In IceFrog's latest blog post, he reveals a new feature called Reliable vs Unreliable Gold. There will be two kinds of gold in the new version, the reliable gold comes from hero kills while unreliable gold comes from other creep kills.
With the two different gold in place, Hero deaths will only incur a loss of gold from the unreliable gold pool, allowing ganking heroes to stack up on gold that they can't lose. Buying items, will first use up gold from the unreliable gold pool and the remainder will be deducted from the reliable gold pool.
IceFrog states however, that this is an experimental idea and it will be tweaked or modified based on feedback of the new mechanic.
Links
IceFrog's Blog - Source
