NEW YORK—Saying it may account for the precipitous drop in the digital currency, financial experts on Friday told reporters that the recent plunge in bitcoin value could reveal vulnerabilities in crazy imaginary internet money. “This should serve as a clear indicator of how susceptible weird invisible money that only exists online can be to sudden fluctuations in the market,” said economist Bernard Gregerson, explaining that the 18 percent decline in bitcoin’s value might be a predictor of more drastic fluctuations to come in the price of bizarre make-believe cryptocurrency that has no reality in the physical realm. “This volatility may be connected to the fact that we’re dealing with a pile of ones and zeros with no attachment to any bank or government and calling it legal tender, but we can’t say for certain.” At press time, bitcoin had recouped some of its losses, which experts attributed to the fact that even ghost money best suited for anonymously buying heroin could sometimes rebound.
Biggest vulnerabilities are probably unwillingness to consider upgrades to deal with quantum computing threats and its structurally dwindling security budget (if there is a maximum number of bitcoins, much less money will be paid to miners in the future, greatly reducing the cost of attacking the network). Not like you can trust the market to be rational enough to actually factor this stuff into the price though.