​

https://preview.redd.it/u4x1o4p37zc41.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=01d1ff52c0b7fc1c9ae5bb4f161979ad1f4bb559

I’m a longtime blockchain enthusiast and developer and one of my biggest gripes about this space is how quickly every new project is widely dismissed as a “scam” or “shitcoin” by so many people before it even gets off the ground. Sure, there is a lot of uncharted territory with pirates lurking to steal your bags left and right but with a small amount of personal education you can exist safely in the world of crypto I promise! With this article I aim to help lift your knowledge a little higher while helping keep your funds a little safer!

So What Is Happening?

On Tuesday February 18, 2020 a new coin named Ring (RNG) will be minted. This coin aims to bring two unique and fresh methods of proofing to the crypto game, quite literally: Agent-Based Hive Mining (borrowed from LCC) and Proof-of-Play Mining, where literal gameplay is used to hash and reward miners! To celebrate and help spread the word, the team is giving away claims of free RNG to all holders of the following coins:

• Litecoin Cash (LCC)
• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Dash (DASH)
• Dogecoin (DOGE)

It's being touted as the world's first crypto "4-way fork" but I'd really call it more of a "4-way claim" since its a brand new chain and not based on the code of any of the rewarded coins. It's simply a clever method of allowing a wider range of coin holders a chance to participate in the launch of these exciting new features!

How Will This Process Work?

On the 18th of February, a balance snapshot will be taken of the four chains listed above. Anyone holding a balance with any of these coins at the time of the snapshot will be forever eligible to claim their RNG at any time. Because the only way to prove ownership of a crypto address is to supply the private keys, and pretty much EVERYONE will tell you to guard those things with your life, below I will outline exactly what to do so there is absolutely 0% risk of losing a single satoshi! This method will apply to ANY claim rewards of any coin in the future as well. Always practice #SafeForking!

How Do I Safely Claim My RNG?

STEP 1 -- BEFORE THE SNAPSHOT -- VERIFY ACCESS TO YOUR PRIVATE KEYS

All core wallets will allow you to export a private key of any address in your wallet but many third party services like exchanges and hot wallets do not allow access to them. In these cases you will need to send your funds out of the third party service and into some kind of personal wallet where you can reach the private keys yourself. Then just wait for the snapshot to happen…

To make things easier on yourself, you can optionally collect your original coins into as few addresses as possible BEFORE the snapshot. Doing so reduces the number of keys you will need to empty and import later. It’s just less work!

\** SNAPSHOT HAPPENS HERE... ****

STEP 2 -- ATER THE SNAPSHOT -- EMPTY ALL ADDRESSES YOU WISH TO CLAIM

After the snapshot is confirmed, withdraw all coins OUT of each of your origin coin addresses into brand new addresses leaving the original ones quite empty. This way when you import later there is NO risk of losing anything! Also know that after you import these private keys you should never use them again for safety’s sake! It’s kind of the whole reason you’re even reading this article in the first place.

STEP 3 -- EXPORT PRIVATE KEYS FOR ALL ADDRESS YOU WISH TO CLAIM

This is the most difficult part, are you ready? Once each claim address is confirmed to be EMPTY, you must obtain each one’s private keys. This will entirely depend on the wallet you use (QT example below) but for all core wallets there is generally an option for exporting private keys somewhere in there. Collect them all!

How to Export QT Wallet Private Keys:⛔️ — DISABLE INTERNET FOR SAFETY — ⛔️- Open the QT wallet client- Click on HELP in the menu bar- Click on DEBUG WINDOW- Click on the CONSOLE tab- Click inside the input box at the bottom(if your wallet is locked…)- Type: walletpassphrase [Password] 600(this unlocks your wallet for 10 minutes)- Type: dumpprivkey [Address]- Copy the output hash, paste it into a list somewhere.(repeat as needed, clear your clipboard history after)- Type: walletlock (if applicable)⚡ — RE-ENABLE YOUR INTERNET — ⚡

STEP 4 -- IMPORT ALL PRIVATE KEYS INTO RNG CORE WALLET

\** PLEASE VERIFY THAT EVERY CLAIM ADDRESS IS EMPTY BEFORE CONTINUING... ****

The final step is to simply import each of these private keys into the new Ring Core Wallet to claim your free RNG rewards. The wallet handles this part automatically and you will see your new RNG balance right away. You can find this option under the File > Import Private Keys menu.

Importing a private key is the only way to prove ownership of a crypto address so this is unavoidable if you want to claim new coins from it. The steps above will allow you to prove ownership of your snapshotted address balance plus use its empty key to then claim your new coins thus keeping your original coins completely protected in the brand new address with a new private key (which you should now also keep VERY private!)

By emptying the address before you import it’s private key you eliminate the risk of theft entirely. One cannot take from an already empty jar. It should also be noted to NEVER use the imported address again as an added safety precaution*!*

👏👏👏 DONE! ENJOY YOUR FREE MONEY! 👏👏👏

How Much RNG Will I Receive?

Litecoin Cash holders will receive the highest claim ratio (5000 LCC = 1 RNG) as the LCC team are the ones responsible for creating Ring and wanted to extend a heart-felt thank you to the LCC community for their years of support. All other coins will be based on a 1:1 ratio with the value of Bitcoin at the time of the fork. This of course means 1 BTC = 1 RNG. For DASH and DOGE, however, their BTC market prices will determine their reward ratios. (For example if DASH is trading at 0.015 BTC each, then each DASH coin will net you a reward of 0.015 RNG to match.) Of course you don't need whole coins to claim, partial decimals work just fine!

What Value Will RNG Have?

That, my friends, is entirely up to the markets. No one in the history of crypto has had a perfect track record of price predictions so I'm not even going to try here. I will say, though, having gotten to play with their Testnet a bit so far that I am very impressed with the new Proof-of-Play method and how they have initially implemented it. It bodes very good things for the future of their project and this coin so I personally would expect its value to hold and most likely rise steadily as more people become aware of this groundbreaking new tech and it's potential to expand outward!

Is Litecoin Cash Still Going To Exist?

Absolutely! At least, from what I can gather. LCC has it's own purposes and will continue to be developed on. Ring is not meant to be a replacement or upgrade of any kind to Litecoin Cash. It is an entirely different proofing algorithm and a different mission statement altogether. It's more so meant to help expose the amazing new technologies developed on the LCC blockchain to a wider audience beyond simply its own fan base. If anything it'll act a sister chain that can help expose more folks to LCC in the future!

Disclaimer

While I am a moderator for the Litecoin Cash Discord server, I am writing this from an independent point of view as an educated crypto enthusiast with a passion for helping others navigate these waters. Having been an initial forker and third party developer on top of LCC myself, I feel I have some valuable insight into the direction the team is taking and I wanted to offer some sound advice for the upcoming Ring fork before the FUD gets caked on too thick.

I know a lot of people get scared easily in crypto because of the rampant scamming that goes on but I've watched this team work their asses off for two years to get out from under the stain of Charlie Lee's very biased, uneducated "its a scam" tweet which was endlessly parroted throughout the Litecoin community with nothing but blind party loyalty and no due diligence. The LCC folks are kind, wonderful hard-working people with big hearts and ambition and they have actually developed a unique proofing methodology that is likely going to impress a lot of people!

So before you go jumping on the "it's just another shitcoin" bandwagon please stop and take a real hard look at both Litecoin Cash (LCC) and Ring (RNG): two viable projects with something to bring to the table! If nothing else, hey, just claim your new coins and dump them off for some free money. You literally cannot lose if you PRACTICE SAFE FORKING!!!

Good luck, cryptonauts!

^=A=