Bitcoin Private is a private, fast, open-source, decentralized, and community-driven coin. Bitcoin Private was created from a “fork-merge” of ZClassic and Bitcoin. With Bitcoin Private, coin holders get privacy and the ability to spend, along with all the benefits of the blockchain. At the same time, the team keeps the failures associated with previous forks in mind.
There is a core team behind Bitcoin Private leading the project. However, the unique thing about the project is the fact that it is a community undertaking. There are more than 70 contributors in total, including 20 engineers who joined in just 30 days. You can join the Bitcoin Private team, as well, thanks to the open-source nature of the coin and the fact that it is community driven.
How Is Bitcoin Private Different?
To complete the fork, Bitcoin Private has a shorter block time of just 2.5 minutes, a larger block size of 2 MB, and a proof-of-work algorithm that is ASIC resistant and GPU friendly for mining, known as Equihash. Because of the type of work involved, Bitcoin Private also involves much more of the crypto community than other projects. This is actually the first fork of its kind, letting the open-source blockchain community finally see how malleable UTXO sets are. Following the snapshot, addresses for ZCL and BTC will get Bitcoin Private, or BTCP, at a 1:1 rate.
Here is a quick chart that the Bitcoin Private team made, comparing BTCP to other BTC forks
What Are Some Advantages of Bitcoin Private?
BTCP has a long list of advantages, both over other cryptocurrencies and currencies in general. One of the biggest benefits is its privacy, which will involve the same technology as that used for ZClassic, zk-snarks. With this technology, payments get published within the public blockchain for transparency. However, transactional metadata, such as the recipient and the sender, remain completely unidentifiable.
Compared to other types of currencies, Bitcoin Private’s decentralized nature provides another advantage, just like it does with Bitcoin. Bitcoin Private supports transactions of a peer-to-peer nature without any need to include an intermediary. Network nodes verify the transactions via cryptography and then record them in the public ledger.
To build and improve on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Private is faster. Because of its slightly larger block size, it can be quicker while still delivering more security and anonymity than any other Bitcoin-based currencies.
To further stand out from the crowd, Bitcoin Private is community driven. The full code source can be viewed and verified by the public and is always open source. The community includes team members worldwide, each of which takes care of a given role based on their skill set. Finally, Bitcoin Private starts off fair, without a founder’s reward or pre-mine. Instead, coins are distributed fairly on a 1:1 basis for those who hold ZCL and BTC.
What Is a Hard Fork, and When Was It?
A hard fork occurs if a single cryptocurrency becomes two. This happens if a cryptocurrency’s code is changed, which leads to a new version as well as an old one. Bitcoin Private is the result of a unique merge-fork, where ZCL and BTC are “co-forked” to create BTCP, Bitcoin Private.
The hard fork was on Feb. 28, 2018. During the fork, there was a snapshot of all holdings for ZCL and BTC. Anyone who had BTC or ZCL in a supported exchange or wallet automatically received BTCP with a 1:1 ratio. An example would be someone with 10 ZCL and 0.1 BTC would get 10.1 BTCP.
Bitcoin Private Wallets
To take advantage of Bitcoin Private, you can opt for one of several types of wallets. There are full-node desktop wallets for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as Electrum wallets for each. You can also create a paper wallet, and there soon will be an iOS version of the Coinomi wallet.
How to Claim Bitcoin Private
Before proceeding, please note there have been reports of scams doing the rounds with fake websites asking you to enter your private keys to claim your Bitcoin Private. Never Enter your private keys anywhere and take not of the official links for Bitcoin Private located here.
Claiming your BTCP will depend on the type of wallet you use. Bitcoin Private suggests moving your BTC and/or ZCL to a new address before you use the private key for whichever address it occupied during the fork for security reasons.
Full Node Wallets
If you have a full-node wallet, make sure you have the latest java, then unzip and run the BitcoinPrivateDesktopWallet.jar file. Start it, letting the blockchain sync. Now, you can go to your “Wallet” then “Import One Private Key,” which may take some time. When prompted to sweep, hit “Yes” and wait while the blockchain headers download. After this, your BTCP should be available.
Electrum Wallets
If you have an Electrum wallet, you should unzip and then run the Electrum executable. From there, create a new wallet. Enter “wallet,” then “private keys,” and finally “sweep.” Enter your private keys, then sweep the BTCP into your new address.
Electrum Multi-Signature Wallets
For Electrum multi-signature wallets, unzip and run the Electrum executable. Hit “next,” then choose “multi-signature,” and click “next” again. You will be prompted to choose the number of co-signers and key holders. Hit “next,” then “I already have a seed,” then enter your seed. Enter the other co-signers’ public keys. Following the wallet’s startup, create a new multi-sig wallet, sending the funds there.
Bitcoin Private Mining
There is an official BTCP mining pool that you can join. It is built and run by BTCP developers. There are also numerous other pools where you can mine BTCP, and Bitcoin Private keeps a running list on its website. To help you choose the pool to mine, it divided the list into those that are sponsors of the community, those that the BTCP team has verified, and those that it hasn’t had the chance to verify yet. You should always use caution before joining one of the unverified mining pools.
We have written a separate and in-depth guide to Mining Bitcoin Private here.
Conclusion
The Bitcoin Private coin, BTCP, functions just like other cryptocurrencies. It essentially combines the benefits of Bitcoin and ZClassic, giving you the private nature of ZCL with the status of BTC. The two co-forked or merge-forked into BTCP already. Those who have either their BTC or ZCL in supported wallets can claim their BTCP in a simple process. The entire project is community driven and run, and you can confirm its transparency via the open-source code.