Given the price surge in Bitcoin this year, it's hard to see why anyone would lose faith in the cryptocurrency just yet. But, worryingly for potential investors, one of its prime advocates already has.

Emil Oldenburg, the co-founder and CTO of the influential website Bitcoin.com has admitted he is skeptical about the direction in which it's headed.

Credit: PA



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Oldenburg's even gone so far as to sell all of his Bitcoin and re-invest it in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) instead as he believes that the spin-off currency has a brighter future in store.

"I would say an investment in Bitcoin is right now the riskiest investment you can make. There's an extremely high risk," he said in an interview with Swedish tech site Breakit.



"I have in fact sold all my bitcoins recently and switched to Bitcoin Cash."

Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in August and recently overtook Ethereum as the world's second largest cryptocurrency. It has also received praise from Oldenburg's co-founder Roger Ver.

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Two of the problems Oldenburg has highlighted with Bitcoin is its high transaction costs and confirmation times - with fees doubling every three months and the average transaction taking 4.5 hours to confirm.

As there's only a limited amount of transactions you can make per second on the Bitcoin network, Oldenburg has argued that it makes bitcoin highly risky, calling the old network 'highly unusable'.

Oldenburg said that as soon as new Bitcoin holders start to see these problems - selling or trading the currency rather than just buying them - they will start to sell. Better get sharp quick, then.

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Credit: PA



Even though these problems with Bitcoin could be addressed, Oldenburg doesn't seem confident that the people who run the 'old' network will be the ones to do it, calling the group 'fanatical Bitcoin talibans'. A bit strong, that.

"[They] want things this way," Oldenburg explained. "They see Bitcoin as a digital gold and a technical experiment, as opposed to something you can actually use."

Ironically, given its name, Oldenburg confirmed that Bitcoin.com is now distancing itself from the cryptocurrency it was named after.

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The website will now focus on developing services around Bitcoin Cash instead, as Oldenburg no longer believes that Bitcoin will be as widely used as everyone has been hoping for.

"Not as long as the network is run by this group of people [in the old network]," he told Breakit. "The solutions will be found in Bitcoin Cash, that's where I see a future."