Bitcoin Gold Endowment Transparency¶
This page documents the complete BTG Endowment — 100,000 BTG mined in the first 8,000 blocks after the Bitcoin Gold fork. Every address, the mining process, and on-chain verification instructions are provided below.
Source of truth
The canonical reference for the endowment mining code is in the BTCGPU repository at src/chainparams.cpp. The address list and mining process described here are verified against the BTG blockchain via Blockbook Explorer and the endowment transparency implementation by a Bitcoin Gold developer at h4x3rotab/btg-transparent.
Background¶
Bitcoin Gold (codename BTCGPU) began as a fork of Bitcoin after block height 491,406 on Tue, 24 Oct 2017 01:00 UTC and began being mined as a separate chain at block height 491,407 on Sun, 12 Nov 2017 13:00 UTC.
The mining rewards from the first 8,000 new blocks — 100,000 BTG total (12.5 BTG/block x 8,000 blocks) — were collected into a set of wallet addresses to form a fund to support the ongoing costs of the Bitcoin Gold project. These 100,000 coins, sometimes referred to as a "premine," constitute the BTG Endowment. All mining rewards after these first 8,000 blocks accrue solely to miners; no portion is diverted to founders or the project.
At the time of the fork, the block reward was 12.5 BTG. The reward later halved to 6.25 BTG (at block 700,000) and then to 3.125 BTG (at block 840,000).
Endowment wallets¶
All 152 endowment addresses are 4-of-6 multisig wallets, with the six keys originally held by the six co-founders of the BTG project. This means four signatures are required to move funds, and no single person can access the Endowment. In addition, 60% of the funds were placed in time-locked wallet addresses which would gradually become available over the course of three years.
The Flex Spending Wallet (AedgJfbGhjwtUEmfGv8qci9T4FBokxgKu1) is a 2-of-6 multisig that receives funds from the Endowment for operational expenses. Any funds in the Flex wallet are unspent and belong to the Endowment.
Primary Endowment Wallets (104 addresses)¶
These addresses received the main distribution of the endowment. Each links to its live balance on the Blockbook explorer.
Flex Spending Wallet (48 addresses)¶
These addresses were set aside for operational expenses. Funds are periodically moved from Endowment wallets into these Flex Spending wallets, which require 2-of-6 signatures for expenditure.
Mining process (Premine)¶
The 100,000 BTG endowment was mined at minimum difficulty (difficulty = 1, bits = powLimit) over 8,000 blocks (491,407 – 499,406). Each block reward was 12.5 BTG. The mining code is part of the BTCGPU source — see the CreateGenesisBlock and endowment logic in src/chainparams.cpp and the endowment transparency implementation by a Bitcoin Gold developer at h4x3rotab/btg-transparent.
First 3,200 blocks (40,000 BTG)¶
The first 3,200 blocks were mined round-robin into four wallets:
| Block range | Address | BTG earned |
|---|---|---|
| 491,407, 491,411, 491,415 … | AQS1w7wyXQjPiE29LtA8ER8DbSQii4vSk7 |
10,000 |
| 491,408, 491,412, 491,416 … | AeTXqQdHLJGug6PdaQFvQZvjPM9E8wDV8u |
10,000 |
| 491,409, 491,413, 491,417 … | AMZdDm8jyZRUTxWCjwZsKbBAtdnyzyTqtN |
10,000 |
| 491,410, 491,414, 491,418 … | AV1WBeDbz27UXRy9PRveHtbnT8u2cmy1Fs |
10,000 |
Each wallet accumulated 800 blocks x 12.5 BTG = 10,000 BTG.
Remaining 4,800 blocks (60,000 BTG)¶
The remaining blocks were divided into 36 segments to unlock monthly over three years (plus a 37th segment with the remaining 12 blocks). Each segment was mined round-robin into four new wallet addresses that were time-locked for an additional month.
During the first 132 blocks of each segment, each of the four addresses received 33 block rewards (33 x 12.5 = 412.5 BTG). The 133rd block gave the first address an extra 12.5 BTG, bringing its total to 425 BTG. Total per segment: 425 + 412.5 + 412.5 + 412.5 = 1,662.5 BTG.
The final 12 blocks (499,395 – 499,406) were mined into four addresses at 37.5 BTG each (3 blocks x 12.5 BTG), bringing the grand total to exactly 100,000 BTG.
History¶
- 2017-10-24 01:17:35 UTC: Bitcoin block 491,406 becomes the final block shared by the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Gold histories.
- 2017-11-12 13:34:01 UTC: The first BTG-only block, 491,407, is mined at difficulty 1, beginning the 8,000-block endowment period.
- 2017-11-12: The endowment mining code is published in the BTCGPU repository under tag
0.15.0.1. - 2017-11-13 02:56:27 UTC: Block 499,406 completes the endowment mining period.
- 2017-11-13 02:56:43 UTC: Block 499,407 begins the post-endowment difficulty-adjustment period.
- 2018-07-03 21:59:26 UTC: The hard fork at block 536,200 activates Equihash-BTG (N=144, K=5, BgoldPoW) and the LWMA difficulty-adjustment algorithm.
- 2020-09-29 08:47:35 UTC: Block 653,468 is mined. All endowment timelocks have now matured, while spending still requires the applicable 4-of-6 multisignature authorization.
- 2024-07-15: The
bitcoingold.orgdomain is hijacked.
The endowment outputs became publicly visible on-chain as blocks 491,407 through 499,406 were mined between November 12 and November 13, 2017. The complete set was publicly auditable after block 499,406.
An endowment transparency implementation by a Bitcoin Gold developer is available at h4x3rotab/btg-transparent on GitHub.
The 2024-07-15 hijack
On 15 July 2024, the bitcoingold.org domain was hijacked and pointed to an attacker-controlled account. The current official domain is btgofficial.org.
Always verify releases via the official GitHub releases page (BTCGPU/BTCGPU) and the official domain btgofficial.org — never trust any URL ending in bitcoingold.org.
Verifying the endowment¶
Every endowment address can be independently verified on-chain using the Blockbook explorer:
- Open https://explorer.bitcoingold.services/
- Search for any address listed above, or visit directly:
https://explorer.bitcoingold.services/address/<address> - Verify the transaction history matches the expected coin amounts and block ranges described on this page.
- Sample blocks across the endowment range (491,407–499,406) and confirm that the coinbase outputs match the documented addresses and schedule.
The first Bitcoin Gold block is block 491,407. Its coinbase transaction should show the first endowment distribution. Each subsequent endowment block can be verified in the same manner.
For further detail, refer to the BTCGPU source code and the btg-transparent implementation by a Bitcoin Gold developer.