Bitcoin splits into two again, but owners don't get free money just yet

Bitcoin has a new clone, again.

Bitcoin Gold, a new cryptocurrency, has been created through a so-called hard fork similar to the way Bitcoin Cash was created in August.

Since Bitcoin and Bitcoin Gold share the same history up until the fork, anyone who owned Bitcoin around 8pm E.T. Monday should become the owner of the same amount of Bitcoin Gold as well. But as is often the case with Bitcoin, things are not that simple.

First of all, the Bitcoin Gold network is not yet live. Its creators have merely taken a snapshot of the Bitcoin blockchain at block 491,407, but the cryptocurrency should become publicly available on Nov. 1.

If everything goes well, those who stored their bitcoins in private wallets should see their BTG coins at that date.

Those who stored bitcoins at exchanges might see different results, depending on the exchange. Some exchanges, including Coinbase and BitMEX, said they will not support Bitcoin Gold at all (though Coinbase did say it might support it at a later date). Others, like Bittrex, said Bitcoin owners will receive their Bitcoin Gold at a 1:1 ratio. Only a few of the major exchanges said they would support Bitcoin Gold trading.

Bitcoin Gold's main reason to exist, according to the project's website, is ASIC-resistant mining. Originally, Bitcoin could be mined (the process of mining creates new coins and powers the Bitcoin network at the same time) by anyone with a PC. However, Bitcoin's network is currently dominated by big mining companies, which employ specialized mining machines called ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits). Bitcoin Gold uses a different mining algorithm which will once again enable mining by anyone with a home PC.

However, Bitcoin Gold has received quite a bit of criticism for being hastily put together, and for pre-mining a certain amount of coins, which essentially mean free money or the project's owners.

Despite the controversy, the price of Bitcoin rose to more than $6,100 days before the fork, likely due to Bitcoin owners calculating that getting some free BTG can't hurt them, even if the project turns out to be a failure. Many were likely hoping for a reprise of the Bitcoin Cash fork in August. Despite initial reluctance from exchanges, Bitcoin Cash has turned out to be quite successful so far, currently trading at about $330 with a market cap of more than $5.5 billion.

Immediately after the fork, the price of Bitcoin pulled back a bit, and is currently around $5,700.

Disclosure: The author of this text owns, or has recently owned, a number of cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH.