General FAQ
Is it safe to use Counterparty?
Yes. As long as you correctly use the tooling, wallets and infrastructure that supports the latest version of Counterparty, there’s no risk.
Please ensure that the use-case you are aiming for is legal within your jurisdiction, and seek professional advice when acquiring asset, starting a project or issuing an asset using Counterparty.
As a general rule of advice, as is with most Bitcoin and cryptocurrency spaces, do NOT share your passphrase or any private keys with anyone or any website.
Is a 51% attack against Counterparty possible?
As every Counterparty transaction is a Bitcoin transaction, to do a "51% attack" on Counterparty you would have to do a 51% attack on Bitcoin.
Good luck.
Can I secure my XCP and Counterparty tokens in cold storage or a hardware wallet?
Yes.
You can either make a regular Bitcoin paper wallet, store them there and later sweep the funds into a Counterparty wallet, or create a cold Counterparty paper wallet and store that way.
For hardware wallet storage, some Counterparty Wallets support hardware devices like Trezor and Ledger.
What happened to Counterwallet?
Counterwallet has unfortunately not been actively maintained in a number of years.
The community has since spent its energy on the creation of a new generation of wallets such as Counterwallet V2, Horizon Wallet and XCP Wallet rather than attempt to revive Counterblock and Counterwallet.
However, the code is all open-source and anyone is free to work on it.
How are blockchain reorganizations ("reorgs") handled by Counterparty?
Blockchain reorganizations are essentially handled by Counterparty the same way they are handled by Bitcoin.
The Counterparty database is log-structured. This means that Counterparty simply deletes all the database rows written after a certain block to execute a rollback, and then process new transactions on the now-longest chain.
What happens if and when OP_RETURN data is auto-pruned?
Counterparty only needs some Bitcoin full nodes somewhere to have an unpruned copy of the blockchain.
As every Counterparty full node is also a Bitcoin full node, this is easily done by just running a Counterparty full node!
What about support for other blockchains instead of Bitcoin?
Counterparty is built on Bitcoin. That has always been the case and we do not see it changing, ever.
That being said, there are ways to interoperate Counterparty assets to platforms like Ethereum and even Solana. A main and well used example of this would be Emblem Vault, which allow Counterparty users to vault Counterparty assets to sell on places like Ethereum Marketplaces like OpenSea.
Other blockchains also can run similar software, as over the years there have been "software forks" of the Counterparty software. Good examples of this would be Dogeparty on Dogecoin, and Monaparty on Monacoin.
What Counterparty wallet should I use?
The list of Counterparty wallets currently available may be found here on the official project page.
Has Counterparty forked?
The word "fork" is used in three main ways: protocol upgrades (like Bitcoin hardforks), software forks (like Litecoin), and network forks (like BSV).
Protocol upgrades are a normal part of the evolution of the Counterparty protocol, and there have been dozens throughout its history.
There have also been a number of 'software' forks of Counterparty, including Dogeparty on Dogecoin and Monaparty on Monacoin. In Counterparty's history there have not been network forks with any adoption.
General FAQ
Is it safe to use Counterparty?
Yes. As long as you correctly use the tooling, wallets and infrastructure that supports the latest version of Counterparty, there’s no risk.
Please ensure that the use-case you are aiming for is legal within your jurisdiction, and seek professional advice when acquiring asset, starting a project or issuing an asset using Counterparty.
As a general rule of advice, as is with most Bitcoin and cryptocurrency spaces, do NOT share your passphrase or any private keys with anyone or any website.
Is a 51% attack against Counterparty possible?
As every Counterparty transaction is a Bitcoin transaction, to do a "51% attack" on Counterparty you would have to do a 51% attack on Bitcoin.
Good luck.
Can I secure my XCP and Counterparty tokens in cold storage or a hardware wallet?
Yes.
You can either make a regular Bitcoin paper wallet, store them there and later sweep the funds into a Counterparty wallet, or create a cold Counterparty paper wallet and store that way.
For hardware wallet storage, some Counterparty Wallets support hardware devices like Trezor and Ledger.
What happened to Counterwallet?
Counterwallet has unfortunately not been actively maintained in a number of years.
The community has since spent its energy on the creation of a new generation of wallets such as Counterwallet V2, Horizon Wallet and XCP Wallet rather than attempt to revive Counterblock and Counterwallet.
However, the code is all open-source and anyone is free to work on it.
How are blockchain reorganizations ("reorgs") handled by Counterparty?
Blockchain reorganizations are essentially handled by Counterparty the same way they are handled by Bitcoin.
The Counterparty database is log-structured. This means that Counterparty simply deletes all the database rows written after a certain block to execute a rollback, and then process new transactions on the now-longest chain.
What happens if and when OP_RETURN data is auto-pruned?
Counterparty only needs some Bitcoin full nodes somewhere to have an unpruned copy of the blockchain.
As every Counterparty full node is also a Bitcoin full node, this is easily done by just running a Counterparty full node!
What about support for other blockchains instead of Bitcoin?
Counterparty is built on Bitcoin. That has always been the case and we do not see it changing, ever.
That being said, there are ways to interoperate Counterparty assets to platforms like Ethereum and even Solana. A main and well used example of this would be Emblem Vault, which allow Counterparty users to vault Counterparty assets to sell on places like Ethereum Marketplaces like OpenSea.
Other blockchains also can run similar software, as over the years there have been "software forks" of the Counterparty software. Good examples of this would be Dogeparty on Dogecoin, and Monaparty on Monacoin.
What Counterparty wallet should I use?
The list of Counterparty wallets currently available may be found here on the official project page.
Has Counterparty forked?
The word "fork" is used in three main ways: protocol upgrades (like Bitcoin hardforks), software forks (like Litecoin), and network forks (like BSV).
Protocol upgrades are a normal part of the evolution of the Counterparty protocol, and there have been dozens throughout its history.
There have also been a number of 'software' forks of Counterparty, including Dogeparty on Dogecoin and Monaparty on Monacoin. In Counterparty's history there have not been network forks with any adoption.