Bitcoin Gold
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency. It is a hard fork of Bitcoin, the open sourcecryptocurrency. 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.
The stated purpose of the hard fork is to change the proof of workalgorithm 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[edit]
Bitcoin Gold hard forked from the Bitcoin blockchain on October 24, , at block height [3]
Bitcoin Gold (BTG) Hard Fork Implements New Mining Algorithm in July The actual algorithm that was developed by Zcash (now, Electric Coin Company) was based on parameter set <,9>. Bitcoin Gold has modified this algorithm and is now adopting parameter set <,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[edit]
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 , 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, , 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 [9] In July the version was released as an "emergency update" in order to elude a long attack chain originated a few days before.[10]
References[edit]
- ^"BTG Halving Countdown &#; Bitcoin Gold". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 2 May
- ^Reiff, Nathan. "What is Bitcoin Gold, Exactly?". Investopedia. Retrieved
- ^Osborne, Charlie. "New, imminent Bitcoin Gold fork met with skepticism". ZDNet. Retrieved
- ^Iskra, Edward. "Equihash-BTG: Our New PoW Algorithm". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 21 June
- ^Schroeder, Stan. "Bitcoin splits into two again, but owners don't get free money just yet". Mashable. Retrieved
- ^"Meet Bitcoin Gold, Yet Another New Kind of Bitcoin". Fortune. Retrieved
- ^"Bitcoin Spinoff Hacked in Rare '51% Attack'". Fortune. Retrieved
- ^Cimpanu, Catalin. "Bitcoin Gold delisted from major cryptocurrency exchange after refusing to pay hack damages". ZDNet. Retrieved
- ^Canellis, David (January 27, ). "Bitcoin Gold hit by 51% attacks, $72K in cryptocurrency double-spent". The Next Web.
- ^"Emergency update ". Bitcoin Gold. Retrieved 4 Sep
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