Cryptocurrency Bitcoin Gold: mining, wallets, pools, exchanges

The Bitcoin Gold coin is one of the forks of the world's most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin. To mine it, the Equihash algorithm is used , optimized for mining on video cards . The project was created under the leadership of the CEO of LightningASIC (Hong Kong), who claims that the goal of “Bitcoin Gold” will be the decentralization of the main currency, BTC. It was assumed that over time, interest in the new fork would increase its rate and popularity. Although, despite the name, BTG is not a gold-backed cryptocurrency - in fact, one does not exist yet, and the first true "gold" coin should be the British RNG.

Official launch and wallets

When answering the question about Bitcoin Gold, what it is and what features it has, it’s worth starting from the moment the cryptocurrency was created. The date of the BTC hard fork is considered to be October 24, 2017. And just a week later, BTC owners were able to receive 1 BTG for each Bitcoin by performing a few simple steps.

Immediately after the start of trading of the new coin, a massive DDoS attack was carried out on the website of its developers. And, although the creators of the project sorted out the problem, it left an unfavorable impression on most participants. Perhaps this was the reason for the not very high popularity of BTG on the market.

Method of income distribution in the pool

• PPS is the reward for each standard option. Valued as the current block reward divided by the difficulty. The method guarantees a certain stability, but may not generate income at all;
• PROP – remuneration is proportional to the contribution of each participant;
• PPLNS - similar to Prop, but with payments in accordance with the latest indicators of added shares.

For users with low PC power, the optimal method would be to distribute shares equally. It is also necessary to decide in advance on the method of receiving rewards. This could be a bank card or a BTG wallet. To avoid any unpleasant surprises, find out in advance the amount of commission charged by the pool.

Pros and cons of Bitcoin Gold

The list of advantages of the BTG cryptocurrency includes:

• the Bitcoin Gold blockchain uses the new Equihash algorithm, which allows mining without purchasing expensive equipment (ASIC) - you can mine coins using regular video cards on home PCs ;
• increased level of security and productivity;
• relatively easy access to mining pools for ordinary users.

The disadvantages of the new coins include the still unknown prospects of Bitcoin Gold - despite the expectations of the project’s creators, the rate continues to decline and by April 2022 reached 11% of the initial value ($54 versus $480 at the very beginning). In addition, many investors were distrustful of the pre-mining of the project’s creators, who decided to make money on BTG immediately after the launch. Another drawback is that many services confuse the new coin with the original BTC, limiting some operations for it.

Interesting facts about cryptocurrency

Experienced and novice miners, as well as those who are just thinking about mining, should learn a few facts about Bitcoin Gold:

• the project was invented in July 2022, and the second founder, besides the director of the Hong Kong company, was an anonymous developer with the pseudonym “h4x3”;
• the main idea of ​​​​creating the BTG cryptocurrency is to improve the original protocol and move from conventional mining methods to new ones that allow the use of high-speed modern video cards;
• the same algorithm is used to mine the Zcash currency.

Before you start mining cryptocurrency, you should also know about the possibility of changing the size of the mined block . By default, this value is 1 MB .

The main differences between BTG and BTC:

Bitcoin gold can only be mined using GPU video cards, unlike Bitcoin, which can be mined on an ASIC; The algorithm has been changed from Proof-of-Work SHA256 to Equihash, optimized for GPU; and it is promised that Bitcoin Gold will be decentralized and freed from the influence of large companies. By switching to video cards, Bitcoin Gold will become available to a larger number of users, and in general it will become easier to mine due to the reduced difficulty of mining. As before, you can mine alone or join a pool.

Wallets for BTG

Like all other electronic means of payment, the Gold cryptocurrency is stored in a wallet. There are still few suitable repositories that support BTG. The easiest option is to download a crypto wallet from the official developer resource. To do this you need to do the following:

1. Go to the Bitcoin Gold website (bitcoingold.org).
2. Go to the downloads section and download the Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet - for Windows OS its size is about 150 GB.
3. Register in a Bitcoin Gold wallet, get an address and private key.

It is recommended to store the key in a safe place, inaccessible to intruders. In addition to the official wallet, you can use other multi-platform (working on Windows, iOS and Linux) storages. For example, the offline wallet Exodus and the online versions of Btgwallet.online and Btgonline.io. Mobile wallets Coinomi, Bitpie, Guarda or Freewallet, and hardware wallets such as Trezor Wallet, Ledger Nano S or Kasse are also suitable for storing BTG.

Selecting and setting up a miner

The first step is to use the profitability calculator to calculate whether Mining Bitcoin Gold makes sense for you. If yes, then you need:

• Set up a wallet and get an address for payments;
• Select a suitable pool (we are considering btgpool.pro);
• Download miner.

If you have an Nvidia video card, then EWBF's Cuda Miner is suitable, and for AMD cards - Claymore.

Download the one that suits you. Let's look at the program for Nvidia, namely its configuration:

• Unpack the archive;
• We edit the start.bat file: enter the pool address “eu.btgpool.pro” after “server”, pool port 3857 after “port”, wallet address after “user”, and after the dot come up with the name of the rig (worker). Save the changes;
• You should get something like this line, only with your wallet address:

miner —server eu.btgpool.pro —port 3857 —user GLHraJJfsNknm5wGCqSJ7V6cGDnA6gAV8y.worker —pass x —pec

The Nvidia Bitcoin Gold miner is now configured and ready to go. If you have AMD Radeon:

• Unpack the archive;
• We edit the config.txt file: enter the pool address after “zpool” in this form “stratum+tcp://eu.btgpool.pro:3857”, wallet and through a dot the invented name of the worker - after “zwal”, at the end we must add “ all pools 1". Save the changes;
• You need to add some parameters to the start.bat file. As a result, the contents of the files will be like this (only with your wallet number):

config.txt:

-zpool stratum+tcp://eu.btgpool.pro:3857 -zwal GLHraJJfsNknm5wGCqSJ7V6cGDnA6gAV8y.worker -zpsw x -allpools 1

start.bat:

set GPU_FORCE_64BIT_PTR=1 set GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE=100 set GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1 set GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100 set GPU_SINGLE_ALLOC_PERCENT=100 ZecMiner64.exe

Bitcoin Gold miner for AMD is ready to go! Now you need to run the start.bat file. It is also recommended to create a shortcut for it and place it in Startup. For Windows 10, this is C:\Users\Miner\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (to find this folder, turn on show hidden items).

After 30-60 minutes, we recommend that you find out the statistics of your video card. Go to the service btgpool.pro/workers and enter the BTG address. And here we see detailed information: about the mature balance, payments, working farms, average speed, etc.

Where and how to get Bitcoin Gold

There are three main ways to get Bitcoin Gold:

• immediately withdraw them to a cryptocurrency wallet - an opportunity available only to those who owned Bitcoins before October 24, 2022;
• earn money through mining , independently or in pools;
• buy on a cryptocurrency exchange that supports BTG.

You can also purchase coins at exchange offices. However, while Bitcoin Gold has not become widespread, there are not too many exchangers working with this cryptocurrency.

Initial accrual to all BTC owners

Before you receive Bitcoin Gold on the blockchain, you should take the private key from your BTC wallet. This can be done using special resources. One of the options for how to get Bitcoin Gold is in Blockchain Info:

By going to the Blockchain Info website, you should get a backup phrase to restore your crypto wallet. To do this, go to the settings section and the “Security” item.

The phrase consists of 12 words that will appear on the screen in groups of 4. By writing down the information received and passing verification (entering 4 of the 12 words), you can use them to restore access to almost any BTC wallet.

Despite the possibility of creating a “seed phrase”, you will not be able to get Bitcoin Gold on Blockchain Info. Therefore, the owner of Bitcoins will have to use other storage facilities. Moreover, to increase security, it is recommended to create a separate wallet for BTG. And from this account where bitcoins were stored, transfer them to another.

To receive Gold cryptocurrency for free, perform the following steps:

1. Create a wallet in one of the services where free BTG is issued starting November 1, 2022 (for example, in the Coinomi mobile wallet);
2. Using the “seed phrase” they restore access to their Bitcoins ;
3. Adding a new currency BTG.

The integration process differs depending on the selected storage, but is unlikely to take more than a few minutes if the user has a recovery phrase. Having received new coins, you can leave them on this wallet or transfer them to any other. It is recommended to store cryptocurrency separately from regular BTC. Some cryptocurrency market experts advise selling Bitcoin Gold immediately.

BTG mining

To mine BTG, the following minimum requirements are required:

• PC with Windows 7;
• 4 GB RAM;
• Video card;
• Drivers (preferably the latest version)

Accordingly, the better these components, the more efficient mining will be. However, it will be better if you use the following video cards for BTG: BTG Nvidia GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080 6 GB. For mining you need:

• Create a wallet on the website bitcoingold.org;
• Select an exchange;
• Select a suitable pool and register;
• Download the miner and unpack the archive;
• Save and close the file;
• Start mining by running the bat file.

1. Create a wallet on the BTG website, this is done quite simply. If you plan to transfer the BTC accumulated before October 24 to BTG, then the first thing you need to do is protect your current bitcoins. To do this, you need to download a new wallet and transfer currency to it. When you create a new wallet, you receive a seed phrase, this is necessary in order to prove that you owned bitcoins before the fork. Install a new wallet and enter your seed phrase. The seed must be used to receive BTG from any wallet that had bitcoins in it before October 24th. If possible, make a backup copy in a safe place to save the phrase. Once a phrase has been created, it is common to be asked to confirm that the words are in the correct order. At the end, click confirm. When creating a new BTG wallet on the website, write down the passphrase to restore the wallet. 2. Selecting an exchange. On the website bitcoingold.org you can see the exchanges that BTG supports, these are such large exchanges as Bitrex, HitBTC, Youbit and others. On the selected exchange we are looking for BTG currency. 3. Select a pool, for example suprnova.cc and copy the wallet address to the pool. In a pool, you can set the minimum amount of coins that the pool awards. On the my workers tab, write the name and password of your miner. Separately about choosing a pool is written below. Next, download a miner that supports Equihash. Then the miner will start and select the optimal parameters for mining based on the characteristics of the built-in video card. Next, we set up a bat file, to do this we copy the server with the port and paste notepad into the file, insert the user name there and write the employee through a dot:

After that, save the file and start mining. This is what a running miner looks like:

Simultaneously with the process of mining cryptocurrency by the miner, you will see information lines on which the temperature, card rotation speed and video card power indicators on any coin will be visible.

If you wish, you can create a mining farm if you want to make a profit from renting out your power. Setting up this farm is done, for example, on the website BTG.2Miners.com, where you can also download a version of the miner suitable for your video cards. Farm statistics are displayed on the miner’s personal page, the entrance is located on the pool itself in the upper right corner, to do this you need to enter the address of your wallet where the BTG currency is located:

Mining Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold is mined using the Equihash algorithm , which makes it possible to use video card graphics processors, rather than special ASIC devices, for mining. The total number of coins will be 21 million , just like for BTC, the mining time for one block will also be 10 minutes . For mining, you can use programs such as ClaymoreZcash v12.5+ and OptiminerZcash v1.7.0+ for AMD video adapters or EWBF v0.3.4+ for NVIDIA cards.

The requirements for mining a new cryptocurrency are as follows:

• registered Bitcoin Gold wallet;
• a computer with a modern operating system (Windows 7 and higher) and at least 4 GB of RAM;
• almost any video card - you can even use adapters with GDDR 1 GB, however, the more modern the graphics adapter and the more memory, the higher the mining efficiency;
• latest drivers;
• cryptocurrency mining program based on Equihash.

The volume of the hard drive is almost irrelevant for mining the Bitcoin Gold cryptocurrency; the processor is also practically not used, although it is desirable that it matches the RAM and video card. It is also recommended to install not one, but several cards. To do this, you should choose a motherboard that supports a large number of discrete graphics adapters.

List of the largest and most popular pools that support Bitcoin Gold

1. Minergate and MinerTopia. The pools are designed for mining various digital currencies, including the top ETH and Dash. The Minergate server is very convenient to work with: just install the software on your computer and mining starts automatically. The income received can be withdrawn to a wallet or card after paying a commission of 1.5%.
2. Pool.gold and Btg.mine and Btgpool.pro. Cloud services designed exclusively for Bitcoin gold mining.
3. btg.suprnova.cc. The largest specialized pool for BTG mining. It offers quite favorable working conditions, as well as a convenient service in which you can use the same password/login for all digital currencies. This service currently owns 58 Mh of capacity out of the total 66 Mh of network capacity.

Since information on pools is constantly updated, before choosing, you should definitely read the latest news, thematic forums, discussions of forecasts and insights.

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Pools for mining Bitcoin Gold

On the official website you can find out that one of the ways to get Bitcoin Gold is through the following pools:

• ool.gold;
• gpool.guru;
• Coinblockers;
• Mining4;
• Minergate
• IVTPool and a number of other resources.

All pools operate based on the Equihash algorithm. The requirements for participation are the same as for solo mining. The speed of receiving Bitcoin Gold in this case will be higher, although the amount of earnings will be less. The downside of using pools is the possibility of fraud, so this method of earning money should be treated with the utmost responsibility.

Is it profitable at all?

People are not very active, but are still drawn into BTG mining. So there is some benefit to this. Almost immediately after the introduction of this new coin, it was also added to many mining profitability calculators.

If we talk about a farm with 8 GTX1080 cards, then according to the calculations of one of the calculators, at the current complexity, the rate should “give” more than $10,000 per year. This is provided that the price per kilowatt is 3 rubles. Subtract about 6-6.5 thousand for the purchase of equipment and you get a net profit of about 4 dollars per year. It seems to be good.

However, all these profitability calculators should not be considered the last resort. Because the course and difficulty will change many times.

In any case, miners should be glad that another GPU-friendly cryptocurrency has appeared. True, her prospects are rather vague. Therefore, when choosing a cryptocurrency based on the Equihash algorithm, it is better to choose Zcash. They at least have their own concept and anonymity of transactions, which in the future may push the rate up.

By the way, did you know that we have our own Telegram channel, where we not only talk about the situation on the cryptocurrency market and the most important events, but also review new, interesting and promising coins. So come visit and feel at home.

List of exchanges that support BTG trading

When considering exchanges that support Bitcoin Gold and choosing the best options, it is worth noting the following resources:

• Bithumb;
• Exrates;
• Bitfinex;
• Upbit;
• Binance.

It is indicated on which exchanges Bitcoin Gold can be sold and bought, and on the official website of the project. The list includes more than 20 items. It is expected that there will be more exchanges supporting the Bitcoin Gold cryptocurrency by the end of the year. Much depends on the popularity of the coin and changes in its exchange rate.

Prospects for cryptocurrency

It is not yet known how much the Bitcoin Gold cryptocurrency will be worth by the end of 2022. Last year’s forecasts by the project’s authors, made before the official launch of BTG, did not come true - however, just like the assumptions about the rates of most other electronic “coins”. No noticeable drops in rates are expected in the spring.

Problems unique to the Gold cryptocurrency are mainly related to its unpopularity. However, they should be resolved soon. Cryptocurrency support is provided by miners who prefer to use video cards rather than ASICs. It is possible that this will allow the exchange rate to increase 2-3 times compared to the current one.