
In 2013, bitcoin surged to stratospheric heights. In 2014, it fell from
 grace. You could say the law of gravity caught up with the payment 
network. That decline led some analysts to anoint bitcoin the “worst 
performing currency of the year.” In hindsight, the fall seems to have 
been a natural outcome of mania around a payment network about which not
 much was (and, is) known.