I'm a long time user of Freebitco.in and Freedoge.co.in, so I speak with direct experience. I'll be reviewing the thread often to answer your questions. However if you find I've missed yours feel free to repost or PM me.
Great question from MtgMarcel, Wetsuit offered some comments on the approach not long ago on this thread.
I wonder what hapens if bitcoin does a hard fork...I invested 0.15 BTC, but in case of a hard fork, who gets the BTU?
Specific comments on how deposits and transactions will be handled should a hard fork become reality are quoted below.
I was meaning to make a detailed post about it but this is basically how we would handle it:
1. We will temporarily pause withdrawals and crediting of deposits 6 blocks before the block when the hard fork is supposed to happen. Although we would recommend users to stop sending deposits to us at this time until things have resolved, there is nothing we can actually do to stop them from doing so.
2. We will take a snapshot of all user balances at this point.
3. When things have been resolved and there is a clear winner, we shall resume withdrawals and credit all deposits that were made during the time when we had paused the crediting of deposits.
4. We will follow the longest chain.
5. All users who held a balance with us before the hard fork (when the snapshot was taken in point 2) will be able to withdraw an equivalent number of coins in the minority chain.
Regardless of how I feel about the block-size debate, our priority will be maintaining the maximum possible value for our users.
1. We will temporarily pause withdrawals and crediting of deposits 6 blocks before the block when the hard fork is supposed to happen. Although we would recommend users to stop sending deposits to us at this time until things have resolved, there is nothing we can actually do to stop them from doing so.
2. We will take a snapshot of all user balances at this point.
3. When things have been resolved and there is a clear winner, we shall resume withdrawals and credit all deposits that were made during the time when we had paused the crediting of deposits.
4. We will follow the longest chain.
5. All users who held a balance with us before the hard fork (when the snapshot was taken in point 2) will be able to withdraw an equivalent number of coins in the minority chain.
Regardless of how I feel about the block-size debate, our priority will be maintaining the maximum possible value for our users.
And
If BU wins, we will use BU as the primary coin and users will be able to withdraw an equivalent number of BTC to their wallets since that will become the minority chain. If BU forks with at least 75%, it will be very difficult for the BTC chain to survive and confirmation times will increase 4x and fees will go through the roof until the difficulty resets (which will also take 4x as long). In such a scenario, it would be very difficult to use BTC as our primary coin.
However, if BU forks with around 50% then it is more likely than not that the BU chain will die out. We shall pause all deposits and withdrawals until there is a clear winner. If the BTC chain wins, then we will make that our primary coin and users will be able to withdraw an equivalent number of BU coins to their wallet.
In all scenarios, if there is a fork users will get 2 coins for each coin that have deposited with us, so they will not be losing out in any way. We cannot however guarantee that their withdrawal transaction in the minority chain will ever confirm (although we will use the appropriate fee) because there will most likely be a rush of users trying to withdraw to exchanges to sell and fees and confirmation times will go through the roof.
However, if BU forks with around 50% then it is more likely than not that the BU chain will die out. We shall pause all deposits and withdrawals until there is a clear winner. If the BTC chain wins, then we will make that our primary coin and users will be able to withdraw an equivalent number of BU coins to their wallet.
In all scenarios, if there is a fork users will get 2 coins for each coin that have deposited with us, so they will not be losing out in any way. We cannot however guarantee that their withdrawal transaction in the minority chain will ever confirm (although we will use the appropriate fee) because there will most likely be a rush of users trying to withdraw to exchanges to sell and fees and confirmation times will go through the roof.
