The Bitcoin Hardfork Cometh. What Should You Do?

DISCLAIMER: I am not an investment advisor and this article should not be interpreted as investment advice.

Bitcoin seems to be in free fall. As rumors of a hard fork swirl, the currency has lost over 7% of its value over the last 24 hours while other currencies have shown strong gains. With uncertainty around Bitcoin's near future growing, many of those who hold the currency are scratching their heads and wondering what they should do now?

In the short term, a hard fork could wreak havoc on Bitcoin and send its value plummeting to depths it hasn't seen in several years. While these problems will eventually sort themselves out, we could potentially see billions of dollars lost as investors rush to fear-sell their coins before the price bottoms out. Additionally, merchants who accept Bitcoin face uncertainty asdouble spending becomes a real possibility while the network resituates itself around a new blockchain. This means that businesses could be faced with the difficult decision to either temporarily stop accepting Bitcoin or risk losing money and merchandise to fraud.

Thankfully, for those of us who currently hold Bitcoin and would like to protect our value (and maybe make a little money), there are several alternative coins that are showing amazingly great performance in the face of Bitcoin's adversity. Ethereum, for example, has risen more than 15% in the last 24 hours. Dash quickly followed with a respectable near 1% gain. Other coins like Monero, which aren't valued as much as Ethereum or Dash against Bitcoin, show even stronger gains.

Personally, until the hard fork happens, whenever that is, and the chaos settles down, I'm dividing all of my Bitcoin holdings between Dash and Ethereum with a little Steem thrown in for good measure. While there's no guarantee that I'll make money, it seems fairly unlikely at this point that the risk of losing money is as great with these coins as it currently is with Bitcoin. Eventually, Bitcoin will decide on a technology to solve its current problems, stabilize, and return to glory at which time I may come back. But, right now, the risk is simply to great.

How are you preparing for the hard fork? When do you think it will happen? Tell me your thoughts below!