Bitcoin Gold Introduces Successful ASIC-Resistant Hard Fork

Equihash-BTG, is in some ways similar to the original algorithm that is still used by Zcash, but is designed to be extremely memory hard. Bitcoin Gold’s developers said the motivation for the fork is to reduce the risk of 51 percent attacks in the future and protect the coin from the threat of ASIC miners flooding its network. The hard fork, changing the current proof-of work (PoW) algorithm from Equihash to Equihash-BTG, was implemented on block 536,200. This will not result in a creation of another token, as is the case in most other hard forks. Rather, it will replace the old chain to allow for new updates to take effect. A team member, Edward Iskra wrote,

The recent “51%” attacks, which may or may not have involved ASIC miners, were channeled through hashpower rental markets – but with this change in algorithm, there’s no longer a rental market for the algorithm we’re using, and it’s harder to set one up than before. This means more safety.

Additionally, this hard fork also introduces a new difficulty adjustment system, ensuring that the BTG blockchain is responsive to large hash power shifts. LWMA, the improved difficulty adjustment algorithms, allows for the better stabilization of block times, assuring that a new block gets pushed out approximately every 10 minutes after a hashrate swing. Iskra chalked up this change to the auto-switching method which miners enlist to receive the most mining profits. According to coinmarketcap.com, Bitcoin gold is currently the 30th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $516 million.

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