BitGo specializes in multi-signature wallets for Enterprise customers, like institutional investors, hedge funds, cryptocurrency exchanges, even traditional exchanges.
These kinds of users have special needs. They need “hot wallets” for safely handling rapid deposits and withdrawals for users, but also “cold wallets” for secure longer-term storage of deposits held. On top of these systems to rapidly, reliably, and safely manage and report on these funds and payment services, exchanges often have extensive compliance requirements integrated with all these processes. BitGo helps them do all this.
Other large customers, such as institutional investors, have different needs – they may want a full-fledged custodial solution, giving them a secure and compliant service to hold investments in crypto without needing to get too deeply involved in technology outside their core competencies. BitGo’s ability to extend these services is enhanced by their recent agreement to acquire their partner Kingdom Trust, a fully regulated Trust Company.
BitGo’s partner list goes beyond the crypto space because they’ve been carefully, conservatively, and successfully building products and services that meet complex institutional needs for years. When the CME Group Inc and the The Royal Mint in the U.K. decided to create Royal Mint Gold, a blockchain-based system for holding and trading physical gold, one of the companies they turned to was BitGo.
So, what did BitGo, the company trusted to help deal with real gold, think when they took a look at Bitcoin Gold last year? They concluded that the project had value and would have longevity, and they decided to promptly enable their software to work with BTG, rolling out support in December of 2017.
BitGo’s Multi-Currency Platform
BitGo’s applications and APIs offer a multi-currency platform, which supports the most widely used digital currencies.
The fact that Bitcoin Gold has been on the short list of supported currencies in the BitGo SDK since last year is a strong reminder that BTG is technically sound and easy to safely integrate with existing services built for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin – and this is no accident.
The Bitcoin Gold project set out to change a core feature of Bitcoin to take control of mining out of the hands of ASIC miners and return that ability to anyone with access to consumer hardware, but we also very intentionally retained all the other key features of Bitcoin. Critically, we preserved full Segwit support, and will even have wallets supporting Lightning Network in the near future – demonstrating our commitment that future developments for the Bitcoin ecosystem will be easily tested and implemented in the Bitcoin Gold world. In the future, we also expect new technologies and experiments created on the Bitcoin Gold project to find their way into the original Bitcoin project, and other cryptocurrency projects, as well!
Besides the mining algorithm, the only other important changes are the unique address format we implemented to prevent users from accidentally sending BTG to a BTC address (or vice versa), and two-way replay attack protection to prevent bad actors from maliciously trying to duplicate transactions between blockchains, both of which are essential for ensuring that users and institutions don’t lose funds.
We applaud BitGo for seeing the value in our vision, for supporting us so quickly, and for making it easier for institutional services and investors to bring Bitcoin Gold into their orbits. We’ll work hard to earn the continued support of and investment by both institutions and individuals, alike.
Keeping an eye on the big picture,
The Bitcoin Gold Organization
#1CPU1VOTE