*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).
A closer look at bitcoin's experience during the pandemic reveals a handful of major developments that have helped push the OG cryptocurrency to new heights.
Peloton is recalling about 125,000 of its treadmills, less than a month after denying they were dangerous and saying it would not pull them from the market, even though they were linked to the death of a child and injuries of 29 others.
Blockfolio CEO Sam Bankman-Fried talked to Cheddar about garnering an endorsement deal with the Jacksonville Jaguar's first pick in the NFL Draft, QB Trevor Lawrence.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) joined Cheddar to discuss her new book "Antitrust," tackling the issues of monopolistic business practices, particularly in Big Tech.
Bill and Melinda Gates say they're divorcing. The Microsoft co-founder and his wife, who launched the world’s largest charitable foundation, said they would continue to work together at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Chinese tech giant Baidu has rolled out its paid driverless taxi service, making it the first company that's commercialized autonomous driving operations in China.
Apple’s lucrative app store was alternately portrayed as a price-gouging monopoly and a hub of world-changing innovation during the preamble to a trial that may reshape the technological landscape.
AOL and Yahoo are being sold again, this time to a private equity firm. Verizon will sell Verizon Media, which consists of the pioneering tech platforms, to Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal.
Cheddar’s Michelle Castillo stopped by a Convene location in New York, which provides flexible offices, events and meeting spaces, to see what the future of work may hold.
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.
