If you even passively follow the cryptocurrency market, you’ve probably taken notice of Bitcoin Private – a lovechild of sorts hard-forked from both Bitcoin (BTC) and ZClassic (ZCL) which has been on an absolute tear as of late. What you may not realize, however, is that you might be entitled to share in the spoils.
Silent Assassin
In case you didn’t realize, Bitcoin Private (BTCP) has been killing it lately.
In early March, Bitcoinist predicted that BTCP should easily approach the highest market cap of any fork of BTC, having combined the privacy features of ZClassic with the Bitcoin branding and blockchain — and that’s exactly what has transpired.
At press time, Bitcoin Private has successfully made its way up to the 24th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, having climbed from trading just under $14.50 to roughly $55 at the time of this writing — higher than it’s privacy-centric grandfather ZCash (ZEC). The only Bitcoin hard forks currently ahead of Bitcoin Private are Bitcoin Gold (BTG, 22nd) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH, 4th).
Demand for the hard-forked coin has been driven largely by its community-driven approach, transparency, two-way replay protection, lack of pre-mine, lack of founders rewards, zk-snarks privacy technology, and fast transaction speeds.
Investors are also likely excited by the fact that the coin has yet to make its way onto any major exchanges, currently only trading on Trade Satoshi, Nanex, Exrates, TradeOgre, Octaex, and BarterDEX. Should BTCP hit the likes of Binance or Bittrex, the value of the coin would almost certainly skyrocket.
Did You Get Yours?
Because Bitcoin Private (BTCP) was hard-forked from Bitcoin and ZClassic, anyone holding either cryptocurrency at the time of the fork is entitled to their fair share of BTCP. As explained by BTCP’s official website:
When the hard fork occured [sic], a snapshot of all existing ZCL and BTC holdings occured [sic]. Anyone holding ZCL or BTC in a wallet or supported exchange has been credited Bitcoin Private (BTCP) at a 1:1 ratio. For example, if you held 15.4 ZCL and 0.1 BTC, you receive 15.5 BTCP.
The snapshot took place on February 28, 2018, at block heights 511346 for BTC and 272991 for ZCL. If you had either digital asset at that time, you should see about getting yours.
Unfortunately, support for BTCP came only from a relatively small number of sources — meaning you can only currently expect to receive your BTCP if you held your own private keys for Bitcoin and/or ZClassic wallets.
Assuming you did hold the private keys to your wallet, said keys can be imported into Coinomi, Electrum BTCP, and BTCP Full Node Wallet — but make sure you always follow the included instructions, lest you risk losing your previous Bitcoin (or not so precious ZClassic) in the process.
You can get BTCP from both ZCL and BTC you have in Coinomi at the time of the snapshot. Simply follow these instructions after the BTCP wallet is available: https://t.co/uroHX7fHcc
— coinomi (@CoinomiWallet) February 9, 2018
Bittrex notably does not support the BTCP market. However, the exchange “will offer ZClassic holders on Bittrex partial support through claiming and withdrawing BTCP,” noting:
Bittrex will make all reasonable attempts to credit our ZCL users BTCP but until we have a fully supported wallet, we can not guarantee tokens.
Most other major exchanges, such as Binance, have remained largely quiet on their plans to either support or not support BTCP — which is why it’s always best to store your digital assets in locations where you own the private keys.
What do you think about Bitcoin Private? Were you able to claim your coins after the hard fork? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoin Private