The launch of Bitcoin Gold has been quite challenging, which was only to be expected. It now turns out there are a lot more issues under the hood than previously believed. One source claims there is a fee in the code for mining pools. Even though this has been pointed out previously, there are no plans whatsoever to remove it. The future of BTG looks even more uncertain than it did before.

Bitcoin Gold Pool Mining Code

When the Bitcoin Gold project was announced, a lot of the required information was kept under tight wraps. The source code of this project has been kept hidden for so long, it almost seemed as if the project had died out before the actual launch. Thankfully, the code was eventually unveiled, although it hasn’t necessarily redeemed the project or its developers. In fact, a lot of new information has come to light that raises even more questions regarding the coin’s legitimacy.

Especially when it comes to the code required to set up Bitcoin Gold mining pools, there have been some very interesting developments. It turns out someone discovered irregularities in the code which hint at unusual fees. This was not done by accident either, as it was a conscious decision by the Bitcoin Gold development team. Considering that this altcoin also has a big premine, stealing funds from miners is unacceptable. 

It seems the fee is hard-coded into the z-nomp fork advertised by the developers. Developer StarbuckBG mentioned that he was aware of this development and decided not to merge it into the main code. However, the code will not be removed either, which means the Bitcoin Gold developers are willingly stealing money from BTG miners. That doesn’t mean that mining pool operators can’t remove the code, though, but if they remain unaware of its existence, they will not do so anytime soon. It’s a very troubling development for an altcoin trying to ride Bitcoin’s coattails.

So far, it seems the fee in question is 0.5% of all block rewards. For their part, the BTG developers see no issue with this since it can be removed or changed by pool operators. At current prices, that means around 0.06 BTG per block  – worth around US$10 – is simply given to the developers. It is a very dubious way of getting paid for something they seemingly created in a week or less. Combine this dubious fee with the major premine and it becomes evident that Bitcoin Gold will not be around for much longer.

The wider cryptocurrency community isn’t too happy about this development, which is only to be expected. The code was used to run the only mining pool available during the first few hours following the coin’s launch. At that time, the rest of the community experienced issues syncing the blockchain due to the many forks created in the process. This source code was recommended by one of the main Bitcoin Gold developers, all the while knowing it contained an unnecessary fee structure.

How all this will play out for Bitcoin Gold remains to be determined. It is doubtful most people will still wait for their free coins after knowing all this. Nor will most people continue to mine this currency given the shady tactics employed by its developers. Unfortunately, our initial assumption about Bitcoin Gold has been confirmed. The project never had any honest intentions and it shouldn’t have existed in the first place.