Bitcoin Cash is the fourth most valuable coin after Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple as of April 16, You can buy Bitcoin Cash on Coinbase just as easily as you can buy Bitcoin.
This was the first big hard fork and took place on August 1, , inspiring other hard forks of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Gold tackles another problem some see with Bitcoin: the increasing centralization of Bitcoin mining that requires specialized hardware and makes it impossible for the average person to mine. Specialized hardware known as application-specific integrated circuits ASICs is required to mine profitably.
And those mining companies can wield power over the network thanks to their massive size. The Bitcoin Gold hard fork tackles this problem by swapping out the SHA mining algorithm in Bitcoin for another algorithm called Equihash. Bitcoin Gold is designed so that average people—or at least average people with powerful graphics processors GPUs —can mine Bitcoin on their PCs once again, making the network more decentralized.
As of April 16, , Bitcoin Gold was the 26th most valuable coin and the third most valuable Bitcoin hard fork after Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Diamond, according to Coinranking. It also promises some privacy by encrypting the values of each transaction. This is the 16th most valuable coin and second most valuable Bitcoin hard fork and as of April 16, , beating Bitcoin Gold. So, if you had 10 Bitcoin and 10 Zclassic, you ended up with 20 Bitcoin Private as well. Where Bitcoin allows people to view transactions on the public blockchain, Bitcoin Private is focused on privacy. This is the 37th most valuable coin and fourth most valuable Bitcoin hard fork as of April 16, Lots of people want to get in on the hype.
There are many, many other hard forks out there with names like Bitcoin Rhodium, Super Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Silver, too. People will keep creating Bitcoin hard forks as long as Bitcoin is popular, attempting to add their own ideas to Bitcoin or just strike it rich by hoping their coin takes off. Just as anyone can create their own altcoin, anyone can create their own Bitcoin fork.
Understanding Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold
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Windows Mac iPhone Android. In the world of virtual currencies, threats from hackers and other malicious entities are constantly a concern. For that reason, bitcoin gold took additional safety and protective measures from the time of its launch, in an effort to help secure its customers' accounts and coins. These include replay protection and unique wallet addresses. See also: Can Bitcoin Be Hacked? The fact that bitcoin gold is "a free open-source software project that is built by volunteer developers and supported by a rapidly growing community of bitcoin enthusiasts that stretches around the globe" is also a draw for potential customers.
For all cryptocurrencies, one of the major factors which helps to determine both short-term and long-term success is its availability on cryptocurrency exchanges. Users must be able to access the cryptocurrency on exchanges in order to make transactions. There are additional exchanges slated to offer bitcoin gold in the near future as well.
According to the website, the cryptocurrency has been listed on 46 markets and 26 exchanges as of January, The developers of bitcoin gold used what is called "post-mine" after the launch. This was the retroactive mining of , coins after the fork already took place. The way that this happened was through the rapid mining of about 8, blocks, the results of which were set aside as an "endowment" of sorts, to be used to grow and maintain the broader bitcoin gold network.
At the time of the launch, all bitcoin owners received bitcoin gold coins at the rate of one bitcoin gold token per one bitcoin token. Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, was notably skeptical of bitcoin gold at launch time. Coinbase representatives stated that the exchange "cannot support bitcoin gold because its developers have not made the code available to the public for review.
This is a major security risk. As of March 4, , bitcoin gold has reachable nodes.
What is Bitcoin Gold, Exactly?
The highest concentration of nodes is in Germany 46 nodes , with the next-highest levels being the United States 38 , France 37 , and Russia In February , bitcoin gold launched the bitcoin gold insight explorer, calling it a "fully functional bitcoin gold insight instance and web application service presenting the Insight UI and Insight API. Like most cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gold has had its share of detractors and controversies. Just days after the launch, miners accused one of the developers of bitcoin gold of having added in a 0.
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According to the bitcoin gold website, the cryptocurrency maintains ambitious plans for expansion into the future. In the first quarter of , for instance, the website says its goals including "open source libraries integration" with BitcoinJS, BitcoinJ, and CoPay, as well as "academic and university collaboration" and "design and rebranding," including a refreshed website. In the second quarter of , the digital currency aims to integrate a lightning network and decentralized mining through P2Pool. There is also a plan to integrate a debit card program and other payment systems integrations.
By the end of , the cryptocurrency aims to develop "sidechains and cross-chain atomic swaps" as well as a number of meet-ups and developer conferences, university outreach, and more. Looking ahead to , the cryptocurrency has its sights on private transactions and scholarship or research support.
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Over the longer term, bitcoin gold will conduct research on smart contracts and blockchain democracy, as well as develop a decentralized fiat-crypto brokerage network. Bitcoin gold developers are conscious of the connections between this cryptocurrency, its parent bitcoin, and the broader digital currency world.
As such, they indicate that "the core improvements we're working on are all of great interest in the broader bitcoin and crypto worlds, not merely for bitcoin gold. Investing in cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings "ICOs" is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or ICOs.
Since each individual's situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date this article was written, the author owns bitcoin and ripple.
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