The Bitcoin Gold team has offered clarification regarding what was previously a somewhat confusing position on the supplies of Bitcoin Gold after the airdrop. The issue stemmed from the confusion surrounding the meaning of the term ‘pre-mine’, and what the new chain was attempting to do in mining new coins.
Clarification came today via the Bitcoin Gold website where a full explanation was given. The premine, according to the explanation, was actually a ‘post-mine’ - a mining of 100,000 coins after the fork had already occurred. The team did this via a rapid mining of approximately 8,000 blocks at 12.5 BTG per block.
Premining a bonus?
The bulk of premined coins have been placed into an ‘endowment’, and according to the developers will be used to grow and maintain the BTG ecosystem. However, of the 100K coins, some five percent were set aside as a bonus for the team, or about 833 coins for each of the six members. Little was said regarding this payout, except an acknowledgement. According to the post:
“There was, understandably, a lot of attention to the five percent of the premine which was earmarked as “initial reward for core team” in the Roadmap. That represents 5,000 coins, divided among six core team members, or about 833 coins each – so each core member receives about 0.005% of the existing coin supply (at the time) for their roles in getting this project off the ground during the months before launch.”
The remaining 95 percent are divided into time-locked wallets (60 percent - released in three years), while the remaining 35 percent will be put into immediate use for the sake of building the platform. Specifics on how the funds will be used are to be released over time.