Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin Cash's Survival in Question as Possible Split Looms
- Factions form ahead of software upgrade slated for Nov. 15
- Rival crypto miners Bitmain, CoinGeek at odds over direction
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When it split off a year ago, Bitcoin Cash jump-started the forking craze in which dozens of software-development teams sought to create money out of thin air by tweaking the original computer code and releasing coins with “Bitcoin” in their names (hello, Bitcoin Diamond).
Bitcoin Cash now faces its own fork, and the backers of the fourth-biggest virtual currency that once advocated splitting as democratic are anything but sanguine in their protests. At the center of the dispute are cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain Technologies Ltd., whose co-founder Jihan Wu is planning an initial public offering of as much as $3 billion, and rival mining heavyweight, CoinGeek, helmed by billionaire Calvin Ayre.