The number of scam sites that are being set up with the express purpose of stealing Bitcoin from the unsuspecting is on the rise. They often pretend to be connected with legitimate forks of the Bitcoin blockchain, and claim that they can assist you with accessing the associated cryptocurrency dividends.

In order to facilitate you receiving the dividend coins, these sites ask you to enter your Bitcoin wallet seed. This is a list of words that once revealed to the scammers, will enable them to access and steal your Bitcoin. A legitimate site will not ask you for this seed, nor your private key. Never give this information away, no matter what a site claims they will give you or why they say it is needed. There is only one reason and that is to part you with your Bitcoin.

The images above and below are typical of how these types of scam websites are set up. Please note that they are in no way connected to either SegWit2x or Bitcoin Diamond. The perpetrators go to great lengths to impersonate legitimate entities. The look of the fake sites or social media accounts can be almost identical to the real ones, as can the domain names or usernames. For example, one Twitter account I saw replaced the 'i' in 'Bitcoin Diamond' with an 'l' to make 'Bitcoin DIamond', and judging by the number of followers, this subtle deception had worked extremely well.

So keep your Bitcoin seed and private key to yourself, and your Bitcoin will be safe from the scammers seeking it.

First came Bitcoin Cash, then Bitcoin Gold, followed by announcements of Bitcoin Diamond, Super Bitcoin, Bitcoin Platinum, Lightning Bitcoin and now a plethora of Bitcoin blockchain hard forks and airdrops are flooding onto the scene​. Some are fake, while others are jokes or even scams, however, many will turn out to be legitimate and this is good news for Bitcoin holders.

If you hold Bitcoin and control your own private key, then you are entitled to free amounts of these fork created cryptocurrencies as they become available. The number of free coins is usually equivalent to the quantity of Bitcoin you own at the time of the fork, although there are some cases where the ratio is as high as ten to one.

Here are some tips for keeping your Bitcoin safe and getting the most out of all of these potential cryptocurrency dividends.
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1. Use a hardware wallet, such as a Trezor or Ledger Nano S, to store your Bitcoin. This puts you in control of your private key and gives you the greatest potential for receiving free crypto. If instead, you keep your Bitcoin at an exchange, then they decide which fork coins, if any, you will get.
   
   
2. Never reveal your Bitcoin wallet private key or seed phrase to a website that asks for it. There are many scam websites and social media accounts that have been set up to steal your Bitcoin.  Some of these appear almost identical to the legitimate sites and accounts that they mimic. They claim that you need to enter your private key or seed phrase in order to claim a particular dividend. This is not true and if you do, you will never see your Bitcoin again.
   
   
3. When it comes to claiming a specific cryptocurrency divided, check the official website of your hardware wallet for notifications and instructions of how to proceed.
   
   
4. Once you have claimed your free coins, consider selling them and using the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin. This is a way to increase your BTC holdings without having to dip into your household budget. Of course, you could also cash them out, as a way to take some profits without having to sell any of your Bitcoin. The other option is to hold your freely acquired altcoins, or a portion of them, as a means of diversification. All of this needs to be weighed up carefully according to your financial situation at the time.
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5. If you do sell your free crypto and use it to boost your Bitcoin savings, then when the next hard fork coin comes along, you will get more of it. Rinse and repeat.

​Adam Meister, the Bitcoin Meister, the Disrupt Meister was back in his Bitcoin to the Moon t-shirt on today's edition of The 1 Bitcoin Show. He first rocked this cool design on his show earlier this month, which you can check out here. If you want your very own Bitcoin to the Moon t-shirt, which is available in a wide variety of styles and colors, then visit our merchandise store.
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Adam makes a new show every day, covering all things Bitcoin. You can subscribe to his Bitcoin Meister YouTube channel here, but first, sit back, relax and enjoy watching today's edition below. Oh, and remember to 'Pound that like button'.

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When we welcomed in 2017 with cries of 'Happy New Year' the price of a single Bitcoin was $997.69. Little did we know then how happy 2017 was about to make Bitcoin holders.

The following list shows the highest price of Bitcoin for each month of 2017 and the date on which it was achieved.

January 5th                         $1,148.60
February 28th                     $1,203.53
March 3rd                            $1,288.71
April 28th                             $1,339.14
May 25th                              $2,766.56
June 12th                              $3.014.29
July 23rd                              $2,852.29
August 30th                        $4,674.35
September 2nd                  $4,968.63
October 29th                       $6,195.37
November 29th                 $11,039.76
December 17th                   $19,694.68

2018 here we come!

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Bitcoin is usually talked about in serious terms, and rightly so, as there's a lot on the line. Things like, fortunes won, fortunes lost, big blocks, small blocks, SegWit, SegWit2x, blockchain forks, altcoin pumps, Mempool spam, transaction speeds, transaction fees, exchange hacks, futures trading, mainstream adoption, lightning network, sidechains and drivechains are all discussed and debated regularly.

As you can see, we Bitcoiners have a lot on our collective plate. And despite increased media coverage and people scrambling to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon, we make up a very small minority of the population. Now a tiny group of people dealing with a big plate of issues is a recipe for stress. Fortunately, there is a cure ... laughter.

​So with that in mind, let's take a look at the lighter side of Bitcoin and have a chuckle at ourselves ... or others that we know in the Bitcoin community ... after all, we personally never come across like that ... do we?

One reader suggested that given the current fall in the price of Bitcoin, the logo below could added to our Bitcoin to the Moon merchandise range. Hmm ... :)

The Bitcoin to the Moon logo above has just been released. It is available on t-shirts, stickers, phone cases, mugs and all of the other products in our merchandise range. So now, you have two logo designs to choose from when you visit our store.

To get yourself decked out in all of the latest gear, visit the Bitcoin to the Moon Merchandise Store.

Just five days after almost reaching $20,000 the price of Bitcoin fell to less than $11,000. This caused panic selling from many investors who are new to Bitcoin. Those who have been in the space for a number of years have seen this all before, although the amounts of money we are dealing with are much higher.

If you are new to this market and have held on to your Bitcoin despite the drop, well done. When all you have experienced so far is a bull market, it can be a scary thing to see the price falling so rapidly, especially if you bought in at the peak. Staying calm, thinking long term and learning from the past can all help you in continuing to resist the temptation to panic sell. 

Percentage wise, Bitcoin has seen far greater falls in the past, yet has always recovered to reach new all time highs. In 2011, the price peaked at $32 before crashing and entering an extended bear market that took it all the way down to $2. That's a correction of more than 90%. Next, in 2013, the Bitcoin price climbed from $13 to $1,100 before crashing and once again entering an extended bear market. This saw the price retrace to a low just above $200 — an 80% drop.

Those who have held their Bitcoin throughout these seemingly catastrophic crashes have been richly rewarded. Panic selling, on the other hand, has led many to regret their decisions.

Stay calm, remember why you invested in Bitcoin, and for further tips on surviving the ups and downs of the market, read How to Handle Bitcoin Price Volatility and Lessons Learned from the Bitcoin Crash of 2013.

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With Bitcoin constantly in the news because of the astronomical increases in price, more and more people are looking to invest in it. Typically, when someone decides to buy Bitcoin, they sign up for an account at a cryptocurrency exchange. Upon doing so, they are confronted with other cryptocurrency options that the particular exchange offers.

The next thing that becomes apparent to the new investor is that all of the other cryptocurrencies are much cheaper than Bitcoin. This can lead to the decision to buy one of the cheaper alternatives (altcoins). The logic being that they can buy more of it and maybe even get in on the ground floor of the 'next Bitcoin'.

In my opinion, this is a mistake. Remember, as I wrote yesterday, You Can Buy Part of a Bitcoin. Owning part of a Bitcoin is preferable to having a whole altcoin, or multiple altcoins for that matter. Altcoins will come and go, rise and fall, however, Bitcoin is here for the long term.

This is not a situation where Bitcoin could be the 'MySpace' waiting for a 'Facebook' to take over as the market leader. Bitcoin is better compared to the internet itself. It is the technology around which the future of cryptocurrency will be built. Bitcoin is a truly decentralized, limited supply, non-freezable, non-confiscatable store of value, that also enables permissionless transfer of value.

Bitcoin or Litecoin?
Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin or Ethereum?
Bitcoin or Monero?
Bitcoin or Dash?
Bitcoin or ...?

For me, the answer is Bitcoin.
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Bitcoin Cash spiked in price to nearly $4,000 today, after it was listed on major cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. In fact, the price started to move upwards prior to this, which has led to accusations of insider trading. The spike coincided with a drop in the price of Bitcoin and created much media interest. The coverage of the story has given a prominent platform to proponents of Bitcoin Cash.

One of the most vocal and influential promoters of Bitcoin Cash has gone as far as to say that Bitcoin Cash is the real Bitcoin. This type of statement has the ability to cause much financial harm when broadcast to potential Bitcoin investors. Those new to cryptocurrencies are often unfamiliar with the history and background of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, and could unwittingly invest in the wrong one if they take what they've heard at face value.

Let me make it clear. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is not Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin Cash is a separate cryptocurrency that was created by a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. It is an altcoin, an alternative currency to Bitcoin.

There are many altcoins, but there is only one Bitcoin and it has the ticker BTC. So if you're looking to invest in Bitcoin, make sure you buy BTC. If you get BCH, you have Bitcoin Cash, not Bitcoin. If you get BTG, you have Bitcoin Gold, not Bitcoin.

Get BTC. It's the real Bitcoin.

Bitcoin mania is sweeping the planet and there are many people wanting to get their hands on the number one cryptocurrency. The problem is, that with the price of a single Bitcoin currently closing in on $20,000, this is simply out of reach for most would-be Bitcoiners. This, in turn, can lead them to walk away, thinking that they have missed out and that it is too late for them.

Many new investors coming into the Bitcoin space are attracted to it because of the phenomenal price increases seen this year. Often, however, they are yet to receive important knowledge and information about Bitcoin, and in some cases have received misinformation.

One of the most common pieces of misinformation is that you have to buy a whole Bitcoin. This is sometimes correlated to thinking of a Bitcoin like a share in a company which you purchase in single whole units. Bitcoin, though, is not a company divided into shares, but a currency and store of value.

The supply of Bitcoin (BTC), unlike regular currencies such as the US dollar, is capped at 21 million. There will never be more than this. On the other hand, like a currency can be divided into dollars and cents or pounds and pence etc, a single Bitcoin can be divided to eight decimal places. In other words, the smallest amount of a Bitcoin is 0.00000001 BTC, or one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin. This smallest unit is known as a Satoshi, named after the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

So, if you want to invest in Bitcoin, but can't afford or don't want to risk buying a whole one, then choose an amount that you can afford or are comfortable with. That could be $1,000, $500, $100 or even $50 worth of Bitcoin. You get my drift. Think of it as a savings account that you can add to over time as your financial situation allows. If you only invest what you can afford to lose, then over time you can increase your Bitcoin holdings. You never know, eventually you may even join the 1 BTC club.