Ask Doctor Bitcoin Episode 7

Welcome back to this week’s episode of Doctor Bitcoin, where Mark explains SegWit and how to claim forked currency.

What’s this?

To understand how SegWit works, you must first understand how transfers occur.

What we think of as peer-to-peer transactions is not exactly accurate. Instead, when one person initiates a transfer, it is broadcasted to the blockchain and the other party must then claim it. However, there are often more transactions being broadcasted than space allows, making transaction times longer. SegWit-enabled lightning networks can speed up the process by using smart contracts to make transactions immediate. Your currency becomes spendable immediately, and the lightning network finds a time with fewer transactions to officially process your transfer.

How to:

A fork occurs when two developers part ways, creating a fork in the code. This can result in two completely different currencies as we’ve seen recently with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. In the event of a hard fork, you may see two balances: one with the original currency, and one with the new forked currency. If you choose to stay with the original currency, then you will want to claim and transfer your forked coins back.

Mark suggests using Coinomi as the easiest way to collect the forked currency and to transfer it back to the original (if that is what you want to do).

• Take your BIP phrase from whatever wallet you’re using
• Import into Coinomi
• You’ll see your Bitcoin balance
• Choose “Add coins”
• Pick the forked coin of choice
• Go to advanced settings and type in proper derivation pathway
• Hit OK
• Go to exchange process and select your currency of choice

There are other methods to claim forked coins, but this is the easiest way. You can delete the new wallet when you are done with it if you choose.

That’s it for this episode! Check back next week for the latest episode of Doctor Bitcoin.