Even when the value of the bitcoin was going up, soaring to ridiculous heights, there were whispers of doubt.

“It’s the 90’s ‘dot.com’ bubble all over again”.

Despite the skepticism, speculators looking to get rich quick ignored the warnings, vying to get a hold of as much of the cryptocurrency as possible. One man even took advantage of their real world value by purchasing an expensive luxury car.

With bitcoins being a virtual currency that you could use to spend money on so many wonderful things, why not?

Well hopefully anyone with any real aspirations has spent or cashed in their coins. If not….they may find themselves wondering what happened to the thousands of dollars they invested.

The bitcoin crashed for the third time in recent months, leaving some to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of the once promising currency.

The latest flap comes as the result of an oversight by Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for allowing bitcoins to be traded for traditional currency. Mt. Gox froze the accounts of all its customers and ceased operations when the company discovered an unfortunate glitch.

According to a statement by Mt. Gox, “A bug in the bitcoin software makes it possible for someone to use the Bitcoin network to alter transaction details to make it seem like a sending of bitcoins to a bitcoin wallet did not occur when in fact it did occur.”

XerxesQados: Bitcoin’s Real Revolution Isn’t Hard Money, It’s Economic Panarchy http://t.co/IGUuBAEQ2r

— Michel Bauwens (@mbauwens) February 11, 2014

Sorry for the bad links, all–this one works: How bad are Bitcoin's problems? Much, much worse than you thought: http://t.co/sspz6kYbot

— Michael Hiltzik (@hiltzikm) February 11, 2014

In other words, the flaw would allow someone to be sent additional bitcoin currency and open the system up to all sorts of fraudulent behavior…if the mistake had not been already exploited.

According to CNBC, the news caused the currency to drop 20% in value.

Bitcoins are also wrapped up in an ongoing money laundering case in Florida, shedding even more doubt and negative publicity on the currency.

The negative news has some headed for the exits, anticipating the currency fading away into nothing. Only time will tell if bitcoins will weather the imperfections and suspicions or be referenced as the failed “get rich fast scheme of the decade” by future generations.

Image via Wikimedia Commons