Bitcoin investors have had a rough ride this year as the price of the cryptocurrency has tumbled, making it less economical to produce the coins

Running a bitcoin mining operation is becoming a losing proposition Bloomberg/Getty

BITCOIN investors have had a hell of a ride this year. If you had bought one of the digital tokens last December, it would have cost you nearly $20,000. As New Scientist went to press, that coin was now worth around $3300 – and still falling. Ouch.

Of course, the cryptocurrency has seen plenty of ups and downs in its 10-year history, but this bust looks bad. In fact, falling prices could derail the entire thing.

That’s because as the value of bitcoin goes down, it becomes uneconomical to keep the tech behind it running. …