Bitcoin 'halving' prompts initial fall against dollar

Bitcoin underwent its third scheduled "halving" yesterday as the value of the rewards paid to the cryptocurrency's miners was reduced from 12.5 to 6.25. In afternoon trading in New York yesterday, Bitcoin was down 1.3% at $8,620.43 Halving is written into Bitcoin's code, and takes place roughly every four years, or with every 210,000 blocks underwritten on the encrypted blockchain ledger. In the absence of an equivalent of a central bank to regulate their supply, this system counters the risk of inflation and caps the maximum number of Bitcoins in existence at 21 million. So-called...