On Wednesday Bitcoin Gold (BTG) said it has successfully upgraded its network in a hard fork changing its current proof-of work (PoW) algorithm from Equihash to Equihash-BTG in an attempt to keep away ASIC miners and prevent double-spend, or 51%, attacks. BTG also upgraded Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) to make its blockchain more responsive to shifts in hash power. The BTG team said that all miners updated their systems as required by a hard fork.
The upgrade was supported by several exchanges including OKEx, Binance, HitBTC and Bitfinex.
In May, Bitcoin Gold speeded up the planned full update after its network suffered multiple 51% attacks, which lead to the theft of more than $18 million from various trading platforms. The Equihash-BTG algorithm uses a new pool that is aimed to be safer.
“The recent “51%” attacks, which may or may not have involved ASIC miners, were channelled through hash power 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,” – Bitcoin Gold team explained.
