what would happen to the value and adoption of Bitcoin if a major flaw in its protocol was discovered and exploited, leading to the loss of a significant portion of the coins in circulation,
and a loss of trust in the technology?
i don't have very technical knowledge about how secure it is .
Something as major flaw that messes up the protocol will be visible very quickly. Worse case the bug may be fixed and the chain forked and restarted from the non corrupt block.
Yes there will be some transaction that wont be valid in the new chain.
The beauty of software is it can be corrected and consensus reached based on logical decisions by people.
..but in the fiat world if you want to correct a wrong you will be put into a metal cage if you are not the well connected elite. Software and distribution has its advantages.