This week, Bitcoin has been headlining all over the news, and social media outlets. The cost of the coin has been driven up past $5,500 USD, anticipating the soon-to-come non-2x Bitcoin Gold fork. What the hell is Bitcoin Gold, and why is it causing Bitcoin prices to sky rocket?
What Is Bitcoin Gold?
Bitcoin Gold is a hard-fork off the Bitcoin blockchain, initially pushed by Jack Liao(CEO of LightningASIC). Overtime, governments and other large parties have managed to grow, hold, and even control small amounts of the general Bitcoin blockchain. They’re doing so, by producing mining specific hardware called ASICs. These are non-accessible to your average consumer(or anyone in certain circumstances) and are made to do one thing… Mine Bitcoin(or other currencies). Bitcoin Gold’s goal is to remove the ability for ASIC chip-sets to mine. This would bring the power “back to the people”, making CPU’s and (primarily)GPU’s the standard cracking blocks within the blockchain.
From SHA256 To Equihash.
This new blockchain, will be switching from SHA256 to Equihash. This is a commonly used algorithm among other alt-coins, like Zcash for example. Equihash alone, will improve ASIC resistance as there aren’t any ASIC’s available for the algorithm(that I know of). Surely there’s some code that stops the use of known ASIC chips as well. I know nothing about that though.
That’s All?
To my surprise, there isn’t anything that’s different between the two blockchains. Bitcoin Gold hasn’t even planned on changing Bitcoin’s block size, or difficulty adjustment algorithm.
Aren’t There Already ASIC Resistant Coins?
Yes. Specifically Vertcoin(which I talk about a lot, I know…). This coin has been around for almost four years, and is on a good roll, with a solid development team. There are many reasons why I support it, however now is not the time to get into it. Feel free to read more here.
Anywho, there’s already blockchains that are fully functioning and support the “non-ASIC” boasting rights. Some of them look much more promising, to be honest. I’m still struggling to understand the intended plan with Bitcoin Gold.
Why It Gives Me A Bad Feeling.
As stated above, this is nothing new. We already have coins that serve this purpose.
Bitcoin’s code is public. Anyone can see it, Nothing cheesy there. Yet for some reason, Bitcoin Gold’s fork is not. Are they hiding something?
Bitcoin Gold is pre-minable. Before releasing the chain to the public the developers and other insiders have been given the ability to privately mine 16,000 blocks. Each block has a massive reward of 200,000 Bitcoin Gold. Wow, that’s a massive red flag. This is 100% ensuring that the developers/insiders achieve massive earnings.
There’s no test net. Usually, before a blockchain goes public, they have a public test blockchain up. This would be used to find the little bugs, and discover the small mistakes that need to be fixed.
This almost feels like one massive ICO scam, that many people are buying in on… Just because it’s a fork of Bitcoin.
Why Bitcoin Is Scraping The Stratosphere.
Since the blockchain will be going through a hard-fork, all wallets and previous blocks will be copied to the new one. If you’re holding any Bitcoin before the fork, it will be duplicated as Bitcoin Gold, once it goes live. Investors of alt coins are pulling their money away, and dumping it into Bitcoin in an attempt to get this “free money”.
Obviously the attention of the new all-time highs, is bringing even more attraction. However to me, it just seems like it’s getting a bit over-hyped.
Conclusion
In my eyes, Bitcoin Gold isn’t looking too hot. It’s not bringing anything new to the table and It’s premine, and private code have led me to believe it’s a massive sham.
As always, form your own opinions and do the research yourself. Don’t trust only one resource, read more than a single writing.
Sources:
Gert-Jaap Glasvergen(best source), BitcoinInsider, Nasdaq, and Jimmy Song.
0 Comments