With more and more news about Bitcoin and crypto in general, it may be worth looking into running a Bitcoin Gold node on your computer. So what is Bitcoin Gold?
Bitcoin Gold is a fork of Bitcoin, as the community wanted to keep Bitcoin Gold decentralized with GPU mining, not specialized ASIC mining which reduces who can mine and who as a result, gets the block reward. Bitcoin is fairly centralized in terms of hash rate to those who can afford ASICS and their high electricity usage as well as to the largest mining pools who get the highest rewards. The Bitcoin Gold community and their ambassadors aim to restrict ASIC usage and allow anyone with a GPU to mine and earn Bitcoin Gold.
Anyone can start mining Bitcoin Gold with your GPU at home or work. I will cover Bitcoin Gold mining in another article.
But it is even easier to setup and run a Bitcoin Gold node. But why should you run a Bitcoin Gold node? Well, it helps run the network by helping to validate both transactions and blocks. The more nodes there are, the more secure and impenetrable the network is to attack and to those who want to try and double spend for example. There is no financial reward for running a Bitcoin Gold node, just the knowledge that you are helping a decentralized crypto to run safely and securely. The more people that feel safe to use crypto, the more the average person can feel crypto is good to use and to get away from ever more worthless fiat currency, controlled by centralized governments, banks and corporations.
Steps to setting up a Bitcoin Gold (BTG) node
1. Be aware of the potential risks of running a BTG node. Make sure you only use a computer that does not have your personal information on it as it may become a target for those targeting the BTG network. Make sure you choose a computer that can be left running most, if not all of the time so it can stay up to date with all the transactions and blocks. Make sure you have a reliable connection to the internet too. You will also need a decent hard drive size as the node requires about 100GB to download the full history of the network.
2. Make sure you only download the BTG wallet/node from a reputable and safe source. It is recommended that you download it from the Bitcoin Gold downloads page. This ensures you are actually running the BTG network and not some malware or scamware.
3. If you are going to use your BTG node to store your own BTG and make transactions, ensure it is backed up and the wallets keys are stored safely and securely.
4. Run the BTG node file you downloaded from the Bitcoin Gold downloads page. Please note it may take a few days to download the entire blockchain history, depending upon the speed of your internet connection.
5. Once the download is complete, leave your computer on and connected to the internet as much as possible, as close as possible to 24/7 to help run and secure the network.
6. Tell your friends and family and get them to run their own Bitcoin Gold nodes as well! The more people who run their own nodes, the more decentralized and secure the Bitcoin Gold network will become.
What are your thoughts on Bitcoin Gold and running your own node? Do you own any Bitcoin Gold and buy any regularly? What do you think of GPU and ASIC mining? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
If you liked this article, we love any amount of Bitcoin. Our address is - 1QEx734k8BiYb2tS6ryoDuesLWowyNvwhg
