Bitcoin Gold has been an interesting social experiment. This hard fork of Bitcoin had some high ambitions at first. Several months down the line, it seems things look a lot worse for wear. With one individual controlling most of the network, the ecosystem is facing a serious threat. Solving this matter has proven to be rather difficult. The Bitcoin Gold Network IssuesIn the world of cryptocurrency, several key issues can affect any network. The so-called 51% attack is perhaps one of the worst scenarios for developers to deal with. It effectively means someone controls the majority of the blockchain’s processing power. As such, transactions, payments, and day-to-day operations are all severely affected. In the case of Bitcoin Gold, the person controlling the network has nefarious intentions. Being able to tamper with transactions can cause all sorts of problems. This is especially true for mining pools, exchanges, and wallet providers dealing with Bitcoin Gold. So far, it remains unclear how much damage has been done in the process. The end result is how all BTG users are at risk during this time. Any transaction broadcast over the network can be tampered with. In the worst case, the transfer will not even be accepted by the network. This would immediately make it impossible to sue Bitcoin Gold, potentially crashing the price in the process. Whether or not that is the objective of the assailant(s), remains unclear at this time. Not The First Major ProblemAlthough this recent issue is of grave concern, it is not the only one. Ever since the release of BTG, there have been numerous concerns and technical issues. Double-spending attacks go back almost a full week, and things are not looking up. In the past, there have been issues with the mining difficult adjustments as well. Despite hard forking Bitcoin, BTG has not inherited the robustness of Bitcoin in this regard. For the time being, exchanges need to be very careful. Any platform accepting Bitcoin Gold deposits without additional verification will be targeted by these criminals in the coming days. Ensuring all deposits are accounted for and legitimate is the only course of action. Unfortunately, it may also lead to trading platform suspending BTG trading until further notice. It is not the first time smaller cryptocurrencies are affected by such attacks. Verge has been dealing with multiple attacks in recent months. Monacoin and Electroneum have seen their fair share of issues as well. Bitcoin and Ethereum are unlikely to suffer from issues like these anytime soon. Their networks have a lot more mining support, making it nearly impossible for one entity to control the majority of processing power. Image from ShutterstockBitcoin Gold Network Still Suffering Over a Week After Attack was last modified: May 25th, 2018 by JP Buntinx