Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money, and running your own node is how anyone can participate and verify for themselves. Large miners kept producing blocks that used transactions most nodes would not relay as a matter of policy. Following that chain means accepting use of the network for arbitrary data storage, which every node operator on that chain must store at their own expense and, most importantly, risk.
BIP-110, in alignment with the vast majority of node policy, attempted to reject use of the network for arbitrary data storage while leaving ordinary payments alone. That was a softfork: a tighter rule that old software can still follow, and it is not this hardfork. A hardfork is a denial of abuse of the Bitcoin network. Industrial mining firms blocked BIP-110 so they could keep selling block space for that use, then kept mining with those same transactions. Bitcoin with the BLAKE2b algorithm keeps Bitcoin as money only.
What you should do
- You do not need to move your bitcoin to keep it. Coins created before the fork remain spendable.
- If you intend to sell, gift, or spend the fake “bitcoins” on the SHA256d altcoin launched by former miners, use a wallet that supports the opt-in
SIGHASH_UNIFIEDsighash, then send your bitcoins to yourself with that format on this chain first. Wait for the payment to confirm. See What is SIGHASH_UNIFIED? - If you use a hosted wallet or exchange, ask which chain they credit.
- If you run your own node, upgrade now.
- After the BIP-110 softfork, Bitcoin Core and older Bitcoin Knots follow a different blockchain. You need Knots 29.4.2. Download it from bitcoinknots.org. Other options are on the mainnet solo mining guide.
For common objections, see the FAQ. For the events that led here, see how it works.