We wanted to provide an update on proposed changes to the Bitcoin network and what that means for bitcoin stored on Coinbase. You can read more about what a digital currency fork is https://blog.coinbase.com/what-is-a-bitcoin-fork-cba07fe73ef1.
Our first priority is the safety of customer funds. In the event of a fork, customer fiat currency (USD, EUR and GBP) and digital currencies (bitcoin, ether and litecoin) are safe.
On August 1st, 2017 there is a proposal to make changes to the bitcoin software. This proposal, known as Bitcoin Cash, is likely to create a fork in the Bitcoin network. This means that after August 1st, 2017 there are likely to be two versions of the Bitcoin blockchain and two separate digital currencies.
In the event of two separate blockchains after August 1, 2017 we will only support one version. We have no plans to support the Bitcoin Cash fork. We have made this decision because it is hard to predict how long the alternative version of bitcoin will survive and if Bitcoin Cash will have future market value.
This means if there are two separate digital currencies – bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) – customers with Bitcoin stored on Coinbase will only have access to the current version of bitcoin we support (BTC). Customers will not have access to, or be able to withdraw, bitcoin cash (BCC).
Customers who wish to access both bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) need to withdraw bitcoin stored on Coinbase before 11.59 pm PT July 31, 2017. If you do not wish to access bitcoin cash (BCC) then no action is required.
We plan to temporarily suspend bitcoin buy / sells, deposits and withdrawals on August 1, 2017 as the fork is likely to cause disruption to the bitcoin network. This means your funds will be safe but you will be unable to access your bitcoin (BTC) for a short period of time.
We will keep you updated on this event through our blog, status page and Twitter.
We would like to notify you of an upcoming global event affecting the Bitcoin network and HashFlare’s actions.
In the coming week, the Bitcoin network is expected to get hit by some amount of turbulence due to several possible chain-splits and a potential fork. In the event of a hard fork, we will continue supporting the main chain – the Bitcoin Core. Our goal is to support the most stable and reliable currency to keep the contracts running for you.
This also means that the selection of pools in Hashflare may be affected if any of the pools limit their support to the forked chain. In such case, HashFlare will redirect the hashrate to relevant pools automatically. We will notify everyone of any pool changes via the dashboard.
In these changes, Bitcoin will receive improvements to the network, such as Segwit (https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/01/26/segwit-benefits/). For a period, Bitcoin confirmation score will become less reliable as some nodes of the network will be running nodes incompatible with others.
As our top priority, we are dedicated to handling your funds and contracts responsibly, hence, to avoid risks associated with the events to come, HashFlare has decided to suspend all Bitcoin related operations temporarily, including:
The Bitcoin fork is now completed and we’re glad to announce that we are resuming SHA-256 mining. Tomorrow, August 3rd SHA-256 payouts will be made as usual. All previously suspended BTC operations (withdrawals and purchases) are now reactivated.
We have also just completed an important part of the maintenance, aimed at improving our website’s performance. There’s more to come in the following days, so you may experience service interruptions here and there, however, it will not affect mining.
NB! Since the mining was suspended July 31 - August 1st, there will be no payouts for these dates.
Read more from our recent newsletter: http://bit.ly/2vXai9u
