PocketBits on Aug 1st UAHF /Bitcoin Cash

Earlier this week, we finally made progress when BIP91 locked in, setting the path for Segwit activation. SegWit is a soft fork scaling solution that aims at larger transaction volume with benefits like higher multi-signature transaction security, linear scaling in sighash operations, versioning of script and much more. SegWit activation will cause optimization of 75% of the Bitcoin blocks and a reduction in transaction fees. The Bitcoin scalability and SegWit benefits have caused prices to surge nearly to $3000 in just a week and now resting at approx $2500 .

Though Segwit increases transaction capacity, there are a couple of entities trying to control the Bitcoin ecosystem which by nature is decentralized and cannot be controlled or manipulated without consensus in Community and Users. These entities have set forth a new coin which is to be named “Bitcoin Cash” (BCC) aimed at increasing the blocksize to 8MB. It is scheduled to take place via a User Activated Hard Fork(UAHF) on 1 August 2017. This change is incompatible with the current Bitcoin ruleset and therefore a new coin will be created, which is to be named “Bitcoin Cash”. The code has not been openly tested or reviewed, any proposal should at least be tested, reviewed and formally released with a timeline set for testing and activating the Fork.

BCC (Bitcoin Cash) is being cloned (not forked) from the original BTC ledger, It will make a copy of itself change a few rules and Airdrop free BCC to Wallets/Exchanges that are honoring their move. This will be in a 1:1 ratio move, hence if you have 10 Bitcoin, you will get 10 Bitcoin Cash.

Anyone can create a chain fork of Bitcoin at any time. We could do it in a week and name it BitcoinPB, but there won’t be any value to it unless it is supported by the community. The possibility of a User Activated Hard Fork (UAHF) on 1st August 2017 requires that we clarify our position on any and all potential hardforks.

We will not list the coin (BCC) and users will not be able to access or withdraw this coin (BCC) from PocketBits. We do not intend to access or keep these coins, the UAHF proposal does not include two-way replay protection enabled by default. Should the UAHF occur, PocketBits may be unable to protect the new Bitcoin Cash tokens on behalf of our users as we cannot support, process, monitor or maintain balances of hard-forked coins.

In case we decide to distribute, it will be only if Bitcoin Cash is supported by the majority of global Wallets/Service providers and we are able to mitigate the risks involved. As of now, there is no guarantee that it will be safe, desirable, or practical to do so. If this is a concern, It’s in Users best interest to get Bitcoins off third-party services/Exchanges into a wallet that they own and control their own private keys before August 1st.

As always, the safety of our customers’ funds remains our greatest priority. To this end, as a security precaution, we will be disabling bitcoin deposits and withdrawals from 31 July 2017 at 12 am IST to 2 August 2017 at 12:00 pm IST (this period can be extended or reduced) to ensure that all BTC funds stored at PocketBits remain secure, Deposits and withdrawals will be resumed only when we deem it safe and prudent to do so. The trading of bitcoins might be disabled temporarily if at all necessary.

In the future, if a block size increase has supermajority support of the community and is handled responsibly, PocketBits intends to support the community as a whole and we will communicate with our users accordingly. As such, PocketBits will not support the split or distribution of Bitcoin Cash, nor will PocketBits be liable for any Bitcoin Cash deposited to PocketBits wallets. Therefore, it is up to our users to withdraw bitcoins from PocketBits prior to August 1st if they wish to access Bitcoin Cash tokens or any other hardfork. If you are not technically inclined, you can continue to store your bitcoins on PocketBits and we will make sure that they are safe and accessible.