Bitcoin Cash Hardfork — A Non-Techy Guide Against Replay Attacks
Bitcoin cash is the best and most successful example of a hardfork from the bitcoin protocol.
In its own coding, there is scheduled to be two separate Bitcoin cash hardfork every year as part of its protocol upgrade.
The first Bitcoincash hardfork in 2018 happened in May, and the second is scheduled for November 15, 2018.
Unlike all other Bitcoin cash hardfork, this hardfork has been a bit controversial, implying that there has not been a consensus for the forking.
Enthusiasts are still divided between ‘Bitcoin ABC i.e., the native bitcoincash’ or ‘Bitcoin AV.’
This may raise some concern among users about the upcoming hardfork, but this should not necessarily be. As always, we are here for informational purposes and not to in any way take a side on the ending result of the hardfork.
For the novices, beginners and uninitiated, we would take time to explain a few key terms involved in order to grasp every bit of this upcoming crypto event.
What is a Crypto Hardfork?
A hardfork is a situation majority if miners no longer come to an agreement on the rules of an existing protocol but continue to share the same blockchain or public ledger of transactions that have been previously made on the shared network.
An excellent example is in the case of bitcoincash hardfork from bitcoin. Both blockchains i.e., bitcoin and bitcoin cash, remained identical until around August 2017.
But from that time on, it became a different coin entirely. It began building its services, community, and of course, its very own hardforks.
A hardfork is completely different from a softfork.
A hardfork creates a new cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin Cash BCH from Bitcoin BTC, while a softfork is an improvement in the protocol of the cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin Segwit.
The Concept of Replay Attack
No need to be scared or something, it does not insinuate an attack in the real sense of it.
It just implies a situation where transaction info from one chain can be used on the other blockchain.
Assuming it happened to Bitcoincash during its hardfork from bitcoin first occurred, it would have occurred in this way; when you make a transaction on the bitcoin blockchain, for example, and then the receiving party uses the transaction details in order to receive coins on the bitcoincash blockchain from you without your knowledge or consent.
Unfortunately, in the upcoming hardfork, which may likely give birth to two versions of bitcoincash, there would be no protection against replay attacks.
In the previous hardforks, both successful and failed, one of both parties had always integrated the native replay protection.
This hardfork is different because no consensus has been reached.
Protect Yourself Against Replay Attacks
During and when the fork happens, users are advised not to make any transactions on the blockchain right away.
A user should, first of all, decide which version of bitcoincash they are going to be using and keep their coins on that blockchain.
For users who are somehow concerned and not technically really sound, the best way to guide against replay attacks would be to send all their owned bitcoincash to a cryptocurrency exchange wallet that has exclusively stated to support the hardfork.
By doing this, users will automatically get credited with the new versions. Then once the fork is settled, you can withdraw either or both of the coins.
In this particular hardfork, there could even be up to three versions of bitcoincash, so far, there are mining facilities that would support all.
Many crypto exchanges would do this, but poloniex has already made an open commitment to doing so as it has already begun supporting pre-fork trading of the two new versions of bitcoincash.
Conclusion
As tedious, complicated, and new, the concept of hardforks may sound; it could serve as a means to get sometimes one or two or probably three new versions of free coins and also become a member of what may turn out to be a very big crypto community.
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Bitcoin Cash Hardfork — A Non-Techy Guide Against Replay Attacks was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.