Harper Lin
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as a hard fork of Bitcoin in October 2017. Its primary goal is to decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals. Bitcoin Gold is designed to address the scalability issues that Bitcoin struggles with and to enhance the security of BTG while reducing the inflation rate to zero. Bitcoin Gold has been steeped in controversy since its launch, with accusations of hidden fees, concerns over security measures, and a lack of transparency. Despite these issues, it has been actively adopted by several online browsers and service providers and is available on various exchanges.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Type | Cryptocurrency |
| Founders | Jack Liao, Hang Yin, Martin Kuvandzhiev |
| Launch Date | October 2017 |
| Goal | Decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals |
| Algorithm | Requires more memory to further discourage ASIC mining |
| Supply | Maximum supply of 21,000,000 BTG tokens |
| Tokens | 17,513,924 BTG tokens |
| Token Distribution | 30% for blockchain development, 15% for ecosystem support, 15% for the BTG community, 20% for yearly expenses, 7% for bounties and app collaboration, 5% for founding team rewards, 8% for pre-fork costs and community development |
| Price | $0.503892 USD |
| 24-Hour Trading Volume | $1,721.21 USD |
| Security Issues | 51% hashing attack in May 2018, January 2020 |
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What You'll Learn
Bitcoin Gold's purpose
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as the only friendly hard fork of Bitcoin in October 2017. Its primary goal is to decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals.
Bitcoin Gold was founded by a group of enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and skills. Its stated purpose was to "make Bitcoin decentralized again". This may seem counterintuitive as Bitcoin, like all other cryptocurrencies, is already designed to be decentralized. It is not linked with any central bank, a particular country, or a government body. However, one of the major issues with Bitcoin that prompted the development of Bitcoin Gold was the concern that Bitcoin was becoming too centralized in its mining process.
Bitcoin Gold aimed to revolutionize the mining process by introducing a new proof-of-work algorithm that combats the scalability issues Bitcoin struggles with. It uses a version of Equihash that requires more memory than an ASIC can offer but runs fine on many graphics cards. This change in algorithm means that the mining process cannot be run faster on specialized equipment than on standard computer systems, allowing more individuals to participate in the mining process.
Bitcoin Gold has been steeped in controversy since its launch. Within one day, miners accused one of the developers of adding a 0.5% mining pool fee hidden from the mining community. There were also concerns about the security measures, which some believed were not as robust as initially claimed, potentially resulting in increased vulnerability to threats. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold was hit by a 51% hashing attack, during which 388,000 BTG (worth approximately US$18 million) was stolen from several cryptocurrency exchanges.
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Bitcoin Gold's security issues
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as a hard fork of Bitcoin in October 2017. Its primary goal is to decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals. However, Bitcoin Gold has faced several security issues since its launch.
One of the major concerns with Bitcoin Gold is its vulnerability to 51% attacks. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold was hit by a 51% hashing attack, allowing an unknown actor to manipulate the blockchain ledger and spend the same digital coins multiple times. This attack resulted in the theft of 388,000 BTG (worth approximately US$18 million) from cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitcoin Gold suffered from similar 51% attacks again in January 2020. Smaller proof-of-work blockchains like Bitcoin Gold are particularly susceptible to these attacks, where an attacker gains control of more than 50% of the blockchain's computing power or hash rate.
In addition to external attacks, Bitcoin Gold has also faced criticism for its handling of security measures. Shortly after its launch, miners accused one of its developers of adding a 0.5% mining pool fee without disclosing it to the community. There were also concerns that Bitcoin Gold's security measures were not as robust as initially claimed, potentially increasing its vulnerability to threats. The developers of Bitcoin Gold also engaged in a "post-mine" process, which involved the retroactive mining of 100,000 coins after the fork, raising concerns among crypto exchanges.
To address these security issues, Bitcoin Gold has implemented various measures. In July 2018, they changed their mining algorithm to one that requires more memory to further discourage ASIC mining. They have also claimed to have implemented additional safety measures, such as full replay protection, to enhance the protection of user funds.
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Bitcoin Gold's value and supply
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that was established in 2017 with the intention of providing a user-friendly alternative to Bitcoin. It has a maximum supply of 21,000,000 BTG tokens and a total supply of 17,513,924 BTG tokens. The current circulating supply is 18 million BTG tokens, with a market cap of $86.4455 million. The price of Bitcoin Gold varies, with a live price of $0.503892 USD according to one source, and $0.78 per BTG according to another. Its all-time high was $539.72.
Bitcoin Gold was founded by a group of enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and skills. One of its goals was to revolutionize the mining process by introducing the Equihash proof-of-work algorithm, which favours GPUs for mining, unlike the Bitcoin blockchain. This makes it more accessible to a wider range of miners. Bitcoin Gold also aims to combine the security and robustness of the Bitcoin blockchain with the opportunity for experimentation and development, particularly for DeFi and DApp developers.
Bitcoin Gold can be accessed on various platforms, including swap services and wallets, and is supported by several online browsers and service providers. The most popular exchange to buy and trade Bitcoin Gold is ProBit Global, where the most active trading pair is BTG/USDT. Other popular options include HitBTC and Changelly PRO.
It is important to note that cryptocurrency prices are subject to high market risk and price volatility. The value of investments can decrease as well as increase, and you may not get back the amount you invested.
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Bitcoin Gold's mining algorithm
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as a hard fork of Bitcoin in October 2017. Its primary goal is to decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals with commonly available graphics cards.
However, in 2018, ASIC manufacturers cracked the Equihash algorithm, so Bitcoin Gold changed its algorithm again to a modified version of Equihash called Equihash-BTG, Zhash, or Equihash(144,5). This modified algorithm requires more memory, further discouraging ASIC mining and ensuring that Bitcoin Gold can be mined using standard computer systems.
The Zhash algorithm is a GPU-mineable algorithm that can be mined using both AMD and NVIDIA graphic cards. Anyone with a decent graphic card on their desktop computer can mine Bitcoin Gold, making it more accessible and democratizing the mining process.
The primary goal of changing the mining algorithm was to ensure that the cryptocurrency itself is mined on a level playing field, where specialized equipment does not have an advantage over standard computer systems. This aligns with the overall vision of Bitcoin Gold to decentralize mining and make it accessible to individuals.
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Bitcoin Gold's founders
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that was created as a hard fork of Bitcoin. The hard fork aimed to change the proof-of-work algorithm to prevent the use of ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) for mining the Bitcoin Gold blockchain. Instead, they wanted to enable mining on commonly available graphics cards, making it possible to mine from a home PC.
Bitcoin Gold was founded by a group of enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and skills. The six co-founders include Jack Liao, who first inspired the Bitcoin Gold Project, Franco Niebles, Martin Kuvandzhiev, and Hang Yin, who is also the lead developer. Jack Liao brought vision, energy, and an extensive network in the crypto community to the project. Hang Yin graduated with a degree in computer science from Fudan University in 2015 and worked as a software engineer for Google before starting Bitcoin Gold. Martin Kuvandzhiev, the second co-founder, graduated with a degree in computer software engineering from the Technical University of Sofia. He has had a diverse career, starting as a food service worker at McDonald's and later becoming an assistant professor and a lead iOS developer.
Bitcoin Gold has faced some challenges since its launch, including criticism for being hastily put together and for including a developer pre-mine. The project's website also faced a distributed denial-of-service attack shortly after its launch. Additionally, Bitcoin Gold has been the target of two 51% hashing attacks, resulting in the theft of approximately US$18 million worth of BTG in 2018. Despite these setbacks, Bitcoin Gold has actively been adopted by several online browsers and service providers.
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Frequently asked questions
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as the only friendly hard fork of Bitcoin in October 2017. Its primary goal is to decentralize mining by making it accessible to individuals.
Bitcoin Gold was created to "'make Bitcoin decentralized again'. One of the major issues with Bitcoin that prompted the development of Bitcoin Gold was the lucrative but resource-intensive process of Bitcoin mining.
Within one day after the launch, miners accused one of the developers of Bitcoin Gold of adding a 0.5% mining pool fee hidden from the mining community. There were also concerns about the security measures of Bitcoin Gold, which were seen as less robust than initially claimed.
The live Bitcoin Gold price today is $0.503892 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $1,721.21 USD. Bitcoin Gold is down 31.99% in the last 24 hours.
