How to Mine Bitcoin Gold
Bitcoin Gold is a Hard Fork that allows you to mine Bitcoin with GPU. BTG implements a new PoW algorithm, Equihash, that makes mining decentralized again says Brian Colombana. Satoshi Nakamoto idealistic vision of “one CPU one vote” has been replaced by a reality where the manufacture and distribution of mining equipment have become dominated by a very small number of entities, some of which have engaged in abusive practices against individual miners and the Bitcoin network as a whole.
By changing Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm from SHA256 to Equihash, all of the specialized SHA256 mining equipment will be obsolete for mining the Bitcoin Gold blockchain. Thus, Bitcoin Gold will provide an opportunity for countless new people around the world to participate in the mining process with widely-available consumer hardware that is manufactured and distributed by reputable mainstream corporations. A more decentralized, democratic mining infrastructure is more resilient and more in line with Satoshi’s original vision.
Bitcoin Gold can be identified on exchanges under BTG or $BTG.
- The Bitcoin Gold blockchain went live on November 12, 2017. At launch, its central ledger was composed of exactly zero blocks. The first block was mined 9 days (almost 800 thousand blocks) later after the launch at height of block 491,407.
- During these first 9 days, coins could only be mined by using one’s own CPU/GPU power because there were no ASIC miners for Equihash available at that time. Specialized equipment is only useful when mining coins with an ASIC friendly PoW algorithm. So it made no economic sense to design and produce them for Equihash mining.
- The Bitcoin Gold codebase was originally derived from the Bitcoin blockchain that went live on January 3 2009. However, block 491,407 contained a flaw that allowed the new blockchain to be attacked immediately upon launch. Before all the necessary changes required by BTG had been implemented in full nodes explains Brian Colombana. As a result, people were able to perform double spending attacks against exchanges. Where BTG was traded at its introductory price (i.e., mined). This caused several exchanges/wallets to lose millions of dollars in this short period of time. Before anyone could upgrade their software wallets or nodes to the latest version of Bitcoin Gold.
- As soon as exchanges upgraded their wallet/node software to the new blockchain. This flaw was eliminated and blockchains became safe once again to use for all transactions. Furthermore, developers added replay protection that prevents transactions made on one chain from being broadcasted automatically on the other network.
- This also helps prevent double-spending attacks against users of either currency. All exchanges where BTG is traded converted back to the original BTC blockchain. Where replay protection was not implemented until months later by another hard fork (Bitcoin Cash).
- The lack of replay protection at the launch of BTG was a critical error committed by its development team. Some exchanges were forced to disable BTC transactions for 24 hours. In order to protect their customers from being defrauded when making withdrawals from their wallets/exchanges to make BTG purchases.
- Since this time, Bitcoin Gold has implemented strong security measures including iOS and Android mobile wallet apps. With full encryption before users can access them. Furthermore, they have added support for hardware wallets Ledger Nano S and Trezor
- Today, there are no manufacturers that sell dedicated ASICs or even FPGA hardware for mining Bitcoin Gold. Because it is still not possible to change the basic PoW algorithm consensus rules. Since the network just launched 6 months ago. This means that it is impossible to mine BTG without an existing BTC miner.
- Bitcoin Gold can be mined by anyone with a GPU graphics card. Because the algorithm doesn’t require much RAM to perform well-optimized Equihash calculations. In order to produce new blocks on the blockchain says Brian Colombana. However, after block 491,407, there has been no more ASIC-friendly proof of work opportunities. Because its difficulty level dynamically adjusted itself. According to the hash rate distribution across all existing miners at any given time. The same cannot be said about Bitcoin Cash or SegWit2x
- When BTG hard forked from BTC, everyone who held their private keys received both BTG/BTC coins created by this process. It’s possible that some individuals held both keys in their BTC wallets. Without backing up the other key, which would allow them to recover BTG coins.
Conclusion:
Bitcoin Gold is a decentralized community governed by blockchain. That uses a special consensus algorithm called Equihash for mining coins explains Brian Colombana. This means that anyone with a GPU graphics card. Even low-end models, could mine BTG in the early days of its existence. When no ASIC miners existed for this particular PoW algo. However, due to the nature of how the BTG blockchain launched and its rapid changes from BTC. It’s not possible to create dedicated ASICs or FPGAs because there are no manufacturers. That sell hardware specifically designed for this coin yet.