Mining Bitcoin Gold? What is it?
Bitcoin Gold or BTG is a fork of the popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Bitcoin Gold was ‘forked’ from Bitcoin on October 24th, 2017 with the stated purpose of its founders to “make Bitcoin decentralized again”. As of November 12th, 2017 at 19:00 UTC, Bitcoin Gold can be mined using off the shelf computer graphics cards (GPU’s). These GPU mining rigs can be built and deployed by anyone (full build guide link). Bitcoin Gold doesn’t require custom Bitcoin mining computer chips known as ASIC’s. In theory, this will make the Bitcoin Gold network more de-centralized and secure from potential attacks by rogue miners. Only time will tell if this pays off for the creators of Bitcoin Gold. In the meantime, anyone who owns one or more GPU mining rigs can mine Bitcoin Gold for fun and profit.
Bitcoin Gold Mining vs Legacy Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin mining uses the SHA256 algorithm for which ASIC’s have been built to mine as efficiently as possible, whereas, Bitcoin Gold uses the Equihash algorithm used by another popular privacy-focused cryptocurrency, Zcash. This algorithm is ASIC-resistant and is designed to make the development of ASIC’s for mining, virtually impossible.
Best GPU to Mine Bitcoin Gold
Because Bitcoin Gold uses the Equihash algorithm, Nvidia GPU’s have an edge over their AMD counterparts. I use and recommend the Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU. My favorite model of this GPU is the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Windforce OC (model # GV-N1070WF2OC-8GD). You can find more NVIDIA GPU specifications as well as other GPU recommendations here.
With all this background information covered, I’ve listed below the steps you’ll need to follow in order to mine Bitcoin Gold on your mining rig(s).
How to Mine Bitcoin Gold (BTG) with a GPU
- BITCOIN GOLD MINING SOFTWARE – Download and install the EWBF CUDA Equihash Miner software (for Nvidia GPU’s) or Claymore’s Equihash Miner software (for AMD GPU’s)
- BITCOIN GOLD MINING POOL – Pick from the following list of Bitcoin Gold mining pools to point your rig at:
– Miner Gate
– BTG Mine
– Pool Gold
– Server Power
– Nibiru
– Mining Speed
– MinerTopia - Exchanges that Support Bitcoin Gold:
– Binance
– Bitfinex
– CEX.io
– YoBit
– HitBTC
Keep in mind, this guide to mining Bitcoin Gold is new and will be updated as more information about the Bitcoin Gold fork becomes available.
Happy Mining!
Sidenote: If mining isn’t your thing, and you are just interested in purchasing some cryptocurrency as part of your investment portfolio, I personally use and recommend FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident)
