Companies / Financial Services CRYPTOCURRENCIES How Bitcoin Cash may spell end of Bitcoin Gravity-defying Bitcoin surged 1,250% in 2017 to a market value of more than $200bn, but rivals are now quicker and cheaper BL PREMIUM

Digital currency Bitcoin will "die a horrible death" in 2018, killed by its rival sister, Bitcoin Cash, says Lorien Gamaroff, CEO and founder of Centbee, a Bitcoin Cash wallet. "Bitcoin is slow and expensive and its market share is being eroded by cryptocurrencies that are quicker and cheaper," said Gamaroff, who initially intended Centbee to be a Bitcoin wallet before a user-activated fork led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash in July 2017. Bitcoin Cash was closer to Bitcoin’s original mission to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, said Roger Ver, an early investor in bitcoin-related start-ups. High fees and slow transaction times would weaken Bitcoin’s adoption and market value, Ver, CEO of Bitcoin.com, said at a recent blockchain summit in Hong Kong. Gravity-defying Bitcoin surged 1,250% in 2017 to a market value of more than $200bn, as speculators poured into the digital currency. "How to buy Bitcoin" was Google’s third-most searched "how to". The widespread publicity that a...