*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 Pentagon said it has canceled a cloud-computing contract with Microsoft that could eventually have been worth $10 billion and will instead pursue a deal with both Microsoft and Amazon.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has officially stepped down as CEO of the company he started out of his Seattle garage in 1995.
Software company Kaseya says the cyberattack it experienced over the July 4th holiday weekend but that it was never a threat and had no impact on critical infrastructure.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
The race for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on bitcoin is heating up despite multiple delays from federal regulators.
A federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state attorneys general, dealing a significant blow to attempts by regulators to rein in tech giants.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Danish toymaker Lego has presented its first building bricks made from recycled drinks bottles — an experimental project that if successful could eventually go into production.
John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus software, has been found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona, a government official has told The Associated Press.
After weeks of regulatory crackdowns and public denouncements, the Chinese government has delivered a crushing blow to bitcoin mining in the country.
