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Bitcoin Gold

Although it has “Bitcoin” as part of its name, Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Gold (BTG) are different cryptocurrencies with some similar properties. Bitcoin Gold is a fork of Bitcoin, specifically a hard fork, which means that they used all of Bitcoin’s transaction history and network before disagreeing how to proceed and branching off into a separate, unique form of Bitcoin. The main difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Gold, and the value proposition supposedly driving Bitcoin Gold, is a divergence and change in transaction verification and mining abilities.

What is Bitcoin Gold?

Instead of continuing to mine with ASICs, or an application-specific integrated circuit computer chip, which is how Bitcoin is mined, Bitcoin Gold uses GPUs or graphic processing units, to validate transactions. This change means that the mining algorithm of the network needs to be changed, and now the mining algorithm is more similar to Ethereum than it is to Bitcoin. The theory behind this is that ASIC units are only controlled by a small number of manufacturers and producers, so moving towards a mining algorithm that will be handled by GPUs will make the network less centralized and more distributed. Besides this, Bitcoin Gold has many similar properties to the original Bitcoin, such as a total of 21 million coins that will ever be created.

How to Buy Bitcoin Gold

If this is your first time purchasing cryptocurrency or Bitcoin Gold, you’ll need to log in or register with a credible cryptocurrency exchange that offers fiat to cryptocurrency transactions. Since Bitcoin Gold is a smaller market cap and more obscure cryptocurrency, most exchanges will not allow to trade your fiat directly for Bitcoin Gold, meaning you will have to purchase an intermediary cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, USDT, or another in order to conduct a trade for Bitcoin Gold.

However, there are some exchanges that will allow to you trade directly for the US dollar. Once you have your fiat currency or intermediary cryptocurrency, you can proceed to head to the relevant Bitcoin Gold trading pair and conduct your trade. Once it is finalized, you will see the updated quantity you purchased in your Bitcoin Gold wallet. 

Buying Bitcoin Gold With A Credit Or Debit Card

Since Bitcoin Gold is substantially smaller than many of the mainstream cryptocurrencies and isn’t even the top 50 by overall market capitalization, many exchanges do not offer users the chance to purchase Bitcoin Gold directly with a card; this is because there are much more stringent regulations that need to be adhered to when trading with fiat currency.

If you want to buy Bitcoin Gold with your debit or credit card, you can register to smaller and riskier exchanges, or use your credit card to purchase an alternative cryptocurrency that you can use to trade for Bitcoin Gold. For example, many cryptocurrency exchanges allow users to buy Bitcoin with a credit or debit card, so you can purchase your preferred amount and then use the Bitcoin you bought to trade for Bitcoin Gold. Although you may lose a small amount of your deposited value to transaction fees, using reputable exchanges gives you an extra layer of protection and security that you do not receive from lesser known exchanges. 

Buying Bitcoin Gold With Paypal

Paypal is a widely used online transaction service that many shoppers and online users trust to handle their transactions. Although you can currently purchase Bitcoin using Paypal, at this time it is not possible to directly purchase Bitcoin Gold using Paypal. That being said, it is still possible for users to use PayPal to purchase a gateway cryptocurrency that they can then go on and use to trade for Bitcoin Gold; if you must use Paypal to complete these transactions, this is probably the method you’d want to follow. 

Buying Bitcoin Gold Using a Bank Transfer

Although bank transfers can sometimes be an expensive and time consuming way to conduct a transaction, it is still the preferred method of payment for many people around the world. Once again, since Bitcoin Gold is a relatively small cryptocurrency that lacks the structure and regulation necessary to create these fiat to cryptocurrency pathways, there is only one direct way to purchase Bitcoin Gold using a bank transfer. However, you can use the same method mentioned above and use your bank transfer in order to buy a more readily available cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, and then use that Bitcoin to conduct your Bitcoin Gold trades. You can use bank transfers on CEX.io in order to buy BTG directly.

Buying Bitcoin Gold Anonymously 

For many people, anonymity is one of the main reasons they want to use cryptocurrencies, but unfortunately it is relatively hard to purchase Bitcoin Gold anonymously in a relatively safe way. Since most exchanges require anti-money laundering and know your customer (KYC) practices in order to adhere to regulations, it is almost impossible to purchase Bitcoin Gold anonymously online since it is not offered by many decentralized exchanges. On top of that, Bitcoin Gold is too small of a cryptocurrency to be featured on a Bitcoin or cryptocurrency ATM alongside some of the other top cryptocurrencies.

This means that if it is important to you to remain anonymous when purchasing Bitcoin Gold, you will have to try and do it face to face in a personal peer-to-peer transaction. Since the decentralized and anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies are so ingrained into communities, it is important that you don’t conduct any of these transactions online without a verifiable escrow service, as there is a chance the person you are trying to transact with is a scammer. There are no peer to peer identification platforms for Bitcoin Gold like there are for Bitcoin and Ethereum, so it might be semi-challenging for you to find a reliable user for you to anonymously and reliably interact with. I would recommend not buying Bitcoin Gold anonymously as there isn’t a proper infrastructure set up for it and there is a high likelihood of someone trying to take advantage of you

Bitcoin Gold Icon
The official Bitcoin Gold logo (bitcoingold.org)

Where to Buy Bitcoin Gold

From a Cryptocurrency Exchange or Broker

Although Bitcoin Gold is considered a small cap cryptocurrency compared to behemoths like Bitcoin and Ethereum with 12 and 11 figure respective market caps, Bitcoin Gold’s $169 million market cap means that it still has a large amount of exposure and trading possibilities. There are a multitude of cryptocurrency exchanges that allow to trade for Bitcoin Gold, and even some that will let you trade for fiat currency if you live in the right jurisdictions. Some of the exchanges that offer the ability to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin Gold are:

  • Upbit
  • Okex
  • Bithumb
  • Binance
  • Bitfinex

Since many of these exchanges are well established and legitimate within the cryptocurrency community, this is generally a safer way for you to purchase Bitcoin Gold than using a peer-to-peer method. Using a cryptocurrency exchange or broker, you just need to register or sign into the exchange, deposit the fiat currency or cryptocurrency you’d to like exchange for BTG, and then execute the trade in the relevant marketplace. It is a safe and simple way for you to purchase Bitcoin Gold online.

With Cash

Another option you may be considering to use when purchasing Bitcoin Gold is directly with cash. As stated above, since Bitcoin Gold is a much smaller cryptocurrency when compared to large market cap coins with their own decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace like Bitcoin and Ethereum, it does not have the same network or applications set up to help facilitate peer-to-peer trading. Also, since Bitcoin Gold is small, it is not possible to purchase Bitcoin Gold using a cryptocurrency ATM as it will not be available to transact with. This means that if you prefer to transact with cash, you will have to do a lot of research in order to find someone you can comfortably trade Bitcoin Gold for cash with. If you are planning to do the exchange online or in person, I would recommend using some sort of escrow service in order to protect yourself from losses or scams during the transaction.

Trading Bitcoin Gold

Geographic Restrictions

One of the main benefits and reasons for the creation of cryptocurrencies was to lower the barrier to entry for storing your value; this means that in theory one of the main points of cryptocurrency is to allow as much monetary freedom to their users as possible. Since Bitcoin Gold is a hardfork of Bitcoin and maintains most of the same characteristics that Bitcoin has, it is extremely hard to place geographic restrictions on the trading of these cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin Gold.

The decentralized, distributed, and autonomous nature of these cryptocurrencies means that setting physical restrictions on the trading of these coins is quite hard, as there is no central point or authority for policy makers to target. Governing bodies may be able to shut down exchanges or put extreme regulations on trading, but they still wouldn’t be able to impede on the trading process that is going to take place because there is no authority that can dictate whether or not the transaction can be physically sent.

As long as you have a Bitcoin Gold wallet, you will be able to trade and transact with Bitcoin Gold anywhere in the world. That being said, there are no jurisdictions that have implemented any restrictions against Bitcoin Gold, as it wouldn’t make much sense considering there are much larger cryptocurrencies that would face regulatory procedures well before. No matter what country you live in, you do not currently have to worry about any geographic restrictions when you are wanting to trade with Bitcoin Gold.

Bitcoin Gold CFDs

There are many cryptocurrency trading platforms that offer their users the ability to trade Contracts for Difference or CFDs with many popular cryptocurrencies and other assets. Contracts for difference allows users to get financial and market exposure to an asset such as cryptocurrency without having to physically own the underlying asset. This gives traders the opportunity for exposure without some inherent risks that come with buying and trading cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, Bitcoin Gold is too small of a cryptocurrency to have CFDs set up around it, so if you would like to get market exposure to Bitcoin Gold you will have to physically purchase the coins.

Is Bitcoin Gold illegal?

No, as a distributed and decentralized currency, there is absolutely nothing ‘illegal’ about it in anyway. In fact, Bitcoin Gold would most likely not get any individual regulatory restrictions put in place as it is so much smaller than more relevant cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Where can I buy Bitcoin Gold?

You can purchase Bitcoin Gold on most cryptocurrency exchanges in exchange for other cryptocurrencies and sometimes fiat currency. You can buy, sell, trade, and interact with Bitcoin Gold in a variety of ways. Although, not every exchange will offer users the ability to trade with Bitcoin Gold, so make sure you find an exchange that accepts it. Make sure that if you do buy Bitcoin Gold that you store it safely in a cold storage Bitcoin Gold wallet to lower your chances of having your funds stolen.