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How valuable would it have been for you to learn about bitcoin when it was trading at $0.01 before going to $0.10 or even $1.00?
What about when it was at $1.00 going to $10?
$10 to $100?
$100 to $1,000?
$1,000 to (almost) $10,000?
What about now when it's almost $10,000? What if it goes to $100,000+ as some very smart people predict? If you buy $100 worth now and it does go up, that would be quite nice, right? Note: you never have to buy a "whole" bitcoin as there are 100 million divisions in each bitcoin.
The challenge with explaining the value proposition of bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general) is that it's highly technical and involves some macroeconomic theory. On top of that, there's a lot of speculation and volatility. I've been digging into this stuff since the start of 2013, and I'm still learning daily. I'm a programmer who gets open-source software and loves learning economics stuff, specifically the origin of money and how we use it, so this all makes some sense to me.
But I won't suggest you should go buy into a speculative investment if you don't understand it. The old model of trusting someone else (like a stock broker or a bank) to make your decisions is falling away. We have to take personal responsibility for our actions. With cryptocurrency, you only own it if you control the private key and take the appropriate steps to secure it. It's digital cash so if you lose your private key, it's like flushing your money down the toilet as it'll be gone forever.
I will suggest you will benefit if you put in some effort to learn. Avoid a knee-jerk reaction and recognize your paradigm of value itself may be unexamined. Learn from some experts, be cautious of the scammers, and put in some time. I think it will be well worth it for you.
Yes, the market is going up crazy fast right now. If you zoom in on this chart, you'll see similar volatility repeated over and over again (though the 2014 highs now look like small bumps in the road):
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I'm not trying to encourage FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) where people buy in at the top of the market only to watch it crash the next day. What I am suggesting is to just get involved in what might be the future of finance. Money, as I've talked about before, is essentially a ledger and the blockchain is an immutable, cryptographically-secure, globally-distributed digital ledger making it the best form of money ever invented.
If you're already here on Busy/ChainBB/Steemit, then you're already using the blockchain, and you already have a cryptocurrency wallet with STEEM, Steem Power, and SBD. You are here learning from other cryptocurrency early adopters. You have an advantage. Take the extra step and put in some time to learn this stuff so you can educate your friends and family.
A friend reminded me today of emails I sent a while back, trying to get my friends involved in what I was learning about. Here's one to a group of friends in April of 2013:
For many, it seemed crazy to buy at $100. Crazy again at $1,000.
Will people in the future look back at our opportunity to buy bitcoin today at $10,000 and think we're crazy not to buy?
What about BitShares at $0.15?
EOS at $2.90?
Steem at $1.21?
I can't predict the future, and I won't tell you what to invest in. I also personally know what it feels like to watch the price of bitcoin go from $1,200 down to $250 like it did in 2014. I know that feeling of sadness as you second guess all your reasons for why bitcoin (and more generally, cryptocurrency) was going to change the world.
I don't see a reason to second guess any more. We've had 192 bitcoin obituaries so far, and it's still here. The more I learn, the more I want to live in a world where money isn't controlled by violent governments, but through open protocols and secure cryptography.
I'm excited about the future, and I want you to be onboard also.
I put some videos together at @ubf (understandingblockchainfreedom.com) to help you. Check it out. Ask questions. Learn. A future financial system is coming that is very different than what most people have known their entire lives. I want to help people understand.
You can also create a BitShares wallet (here's a referral link) to buy and sell on a decentralized exchange: https://wallet.bitshares.org/?r=luke-stokes
The Cryptocurrency Bank Spreadsheet will help you keep track of all your trades and holdings.
You can do this. You have a community here on the STEEM blockchain ready to help you, including me.
Created with ChainBB to help support that project.
