BITCOIN GOLD (BTG) – A BRIEF INTRO FOR INVESTORS
A hard fork of Bitcoin that empowers individual miners over large mining companies with specialized equipment, Bitcoin Gold stays true to Satoshi’s vision of a decentralized currency, unlike Bitcoin core, which has become more and more centralized over the years.
KEY FEATURES
- Utilizes proof-of-work with Equihash hashing algorithm
- Block reward of 12.5 BTG per block halved about every four years
- Block times of 10 minutes
- Low transaction fees of $0.02 as of February 2018
- At the time of the hard fork all Bitcoin holders received an equal share in Bitcoin Gold
OVERVIEW
COIN SUPPLY
There is a maximum supply of 21 million BTG. At the time of the Bitcoin fork, 100,000 BTG were pre-mined and placed in an endowment, with about 5% being given as bonuses to the development team.
TECHNOLOGY
Bitcoin Gold provides most of the same technical features as Bitcoin in its attempt to operate as a store of value and use for remittances across the globe. The Equihash proof-of-work algorithm makes mining GPU-centric as opposed to CPU.
PRIVACY
Bitcoin Gold operates as a public blockchain, with all transaction information and history open to public viewing.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Creator Jack Liao previously operated a company that invested in ASIC technology for Bitcoin mining, the very technology he is looking to make obsolete via BTG. Controversy surrounds core developer Martin Kuvandzhiev who allegedly hid a 0.5% fee into the code to be distributed directly to his personal wallet. Bitcoin Gold’s developers are global, ranging across North America, Europe, and Asia.
VALUE PROPOSITION
Bitcoin is a revolutionary technology that will change the way the world thinks about, and uses, currency. However, Bitcoin has strayed from its goals of a decentralized network, and only Bitcoin Gold keeps to the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto by providing a decentralized blockchain for cross-border payments.
INVESTMENT SUMMARY
In October of 2017 at block 491,407 of the Bitcoin blockchain, a hard fork was initiated and Bitcoin Gold (BTG) was created with the goal of ridding itself from the centralization of mining that Bitcoin has moved towards.
Because of its SHA-256 hashing algorithm, Bitcoin mining can be done more efficiently using application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This has caused the majority of Bitcoin mining to become centralized over a few key players who hold a significant amount of power over the network as a whole.
Bitcoin Gold was instead developed with the Equihash consensus algorithm which is less prone to centralization through the use of ASICs, and gives individuals more power in mining the blockchain instead of powerful centralized mining pools. If an ASIC is found to gain an advantage over the Equihash algorithm in the future, BTG developers will change their proof-of-work algorithm to combat any centralization of mining.
Through this decentralization, Bitcoin Gold looks to attract more individuals to its blockchain, and in turn, use its network effects to build a truly decentralized digital currency.
HOW TO BUY
Bitcoin Gold can be purchased on major worldwide exchanges for fiat or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Deposit the select currency and use the instructions given by the exchange to trade for Bitcoin Gold.
EXCHANGES WHERE YOU CAN BUY BITCOIN GOLD (BTG)
| EXCHANGE | COIN PAIRS TRADED | |
| Binance | BTG/BTC, ETH | |
| CEX.IO | BTG/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| HitBTC | BTG/USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| YoBit | BTG/USD, BTC | |
| BitBay | BTG/USD, PLN, EUR, BTC | |
| Bitcoin Indonesia | BTG/IDR | |
| Bitfinex | BTG/USD, BTC | |
| Bittrex | BTG/USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| Exrates | BTG/USD, BTC | |
| OKEx | BTG/USDT, BTC, BCH | |
| Upbit | BTG/USDT, KRW, BTC, ETH |
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