« Go back to the cryptocurrency FAQ
One of the biggest misconceptions about investing in cryptocurrency is thinking that it’s too late. I’ll tell you why it’s not too late. In fact, even though you’re just learning about this years after it became huge, you may still be on time to the party.
Chances are you arrived on this page shortly after a huge surge in price took place. These surges are accompanied by thoughts of, “I should’ve invested sooner!” Too many people beat themselves up for this, as if they ‘should have known’ the success of cryptocurrency a lot sooner.
Therefore, you’re looking at the price graphs and see a huge spike and think it’s too late.
Are we still in the beginning?
(All advice and opinions I have on the future cryptocurrency are not guaranteed.) I think we’re still in the beginning. I’m taking a look at the market cap of the value of every different coin put together and it’s hovering at a half-trillion dollars. I this this is very small.
Golden advice. Gold is estimated to have a market cap of 8 trillion US dollars. That’s 16 more valuable than every coin put together. Gold has its uses, yes, but it’s not as innovative nor technically integrated as Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is. You can’t send 1/100,000,000 portion of Gold. You can’t transfer it across the world in minutes. You can’t hide your transaction of gold from peering eyes. You can’t easily put 2, 5, or 15 portions of gold back together to form one unit. (I said ‘easily’.) Gold is limited in its functionality.
Yes, gold is shiny and has its uses as a physical show of wealth. And you can use Gold in engineering/electronics to do cool things. But gold is very ‘oldschool’ (goldschool?). Supposedly fiat (paper) currency used to be backed by a gold standard. One dollar meant you could go to some office somewhere and say, “I want to exchange this dollar for my I.O.U. of gold, please.” I’m not sure if anybody actually did this, but that’s how gold was intended in the ‘early days’.
Back to Bitcoin: Comparing with Gold. The gold/Bitcoin analogy is not perfect, but it gives a nice (and shiny) example. If Bitcoin alone became worth 1/4th the value of gold, it would have an estimated value of … well, just over $100,000 USD each. The prospect of Bitcoin serving as a mere quarter of gold yet being worth so much is fantastical yet somewhat reasonable at the same time.
AS mentioned earlier, gold has limited uses whereas Bitcoin powers so much innovation and ingenuity. Do I think we’ll see $100K coins in the near future (5 years)? It’s quite likely. However, before that, I think we’ll see a few more coins come and take a competitive stance against Bitcoin.
Even though Bitcoin is worthy of an investment, it has its flaws, limitations, and vulnerabilities. These primarily exist in the form of transactional limitations: transfer fees and transaction time. Did Satoshi ever intend Bitcoin to be used for your every day coffeeshop purchase? Probably not (otherwise he would have increased the mining block size upward of a measly 1MB!)
Invest in Bitcoin and other more stable/scalable cryptocurrencies
Old folks will say, “Don’t keep your eggs in one basket.”
Baby Boomers will say, “Don’t keep your stocks in one company.”
Millennial’s/Generation X will say, “Don’t own only one type of cryptocurrency.”
We… might see Bitcoin tumble some day. It could take some time to get back up. It hurts to say, but it’s a possible reality. When that happens, you don’t want to regret only investing in Bitcoin. You want to start thinking about what other cryptocurrencies can be used on a global scale. Learn about the unique facets that each offers to the world. Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin!
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