Bitcoin Gold forked from the original cryptocurrency on Oct. 24, 2017.
Hard forks are a frequent occurrence in the world of cryptocurrency, especially as the number of users increases and developer disagreement and goals arise. Bitcoin Gold’s primary goal has been to “restore bitcoin’s decentralization.” One of the most talked about bitcoin forks was Bitcoin Gold.
Making Bitcoin decentralized again may appear to be a losing battle. Bitcoin, like other cryptocurrencies, is intended to be decentralized; it isn’t linked to any central bank, nation, or government organization.
Despite what some people may think, the development of Bitcoin Gold was not related to central issuance. The actual issue had to do with mining – more specifically, the proof-of-work algorithm known as Equihash-BTG. Developers wanted a new algorithm so that large mining operations would not have an unfair advantage.
Bitcoin mining is a costly and resource-intensive endeavor. The most successful mining operations are those that combine many mining rigs, each of which requires specialized hardware. Individuals attempting to mine bitcoin on their own must either invest a significant amount of money and time into building their own rigs or be passed by in the process, because their computers can’t match up to the professional rig systems.
Bitcoin Gold’s primary goal is to change the algorithm which cryptocurrency is mined. If successful, this will mean that mining can no longer be completed faster on specialized equipment than standard computer systems.
Bitcoin Gold was not the first major hard fork of bitcoin. On Aug. 1, 2017, Bitcoin Cash forked off from the primary cryptocurrency .On Nov. 15, 2018, a Bitcoin Cash hard fork split it into two currencies: Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.
Besides the goal of “re-decentralizing” bitcoin and making a more accessible digital asset for smaller miners that could be more fairly and efficiently distributed, Bitcoin Gold’s developers also focused on protection and transparency issues. Unlike other blockchains (including Bitcoin), which publish transaction details or wallet addresses, Bitcoin Gold sought to increase anonymity. As a free, open-source community project, decentralization and transparency are considered essential in the Bitcoin Gold community. However, hackers and other malicious actors are a continual worry.
Among virtual currencies, smaller proof-of-work blockchains like Bitcoin Gold are especially vulnerable to 51% attacks. This is where an attacker tries to take control of 51% or more of the blockchain’s computing power or hash rate. Even though Bitcoin Gold has taken extra measures—like full replay protection—to try and keep customer accounts and coins safe since it launched, the blockchain has still had three 51% attacks and multiple BTG wallet thefts.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex delisted the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) blockchain after attackers stole 388,000 BTG in May 2018. As a result of this theft, Bitcoin Gold updated its mining algorithm to Equihash-BTG. The most recent 51% attacks occurred in January 2020 where 1,900 and 5,267 BTG were stolen respectively.
From the moment it was created, Bitcoin Gold has been mired in controversy. On the very day of its October 2017 launch, BTG’s cloud site was hit with a DDoS attack. Furthermore, within days after the cryptocurrency’s debut, miners accused one of its developers of soundly hiding a 0.5% mining fee from them.
Some people were worried that Bitcoin Gold’s security was not as great as they had said it would be, which might make it easier for attacks.
The developers of Bitcoin Gold utilized “post-mine” after the launch, which caused crypto exchanges to become concerned as they were debating whether or not to list BTG. This was mining 100,000 coins retroactively after the fork had already taken place. The way that this happened was through rapidly mining about 8,000 blocks and setting aside the results as an “endowment”, which would be used for growing and maintaining the broader Bitcoin Gold network.
We wanted to create a bonus system that would reward our team for their efforts, so we set aside 5% of the coins (100,000). The remaining 95,000 coins were put into an ecosystem fund that would support the growth of our community.
Bittrex was initially apprehensive about Bitcoin Gold, but they eventually agreed to list it. Their main worry was that Bitcoin Gold didn’t have “fully formed consensus code; [an] implemented replay protection; adequate code for testing and auditing; publicly known code developers.” They also sent their customers the following warning: “Bitcoin Gold’s source code contains a private premine of 8,000 blocks (100,000 BTG).” If a market does open, please be aware that the developers may sell their premined BTG on the open market.” Following the May 2018 51% attack, Bittrex requested more than 12,000 BTG (valued at $255,000 at the time) as compensation from Bitcoin Gold to make up for losses sustained by the exchange. When Bitcoin Gold refused to provide said compensation, Bittrex delisted them from their trading platform.
At the time of its launch, all bitcoin holders were given Bitcoin Gold coins at a rate of one BTG per BTC through a process called air-dropping. Coinbase, however, was not supporting Bitcoin Gold during this time due to lack of transparency from its developers. According to representative statements,”we cannot support Bitcoin Gold because its developers have not made the code available to the public for review.” This creates huge security risks and is therefore unsupportable by Coinbase.
In October 2017, Coinbase failed to air-drop BTG to Bitcoin holders on its platform, resulting in a lawsuit filed against Coinbase by plaintiff Daniel Archer on March 27, 2018. The suit alleged that Coinbase had violated the terms of its contract agreement—specifically negligence, conversion, and breach of contract. In August 2020, the appellate court affirmed the original court’s summary judgment in favor of Coinbase.
With Bitcoin Gold still afloat, the number of reachable nodes continues to decrease. On June 1, 2021, Bitcoin Gold has 89 accessible nodes. The highest concentration of nodes is in Germany (22), followed by the United States (18), France (8), Canada (6), and the Netherlands (6).
For every cryptocurrency, one of the primary elements that determines both short-term and long-term success is how easily available it is on cryptocurrency exchanges. Users must be able to access the currency on exchanges in order to conduct transactions.
The cryptocurrency Bitcoin Gold is currently trading live on Binance, BitFinex, Bithumb, HitBTC, Uphold, Exmo, Gate.io., BitBay , Huobi, Cex.io,’ Okex , Unocoin , Coinone , Koineks , Coinfeld , Coindirect Zebpay NiceHash V.
More than 20 wallet services, including Trezor Wallet, Ledger Wallet, Exodus, Coinomi, Guarda, Freewallet and BTGWallet support the cryptocurrency . Alternatively , you could also use Kasse.
The cryptocurrency has been listed on over 40 exchanges and 11 national currencies as of June 1, 2021, according to the website.
Over the long term, Bitcoin Gold will conduct research on smart contracts and blockchain democracy, as well as build a decentralized fiat-crypto brokerage network.
The BTG 2021 Roadmap states that the main development areas of focus going forward are interoperability, applications, infrastructure, and the lightning network. Bi-directional compatibility with other blockchains and ecosystems is also a priority for BTG developers, as exemplified by their current work on a bridge to the Phala Network.
According to the company, they will convert from a Board-based governance system to a contemporary DAO-based approach. Updates to key components of their technology stack are currently underway, and some of these elements—such as their explorers and ElectrumG—are nearing completion. While transaction volumes and fees at present do not necessitate the usage of a layer-2 lightning network solution, BTG knows it’s on their radar.