Are the Top-Tier Altcoins a Great Hedge During Bitcoin’s Uncertain Summer?
The Two Leading Versions of SegWit – Which Will Prevail?!
Bitcoin and the scaling debate will be turning a new chapter this summer, as Segregated Witness will be activated one way or another. There are several ways this could happen, but two in particular have gotten the majority of the attention.
We have BIP148, also known as a User Activated Soft Fork, which will enforce SegWit on August 1st, and we have the recently agreed upon SegWit2x, which is an agreement formed at the New York Consensus Conference that has the slight difference of an included hard fork that enables a 2MB block size increase due later this year.
SegWit2x is expected to be released and ready for signalling towards the end of July 2017. With the potential of seeing two versions of Bitcoin, the next few weeks could perhaps be some of the most important in Bitcoin’s existence, hence the fear and uncertainty in the markets.
Will Altcoin Volume Increase On August 1st?
The entire process of activating SegWit on the Bitcoin network could potentially happen with no issues, no drama, and no confusion.
Regardless of these dates, the world will continue to move onwards. With the reality of two versions of Bitcoin emerging, many users are starting to move their bitcoins to private wallets from exchanges. Being too worried about using their Bitcoin, we may see a surge in volume with the more popular altcoins.
Users may begin to hedge their funds into coins such as Dash, Litecoin, Monero, and many others in order to protect their net value and potentially increase it.
As stated above, life will continue. Exchanges and other blockchain-based companies will still be open for business, traders will still need to make profit, and users will continue to seek blockchain technology to transfer funds in a borderless fashion.
With Bitcoin under maintenance, the only other logical choice would be to use high-volume altcoins to transfer funds from one user to another with the least volatility as possible.
Is This Why We Have $200 Dash and $50 Litecoin?
There is no definite answer to the reason behind Litecoin and Dash’s bullish rallies. There is a possibility of altcoins like these being used as a hedge and as tools for sending funds, but these cryptocurrencies are extremely popular, and both have ambitious roadmaps.
What Happens to Altcoins if SegWit On Bitcoin Activates Smoothly?
Hopefully, for Bitcoin and blockchain technology as a whole, this process has zero issues. SegWit enables the number one coin to scale and add the Lightning Network and various other off-chain features, such as Smart Contracts and Privacy Layers.
This could make a large amount of the speculative altcoins somewhat obsolete, as Bitcoin would no longer be at a disadvantage in terms of transaction speed and exorbitant transaction fees.
Ideally, the safest action to take is to store your Bitcoin in a private wallet where you have access to the private key phrase – don’t put your funds at the mercy of the exchanges.
There are never guarantees, and what will happen on August 1st is still speculation. Always implement safety and research the different variables and possible contingencies in the cryptocurrency space.