Originally Posted by
I_royalty_I
The main value of bitcoin is that it is decentralized. It can not be monitored or approved/disapproved by any central authority. It's peer to peer setup ensures that it cannot be shutdown or really regulated in anyway. The dollar used to be backed by gold but like you said, now it's more of a faith system. Bitcoin is similar, to some degree. It's not backed by anything but it holds value because people see it as a valuable commodity. Back in the day when it was new and nobody cared, it was worthless. Now, many people want in and thus the price went up. Right now, it's pretty well known so the price is widely influenced by speculation so it's a gamble.
There is no certainty that the price won't crash, but there also isn't any guarantee that a stock won't tank tomorrow. Most investments are a gamble. Those that aren't really considered a gamble don't really pay much and can barely be considered an investment. It all depends on how much risk you want involved with your investments. Personally, I don't invest anything but my spare cash in cryptocurrency. I have 401k, IRAs, etc for diversification.
---------- Post added at 01:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 PM ----------
It is very easy. If you go to an exchange like coinbase it's very streamlined. You sign up, link your bank account and then you can buy from there. It takes a few days to verify your bank. Then it also takes a few days from the time you purchase to the time the coins are deposited into your account. You can get the coins instantly if you buy form a third party but since coinbase needs to withdraw from your bank, it takes a little bit.
---------- Post added at 03:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:59 PM ----------
From time of making this thread, the price of ethereum has gone down almost $30.
I was reading an article where somebody predicted the selloff from this weeks price jump would take place pretty soon. I imagine lots of people unloaded once it got over $200, that make it drop back to the $180-$190 range it's been sitting at for the past few days.
If it drops down to $140, I'm going to grab a few more coins and then wait it out.