Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency. It is a hard fork of Bitcoin, the open source cryptocurrency. It is an open source, decentralized digital currency without a central bank or intermediary that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer Bitcoin Gold network.

Bitcoin Gold
Ticker symbolBTG
Development
Initial release0.15.0.1 / 12 November 2017 (2017-11-12)
Latest release0.17.3 / 3 August 2020 (2020-08-03)
Code repositorygithub.com/BTCGPU/BTCGPU
Development statusActive
Project fork ofBitcoin
Written inC++, Qt
Operating systemWindows, OS X, Linux
Developer(s)Hang Yin Alejandro Regojo (Regox)
Source modelOpen source
LicenseMIT License
Websitebitcoingold.org
Ledger
Ledger start3 January 2009 (2009-01-03)
Timestamping schemeProof-of-work
Hash functionEquihash
Block reward6.25 BTG, halved April 18, 2020, at block no. 630000. Will halve again at block no. 840000 (~spring of 2024).[1]
Block time10 minutes
Block explorerBitcoinGold Explorer
Supply limit21,000,000 BTG

The stated purpose of the hard fork is to change the proof of work algorithm so that application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) cannot be used to mine the Bitcoin Gold blockchain.[2]

Born as a community-driven project, it was initiated by Alejandro Regojo and Hang Ying as top developers.

History

Bitcoin Gold hard forked from the Bitcoin blockchain on October 24, 2017, at block height 491407.[3]

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) Hard Fork Implements New Mining Algorithm in July 2018. The actual algorithm that was developed by Zcash (now, Electric Coin Company) was based on parameter set <200,9>. Bitcoin Gold has modified this algorithm and is now adopting parameter set <144,5>. This new algorithm is called Equihash-BTG. The new algorithm requires more memory than the one that was originally developed by Zcash.[4]

Attacks to the Mining Network

Soon after the launch, the website came under a distributed denial of service attack, and received criticism from Coinbase and Bittrex for being hastily put together, as well as including a developer pre-mine.[5][6]

In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold was hit by a 51% hashing attack by an unknown actor. This type of attack makes it possible to manipulate the blockchain ledger on which transactions are recorded, and to spend the same digital coins more than once.[7] During the attack, 388,000 BTG (worth approximately $18 million USD) was stolen from several cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitcoin Gold was later delisted from Bittrex, after the team refused to help pay some of the damages.[8]

Bitcoin Gold suffered from 51% attacks again in January 2020.[9] In July 2020 the version 0.17.2 was released as an "emergency update" in order to elude a long attack chain originated a few days before.[10]

References
  1. "BTG Halving Countdown | Bitcoin Gold". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  2. Reiff, Nathan. "What is Bitcoin Gold, Exactly?". Investopedia. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  3. Osborne, Charlie. "New, imminent Bitcoin Gold fork met with skepticism". ZDNet. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  4. Iskra, Edward. "Equihash-BTG: Our New PoW Algorithm". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  5. Schroeder, Stan. "Bitcoin splits into two again, but owners don't get free money just yet". Mashable. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  6. "Meet Bitcoin Gold, Yet Another New Kind of Bitcoin". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  7. "Bitcoin Spinoff Hacked in Rare '51% Attack'". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  8. Cimpanu, Catalin. "Bitcoin Gold delisted from major cryptocurrency exchange after refusing to pay hack damages". ZDNet. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  9. Canellis, David (January 27, 2020). "Bitcoin Gold hit by 51% attacks, $72K in cryptocurrency double-spent". The Next Web.
  10. "Emergency update 0.17.2". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 4 Sep 2020.
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