intend to handle the fork. May be best to set up a personal wallet using the mentioned link

Blockchain.info doesn't give you control over your own keys IIRC. Use an actual client, not a website.

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#28

Post by zero_one_one »

Transfer them out to a paper or hardware wallet at a time when transactions are still visibly being hashed at a regular rate (overly cautious advice, but who's to say 100% that the miners don't decide to down tools for a day in protest?), but I'd suggest you do this a couple of days before August 1st to avoid the transactions being clobbered in the case of a fork.

Monitor the exchanges for a couple of days (you'll now be holding the coin on both sides of the fork), and when you feel the time is right to commit to one or either side, import your keys from the paper wallet to a wallet that supports the side of the fork you like the look of the most.

Basic advice is to hold, but hold safely - in a place that you have full control of your assets.

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#29

Post by philh »

zero_one_one wrote: post #28

Transfer them out to a paper or hardware wallet at a time when transactions are still visibly being hashed at a regular rate (overly cautious advice, but who's to say 100% that the miners don't decide to down tools for a day in protest?), but I'd suggest you do this a couple of days before August 1st to avoid the transactions being clobbered in the case of a fork. Monitor the exchanges for a couple of days (you'll no…

Do you have to commit to one or the other? Or could you transfer out from the paper wallet on both chains?

Re: Ask HN: I have Bitcoin in Coinbase, what should I do before the forks?

#30

Post by soyrunner »

I don't trade much. Pretty much just holding onto my btc parking it on Coinbase. I hear that slow transactions are part of the problem that led to the pending possible fork. That transaction fees have gone up. How much higher has it gotten, e.g. how much would it cost to move 1 btc from Coinbase to my Bitcoin-QT Core Wallet.dat and then how much to move it from Bitcoin-QT wallet.dat to a HW.1 hardware wallet? Thanks. Could the whole scare be to generate fees and sell hardware wallets? (Wish MtGox had made good while btc was lower.)
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