While bitcoin’s death has been pronounced many times, the threat to the cryptocurrency is now very real. A longstanding stalemate has progressed to a crisis situation, with two sides each threatening to employ their version of a “nuclear option” — each of which could potentially destroy the $17 billion market capitalization of bitcoin.
For a discussion of this highly politicized debate, I carefully chose my guests for the latest episode of my podcast, Unchained (Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio). Jeff Garzik is the chief executive officer and cofounder of bitcoin enterprise company Bloq and a former Bitcoin Core developer, and Charlie Lee is the director of engineering at cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase and the creator of Litecoin, a cryptocurrency often called digital silver in contrast to bitcoin’s gold. (Garzik’s cofounder Matt Roszak (iTunes) was a previous guest on the podcast, and Lee’s brother Bobby (iTunes), the CEO of BTCC, was as well.)