*By Carlo Versano*
There's a civil war underway in cryptocurrency ー and it's shaking investor confidence in the very foundation of the blockchain.
Bitcoin, down 25 percent in a week and over 75 percent since its highs of a year ago, is suffering at least in part from the latest "hard fork" split of the two versions of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) into ABC and SV ー which themselves are just second-rate copies of the original Bitcoin currency, according to Merlin Rothfeld, a crypto investor and strategist with the Online Trading Academy.
Rothfeld predicted the volatility in Bitcoin will be a good thing in the long term, as it "shakes out" the vulnerabilities in the relationship between crypto and blockchain.
All of the things that have consistently appealed to Bitcoin investors ー the decentralization, transparency, chain of record ー are still intact, Rothfeld said. "That's very appealing to have this kind of autonomy."
Some investors worry that miners are mining "empty blocks" that would modify, and thus interfere with, the older version of the blockchain of a specific currency ー and that shakes the confidence of the entire market that relies on "proof of work" algorithms to record transactions, according to Rothfeld.
Once investors better understand how those vulnerabilities are being exploited, they can be patched, Rothfeld said. But until then, we should expect the volatility to continue and Bitcoin demand to wane. "I don't see it stopping anytime soon," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/whats-next-for-the-bitcoin-slump).
The freight industry has its newest unicorn. Flock Freight recently reached the $1 billion mark after recently raising $215 million dollars. It comes during a watershed moment for the global shipping and freight industry, with the pandemic and other issues leading to the ongoing supply chain crisis.
Flock Freight and its shared truckload service may be a solution. Flock Freight CEO Oren Zaslansky joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cannabis tech company Dutchie raised $350 million in Series D Funding in October, and Ross Lipson, CEO and co-founder, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to talk about how the funds will be used to grow the business. He noted that attracting the best talent, research and development, and expanding the brand's international reach are among the top priorities with this latest round of funding. Lipson also provided a breakdown of how his company "powers a dispensaries operations" through point of sales and e-commerce transactions.
Cloud data management company Informatica made its market debut on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbol INFA. Shares ending the day even after opening at $27.55. with shares priced at $29 apiece.
This is the second time the company has gone public after being founded back in 1993. Informatica then went private in a $5 billion deal in 2015. Now, the company is reentering public markets as a subscription business with a push to the cloud. Cheddar News welcomes CEO of Informatica, Amit Walia, to discuss.
It's no doubt that the pandemic has been tough on the job market. According to the Labor Department, a record four million people quit their jobs in April. Now, a new survey from Oracle is touching on mental health and how employees are demanding more from their work lives. Juergen Lindner, SVP of global software for SaaS at Oracle, joins Cheddar Wellness to talk about the findings.
Jill and Carlo discuss the pending approval for Pfizer's vaccine for kids, the state of anti-Semitism three years after Tree of Life, potential criminal charges in the 'Rust' prop gun shooting and more.
