*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 $2 trillion crypto market will soon be subject to much greater governmental oversight. SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced this week that his agency plans to register and regulate digital currencies. He also revealed that the U.S. will focus on three different areas - crypto platforms, stablecoins, and crypto tokens. Jarrod Loadholt, partner at the law firm Ice Miller, LLP, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Blueprints and paper maps might soon be a thing of the past as more cities potentially turn to digital twin technology to create virtual models of urban environments. Michael Jansen, CEO of the digital twin platform CityZenith, broke down how this technology works, what it's being used for, and how it might be a game-changer for the future of urban planning.
"Our focus at CityZenith is on helping cities to decarbonize," Jansen said. "We joined the World Economic Forum recently to work in their net-zero carbon cities program. So what digital twins can do here with cities is aggregate all this complex data around that issue: transport, building emissions, etc., and scenario-ize how they interrelate and then how to optimize the entire process of decarbonizing, which is itself complex."
General Motors and Honda are teaming up to produce more affordable electric vehicles. The two carmaking giant are looking to hit a price point of less than $30,000, a much lower price when compared to most other electric vehicles priced toward luxury buyers..
Tensions from the Russia-Ukraine war have spilled into space. The head of Russia's space agency has threatened to pull the country out of the International Space Station if sanctions aren't lifted on the country — but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon. What would it mean if Russia really did leave the ISS, who would it harm the most, and what would the consequences be both for the other ISS partners, and private space travel? Casey Dreier, Chief Advocate & Senior Space Policy Adviser at The Planetary Society, joins Closing Bell to discuss.
Elon Musk is set to join Twitter's board of directors. This comes shortly after the Tesla CEO purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter, sending shares surging as much as 27% and making him the largest shareholder in the social media company. Angelo Zino, Senior Industry Analyst at CFRA Research, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to gives his take on the social media saga.
