To cryptocurrency true believers, Bitcoin is the ultimate store of value, the most solid hedge against the rampant inflation manufactured by reckless central banks and their money-printing. To skeptics, the crypto world as a whole is a mirage whose massive run-up past $2 trillion was simply the speculative byproduct of the extraordinary amount of easy cash that’s been sloshing around in the global economy — in effect, a big bubble. Both of those theories are about to face their biggest test yet. Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, emerged more than a decade ago out of the ashes of the global financial crisis as a ... (full story)