Bitcoin Forum

I only found out about Bitcoins about a week ago, and while I realise the potential that they have, I see them strictly as an investment.

I'm 21 and am saving money to build a home within the next two years. After reading up on Bitcoins over the last few days, I plan to sink around $1000 into them. Then, when they reach a certain value, I plan to "cash out" and put the profit towards my home.

I understand the risk I'm taking in doing so, but what I want to know is; am I looking at Bitcoin the wrong way? Should I see it as more than a way to make some money?

Yes you really should, it depends if you care about your freedom, with bitcoin you can use your money however you like, there's no man in the middle, like the government, banks, or paypal to control it.
If you're going to use it as an investment, you will have a hard time, we're nowhere near the 21M block limit yet, the value of it could easily drop, or increase dramatically.

I don't know what objective criteria I have your telling you that a specific attitude is wrong. However, for whatever it's worth, I personally view Bitcoin as a worthy-cause in and of itself because it provides people with a new, arguably better, means of exchange and store of value.

Honestly, we are all here in one way or another for the money. We also want bitcoin to grow for a more revolutionary purpouse, but yeah, we're all here for the money :P

If you want your investment to be safe, you need to integrate yourself within the bitcoin economy.

I would be willing to give up all my BTC if that would ensure bitcoin becoming the world's reserve currency. all except one, that is :-)

the beauty of the thing is that Bitcoin is one very very rare opportunity to make money and do the right thing simultaneously. Once you understand how governments and central banks systematically rape the populace, you see them for what they are: the biggest enemies of civilization on the planet.

Why do you expect the value to go up? What potential do you see?
 

I disagree with this claim.

Please do not feel guilty about wanting to make money.

Some people are early adopters, some people are late adopters. You want to use Bitcoin as an investment, but not as a lifestyle. This makes you an early adopter of the technology but not really an early adopter of Bitcoin as a currency. It's not a big deal. Everything has some kind of odd subculture around it, you're not required to participate in every aspect. The biggest reason I am into Bitcoins is because I want to make as much money as possible.

Although if I were you, I would save at least some Bitcoins, indefinitely. You don't know what will happen. Maybe the value will rise to 1000, who knows.

From what I've read, it looks like the price of Bitcoins has done nothing but rise since they were created. One would assume that with popularity increasing, the price will continue to do the same.

And as for the potential of Bitcoin, it's huge. The fact that it's a currency not being controlled by anyone is just the tip of the iceberg.

Let just say people who used the currency help make investor's currency actually worth something or sustain the investor's investment.

Sure, you can sit on your bitcoin...but don't cry when it die due to lack of economic activities.

After two more years of price increases are you going to change your mind and sell bitcoins for dollars?

Participating in the economy may very well make your investment more valuable. But it's like adding a poodle outside a bank vault. It's just wrong to imply the poodle is necessary to keep the cash safe.

Crying won't help even if you do participate in the economy.

That's the plan. I can't buy a house with Bitcoins, not for quite a while yet anyway.

Depending how things go before then I may well invest more money into Bitcoin and trade with it long after I cash out my initial investment.

That makes sense.

I've also just recently found out about Bitcoins, and I must say my attitude towards Bitcoins is similar to TheMagikarps'.
This is mainly because until I can pay with Bitcoins at shops I visit regularly, I can't see any other use than invest in some and sell them later.

I don't know if that's wrong or anything, but generally USD/BTC exchange rate seems to be seriously increasing.
I'm not familiar with economics, I'm just wondering when Bitcoins' value in regards to USD will stop increasing, or when it might fall. I guess recently a lot of people found out about bitcoins, and the demand increase?

The people who bought bitcoins for $1 some time ago have had their bitcoins raise 8 times in value until now? Buying 100 bitcoins back then and selling them now is already a damn fine investment for me. I wish I knew about bitcoins and invested back then, although I'm probably going to think about the same half a year from now on if the value keeps increasing :P

There's the million dollar question  ;D

If you buy coins once you have plenty of direct uses for them you'll get the convenience and protection from inflation, but you won't get paid for foresight.

Why do you think it will go up in value?  Why not just go to Vegas, put 1000 on black?

Also, why would you want to buy a home?

I would say that using bitcoins as savings vehicle is a fine idea and an encouraging attitude coming from a young fella.

They have some nice properties built in for this purpose but be prudent around securing your bitcoin savings.

That's a really good question.  Initially I saw bitcoin as a way to try to earn some extra cash, with the assumption that I would then use cash to buy things.  Now, I want bitcoin to succeed such that I don't need cash to buy things that I need and want.  In other words, I want to stay in bitcoin.

To live in...

I think once the value of a single bitcoin goes up to a certain point there will be a lot more users operating in the bitcents and lower ranges and distribution can become a lot more widespread/utilized as it should.