The Bitcoin Gold hard fork has caused a lot of confusion and controversy over the past few weeks. Considering that this will be yet another airdrop issued to Bitcoin holders, a lot of people will be looking to claim their free BTG balances first and foremost. However, the Bitcoin Gold team recently took it upon themselves to clear up some of the misconceptions about their project. Below are some of the main points they addressed in a document released Tuesday.
The Correct Fork Date
Over the past few weeks, we have seen conflicting reports regarding the actual Bitcoin Gold fork date. At first, it was scheduled to go ahead when Bitcoin Cash was created, but that plan was scrapped in the end. The official date is still October 25th, which is just two weeks from today. Launching this fork so close to SegWit2x will have some interesting consequences; that much is certain.ICO or no ICO?
Some of the information found on the original Bitcoin Gold website hinted at a possible ICO for this project. A pre-mine and crowdsale were part of the initial fundraising idea back in July of this year. However, the community has grown a lot, which eventually forced the developers to push back the hard fork date and cancel their ICO plans altogether. That is a good decision, mind you, as the project would have faced a lot of backlash otherwise.
According to the team, Bitcoin Gold will be a community-driven effort. Without proper funding, it remains to be seen how the developers of this project will keep up over the coming months and years. A detailed development plan will be presented to the public in the coming days, although it remains a bit unclear what that will contain.PoW Implementation of Equihash
Unlike Bitcoin or even Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold will use a very different proof-of-work system known as Equihash. It is not finalized yet, mind you, as there is still a lot of work to be done in this regard. The lead developer of BTG is currently dedicating all his attention to this PoW implementation, which should be completed within a few days from now. Indeed, everything should be finalized by the time this fork launches.Replay Protection
As is the case with any Bitcoin fork, there is a legitimate concern over replay protection in regards to Bitcoin Gold. That is only normal, considering no one wants to send Bitcoin or BTG to the wrong blockchain. Many people claimed Bitcoin Gold would have no such protection. The goal is to provide a more robust and decentralized infrastructure. Risking the safety of BTG and BTC holders is in no one’s best interest.
As a result, replay protection is currently in development, even though it is not contained on GitHub as of right now. With only one developer working on Bitcoin Gold to this point, things have not been going terribly smoothly. However, a second core developer has been added on, and the code should be on GitHub in the next two weeks. It will be interesting to see whether this promise is upheld.