Since I’m now in a city where you can buy apartments with Bitcoin and nearly everything is laced with gold, I thought it’s an appropriate place to let you know about the next Bitcoin hard fork that is set to take place in the coming weeks.

Here is a little overview of the motivations for this hard fork and how you can prepare for it.

This newest hard fork from the Bitcoin blockchain revolves around how it is mined.

Back in the day you used to be able to mine Bitcoin profitably just by using your regular computer. The thing about the Proof of Work required to mine Bitcoin is that it is relatively simple. Simple enough that people have created things called ASICs, These are Application Specific Integrated Units. These ASICs can outperform in mining Bitcoin compared to using CPUs and GPUs because although ASICs don’t exactly have a large range of capabilities like CPUs, these pricey ASICs can mine bitcoin very efficiently and profitably.

All this to say that ASICs and those who can afford to use them have somewhat centralized the mining of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Gold will use a type of Proof of Work called Equihash, it is more complex, or ASIC resistant, meaning that you will need CPUs and GPUs to mine them.

This hard fork is scheduled to split from the Bitcoin blockchain on October 25th.

But they won’t begin creating blocks on this new chain until early November, so it will take a week or so until the coins are launched.

If you’re holding your coins on an exchange, perhaps try checking out their Twitter account to see if they will support this new chain. If they won’t, then I encourage you to continue your research until you can find a wallet that will support this new chain.

That way you can move your Bitcoins to that wallet to receive an equal amount of Bitcoin Gold.

Also, just for future reference, BTG will be the ticker symbol

Additional Reading/Sources:

Bitcoin Mining Defined
More on ASICs
More on Equihash
Bitcoin Gold Website
BitcoinTechTalk Article on BTG Hard Fork