I hold some in bitpanda.com and some in blockchain.info
During this whole fork situation - where should I keep my bitcoins? Should I download the bitcoin core wallet to my computer and move the coins there?
Should I just leave them in their online wallets?
If I move them to a local computer wallet, what do I need to do when bitcoin forks? Do I need to do something to get the same amount of coins in the new chain? (Download a core wallet for the new one so I have bitcoins in both the original and the forked?) (if so how??)
Thankyou all - I don't really care about which chain is the successor etc I just care about being on THE chain and not being left with coins in the wrong place
Thoughts appreciated
Thankyou
I have always advised anyone to stay away from online wallets and exchanges. This is especially true pre-fork.
Bitcoin core is indeed a good desktop wallet, it will have to download and verify the full blockchain tough (this takes time + diskspace). If you want to skip this requirement, an SPV wallet like electrum will do to.
As long as you withdrew all your BTC to a local wallet that allows you to export your private keys (and/or promises to support both chains) before the fork happens, you'll have unspent outputs on both chains. If your desktop wallet doesn't start supporting both chains after the fork, you can export the private keys and import them into a wallet that supports the alternative chain. You do need to watch out for a replay attack tough (transactions on one chain can potentially be replayed on the alternative chain)