Life After the Bitcoin Gold Hard Fork & What You Need to Know

The idea behind the creation of Bitcoin Gold is to give people an opportunity to mine Bitcoin in the original way that was intended. Currently the only way to mine Bitcoin is to purchase a very expensive customized rig that was made specifically for mining Bitcoin. These rigs generally run in the range of $3000-$4000 each and are quickly outdated as technology advances. Not only does technology move at a breakneck pace, but the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increases as well, making hardware and power consumption the two biggest hurdles to overcome besides the cost of the rig.

Bitcoin Gold is going to solve this problem and allow people with regular graphical processing units (GPU’s) to mine Bitcoin Gold. The more expensive rigs that are made specifically for mining Bitcoin will not be able to mind Bitcoin Gold due to the fact that the big coin gold network will not be using the same algorithm as Bitcoin. In fact, they will be using a well-tested algorithm called Equihash, which is already used by Z-cash.

Block 491,407 has Come and Gone

As expected, block 491,407 was mined, and with it, a brand-new cryptocurrency was born. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is officially a coin. Of course, if it were as cut and dry as that simple statement, it would most likely be a dream. There is an air of controversy, adversary and some confusion about Bitcoin Gold. Coming through the hard fork, there are two major camps: those who support bitcoin Gold and those who say it is nothing more than an elaborate scam that is using Bitcoin as its main advertising method.

A Little Bitcoin Gold Pre-Fork Friction

Two days prior to the hard fork, Coinbase announced that they would not be supporting Bitcoin Gold citing, the lack of available code for them to review. The statement on Coinbase made it appear that they were claiming that the developers of Bitcoin Gold were not making the source code available to the public. Bitcoin Gold released a statement in response to the Coinbase announcement, via their own website, stating that this was totally inaccurate and incorrect information and the Coinbase was simply lying. They asked the Coinbase please retract their statement and make the needed corrections.

However, it was the fact that the code would not be released for the pre-mining operations that are taking place over the next week. The pre-mining operations will allow the Bitcoin Gold development team to mine 100,000 coins prior to the network being available to the public.

Even Exchanges Are at Odds on Bitcoin Gold

Coinbase is not the only exchange to take this stance. Poloniex also said that they will not be supporting the Bitcoin Gold token until after the release of the network is code for public use. Both exchanges express the importance to understand that this does not mean that they will be keeping or in any way hindering their customers from receiving the Bitcoin Gold tokens that are rightfully theirs.

On the flipside, exchanges such as Yobit & Bittrex are already starting to list the coin. All in all, there are 20 exchanges that have already shown support and said that they will list the new cryptocurrency on their exchange sites for public trade. In fact, none of the exchanges have out right said that they would not be supporting Bitcoin Gold. Coinbase and other hesitant exchanges have merely said that they want to wait and see what happens over the next week before making a decision.

Free Money, but is Bitcoin Gold Really Worth It?

While everybody who had a balance in their Bitcoin wallets, no matter where those wallets were kept, are entitled to the exact same amount in Bitcoin Gold as their Bitcoin balances reflected at the time of the fork, it is ultimately up to the holder of the private keys for the individual wallets who gets to decide whether or not the wallet will support Bitcoin Gold. This does not mean that your financial situation will improve, it simply means you have the same amount of Bitcoin Gold as Bitcoin. Bitcoin Gold may not be as valuable as Bitcoin, in fact can almost guarantee that it won’t. While nobody is sure exactly how much Bitcoin Gold trade for it first, the best way to profit from this seems to be to sell the Bitcoin Gold as soon as you can.

As we saw with Bitcoin cash in August the price did surge to at one point over $1000, and has since fallen to under $350. Users of Coinbase felt this impact the most as Coinbase has still not yet allowed their users to access the Bitcoin cash that is rightfully theirs. They have the statement saying they plan to support the Bitcoin cash token in January of next year. If the trend continues, Bitcoin caches value may very well be less than $150. This is why it is sometimes better not hold your Bitcoin in an exchange wallet or any other wallet not controlled 100% by you.

Bitcoin Gold Drama Continues After the Fork

Shortly after the Bitcoin Gold Genesis block, the Bitcoin Gold website experienced a massive DDOS attack. It was reported via their Twitter channel that they were receiving server requests at a rate of 10 million per minute. Bitcoin Gold sent a Tweet saying they were working with their Internet service provider to block the offending IP addresses and restore service as soon as possible.

As of the time of this writing, Bitcoin Gold’s website was back up and no longer returning a 403 error.

Are Forks Good or Bad for The Future of Bitcoin

The question on whether forks are good for the future of Bitcoin is not easily answered. The entire crypto community appears divided right down the middle on the topic. While it is generally agreed that there is no such thing as a bad for you have to wonder whether or not reasons for the split are valid. In any open source project there will be many splits as the community grows. This is a given. It is usually the amount of support that the group supporting the split receives. Another concern is that it shows the lack of strength and unity within the community. Both of the two previous forks were a result of relatively minor squabbles within the crypto community. Instead of coming to some sort of agreement on the issues it was more like a childish argument that resulted in one kid taking his ball and going home.

Following the split of the black chain, Bitcoin’s price has fallen 4.42%. While this in no way proves a lack of confidence in Bitcoin or its community of supporters, it does raise the question as to why Bitcoin has slumped today. You would think that the success of the fork would at the very least show the possibilities of the technology that Bitcoin is built upon. However, that does not seem to be the case at this point.

What To Do Now That The Bitcoin Gold Fork is Over

Get on with life. If you are unsure about the status of Bitcoin Gold in your wallet and you hold the private keys, you may want to contact the wallet developer or read the resources available on the site to find out how you claim Bitcoin Gold or the tools for the Bitcoin Gold integration. It is expected that it will only be approximately one week before Bitcoin Gold will be available to spend. If your wallet is an exchange, trading platform, third-party wallet or if your wallet in any other way does not allow you access to your private keys, you must contact that wallet provider or go to their websites to get information on if and when you will have access to your Bitcoin Gold.

Bitcoin itself may have taken a slip today, but just about every other altcoin is doing quite well. On Poloniex, there is not a single coin listed that is down from its price at this time yesterday, with V-cash showing a 121.7% gain to lead the way. So, while a slip in Bitcoin may seem to be a negative result of the fork gain in at least 90 other currencies show the exact opposite.

We’re Not Done Yet

Just because the Bitcoin Gold fork is over does not mean that we have time to relax. In fact, if schedules hold true, we have less than a month before we will experience yet a third hard fork to the Bitcoin block chain. Segwit2 is a preplanned hard fork that will implement further code updates to the original fork that occurred in August. There will be no difficulties as far as anyone can see at this point, although there will be yet a third coin created. It is best to check back with Coinstaker or on the forums for further information as the date of the split approaches.

You have to remember that digital currencies are brand-new and emerging technology and all of these things that we are experiencing are brand-new, never tested, revolutionary, unprecedented and about a dozen other words that mean groundbreaking. It is an exciting time we live in, within the digital realm, as we watch the world becoming shaped into a global community driven by the need of the entire human race. So, while there may be drama, squabbles, spiffs and even outright fights, remember that you are watching history being made and you’re actually a part of it.