Bitcoin gold –blockchain’s next split

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Starting with block 491, 407 on the bitcoin blockchain, another alternative version of the protocol will be launched, resulting in the release of a variant called bitcoin gold (BTG).

The project, which seeks to improve bitcoin’s technology by changing its competition for reward, is the second, beginning in August, with the help of an increasingly widespread process called a "hard fork".

In short, bitcoin gold is aimed at achieving two goals:

• First, bitcoin gold wants to change how mining works, making it so that more powerful mining machines (called ASICs) can no longer be used.

• Secondly, by attracting more people to this system over time, it hopes to release the bitcoin network fr om the large companies that offer these products, and is said to lead to excessive influence on the network.

Instead of scaling bitcoin to support more users, bitcoin gold improves bitcoin, trying to "again bitcoin decentralized again." This, the supporters say, will make the network, designed to offer an egalitarian way of sending payments digitally around the world, more accessible to users.

And although it is created by the same mechanism, bitcoin gold differs from bitcoin cash in several ways, especially in its distribution.

Differences include:

• The cryptocurrency of bitcoin gold is set to be created in advance (before the code is being open to the public).

• About 1 percent of all cryptocurrency tokens mined before the release of the blockchain will be used to pay the bitcoin gold development team.

• Once this distribution is completed, the team claims that it will launch the cryptocurrency, so that users can redeem their coins.

Of course, although it seeks to become the de-facto version of bitcoin, others may consider bitcoin gold an "altcoin" - this term has long been used to refer to any cryptocurrency triggered using the existing bitcoin code, but it has an alternative market or use case.

All bitcoin owners will receive the cryptocurrency at a rate of 1 BTC to 1 BTG, setting the stage for possible market activity.

One of the features is that it will be easier to redeem funds from wallets or exchanges that recognize cryptocurrency. Thus, the easiest way to get bitcoin gold is to move the bitcoin to a wallet or exchange that supports bitcoin gold, or keep bitcoin in your wallet, wh ere you have your personal keys (and not keep them with the exchange).

To date, 20 exchanges and wallets promise to support bitcoin gold after its launch, according to the project's website.