It looks like some people are trying to take advantage of a new Bitcoin fork. This project goes by the name of Bitcoin Pay, which will issue coins at a 1:1 rate compared to existing BTC. However, there are some serious concerns regarding this project and the people running it. It seems this is merely a design to collect private keys from existing Bitcoin users. Avoid this initiative at all costs, that is the only viable course of action.
Bitcoin Pay is an interesting concept, on paper. It is yet another Bitcoin fork, even though hardly anyone has ever heard of this initiative up until this point. Then again, there is no reason to cause yet another Bitcoin fork without a valid reason. We already have one of those and a second one may come in November of 2017. Three different blockchains all claiming to be the real Bitcoin will be more than plenty for most people to digest. Bitcoin Pay certainly isn’t one of them.
Avoid the Bitcoin Pay Scam at all Costs
What makes this project even more suspicious is how users need to use their current Bitcoin private key to claim the new tokens. That in itself is an absolute no-go, to say the least. Bitcoin users should never share their private key with anyone, especially not developers of a project no one has heard of. Bitcoin Pay can’t be trusted whatsoever. It is doubtful this project will gain any traction whatsoever. There is no reason to even consider it legitimate either.
If the intentions of this fork were legitimate, they can easily give coins through other methods. More specifically, they can mine the genesis block and send balances to Bitcoin address manually. They could also work together with wallet developers and exchanges to issue said coins. There is no need for any private keys to be imported whatsoever. Most of these “airdrop” require a signed message rather than a private key. It is a clever ploy to empty users’ Bitcoin wallets, but it won’t work.
In the end, there is a valuable lesson to be learned here. Anyone controlling the private key, but you can access your Bitcoin balance. This is why storing funds on exchanges is never a good idea. They are the only ones who have the private key in the first place. When using your own wallet, never share this key with anyone else. It is important to keep backups, but they should be inaccessible to everyone else. Avoid Bitcoin Pay as it is a pure scam.
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