Bold my emphasis. That is the smart way to invest. By the way did you run benchmarks against the official binaries or was your computer not capable of running the official binaries?

This is from the Ethereum blog https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/07/22/launching-the-ether-sale/


This places the launch exchange rate between 0.000500 ETH/XBT and 0.000748 ETH/XBT. It remains to be seen if the current 0.01 ETH/XBT exchange rate will hold after some days of bona fide trading.

S3052 has very properly identified the "behind the scenes" development in Monero as something traders need to keep into account. As for the current market action I am not surprised, furthermore I still believe the market has not yet priced in the discrepancy between the 8 month old "official" binaries and the current code..

The Bytecoin premine disguised as a ninjamine is far worse than the Dash instamine.

Just search for "privacy" on Google news and one gets a flood of articles on the subject of how Windows 10 does the above and much more.

Did you compile on Windows 7 or on GNU/Linux in order to generate a Windows 7 executable? Big difference! I am not saying that one cannot compile Monero on Windows 7, I am saying that for a moderately tech savvy person it is way simpler to just install Ubuntu GNU/Linux and compile on Ubuntu than to find and install all the software that is required to successfully compile Monero on Windows 7.

Edit: Can one compile Monero on an IPad or would the DRM get in the way? Yet it is simple to trade Monero using an iPad.

Selling any XMR is simply not in the cards for me. There is no way I can justify it. The reality is that, as I mentioned before, there is an ever widening gap between the "official" binary releases that are over eight months old and the current Monero code on github https://github.com/monero-project/bitmonero. The difference in performance is literally night and day. Not to count in the sheer number of commits and other less obvious but criticality important improvements to the code. A lot has changed since the days of below 0.001 XMR/XBT; however this is far from obvious. I take the point of view that the market has not priced this in yet due in a large part to the choices in operating systems made by many of the market participants.  

Yes. The issue, for example, is that a keylogger on the compromised Windows host would have access to the keyboard and consequently to what is typed into the GNU/Linux guest. So one needs to be running GNU/Linux directly on the hardware.

This is what I do. I started with Bitcoin back in 2011 then added Namecoin and then Monero. I have not lost any crypto currency nor fiat for that matter to either computer hacks or "Goxed" exchanges (including Mt Gox itself). By the way I still keep my Mt Gox Yubikey on my keychain as a powerful reminder to not leave funds in an exchange longer than is strictly necessary for trading.

Here is what I do
1) Install GNU/Linux as the host. If one is using Windows XP or Windows 7 migrating to Ubuntu is way easier for non techs than migrating to Windows 8.x or Windows 10.
2) Do not enter any passwords or store unencrypted keys wallets etc on any computer where Microsoft Windows is the host (even in a GNU/Linux virtual machine) or on any virtual Microsoft Windows guest. This is critical. Windows malware is a very common cause for lost coins!
3) Run your own full node or nodes with an encrypted wallet.
4) Make multiple backups of the Keys files for Monero: wallet.bin.keys together with wallet.bin.address.txt as well as the Monero words.  For Bitcoin (reference client)  wallet.dat etc.
5) Get Encryption software either use the tools built into GNU/Linux or for the not so tech minded use Truecrypt.  Yes this is still good and easy to use https://www.grc.com/misc/truecrypt/truecrypt.htm
6) Store these encrypted backups in many different safe places one can think of using as many varied technologies and locations as one can think of. These can range from multiple computer hard drives, usb hard drives, optical media, floppy disks, online email accounts, online services, bank safety deposit boxes, with friends, relatives etc. The NSA shared folders in Windows 10, iCloud etc are perfectly fine for this, remember it was encrypted on GNU/Linux!
7) Regularly test these backups on a second node on a different computer to make sure everything works. Perform a dummy run on a simulated house burns down scenario, disaster etc. Can you get your coins after fleeing a disaster etc?
Use mobile wallets / online wallets for minimal daily spending amounts only say under 200 XMR equivalent at current exchange rates.
9) Consider Estate planing.
10) Be creative. A 5.25 in floppy disk in a bank safety deposit box can be very effective. If the safety deposit box is compromised, the obsolete technology will slow down an attacker long enough in order for the rightful owner to empty the wallet. On the other hand the executor of your estate has ample time to figure out how to read the floppy disk. This can work to store encryption passwords for example.

The point of the comparison is that the probability of the genesis block timestamp in Bytecoin having exactly 0 minutes and 0 seconds is 1/3600 under a legitimate creation of the genesis block. All the other coins in the comparison do not have exactly 0 minutes and 0 seconds in the genesis block timestamp.  This is just further evidence that the Bytecoin block chain was faked 2 years after the supposed launch of Bytecoin in 2012 and furthermore that the idea that Bytecoin was launched over 18 months before Dash is fraudulent.

Edit 1: This has nothing to do with the exact time of the creation of the first Dash masternode; however I doubt that the time of the creation of the first Dash masternode has exactly 0 minutes and 0 seconds.
Edit 2: The whole Bytecoin saga is covered in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0

The timestamp for BCN block 1 is very interesting: 2012-07-04 05:00:00 Note the zeros in the minutes and seconds.

The claim of "first anonymous coin"  belongs to Dash before it belongs to Bytecoin.

Edit:

For comparison:

Bitcoin block 1 timestamp: 2009-01-09 02:54:25
Dash block 1 timestamp: 2014-01-19 03:54:41
DigitalNote block 1 timestamp: 2014-05-30 21:51:26
Monero block 1 timestamp: 2014-04-18 10:49:53
ShadowCash block 1 timestamp: 2014-07-19 09:06:08

There is a very simple way to test the relative performance of Monero "official" binaries, with Monero most recent source code as I explained in this post. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=753252.msg12036965#msg12036965. One can extend the same analysis to Bytecoin and form one's own conclusions on the pace of development and relative performance benchmarks of BCN and XMR. There is no need to trust anyone.

Edit: I do not hold any Bytecoin nor is buying BCN in my plans.

I see the XMR/XBT exchange rate in the short to medium term to be driven by the development effort currently going on in  Monero rather than external events such the fate of Mark Karpelès. There is an ever widening gap between the "official" binaries (over 8 months old) and the current master tree on GitHub. https://github.com/monero-project/bitmonero. My take is that the market has not yet fully priced this discrepancy.

How many market participants actually compile Monero on GNU/Linux from source, verses say run a compiled "official" Windows binary on Microsoft Windows 10 or even worse leave their Monero on Poloniex while trading from their iPads? I for one have compiled Monero from source on GNU/Linux (Ubuntu 15.04) and on the 100% Libre GNU/Linux distribution Trisquel 7.0. I can say that the improvement in performance memory requirements etc is easily several orders of magnitude.  Now those that are staying in the DRM infected walled gardens of Microsoft and Apple have two choices:
1) They can trust me regarding this discrepancy between the "official" binaries and the compiled source. The trouble with this is that my views are biased by the fact that I already hold a significant XMR position and stand to profit very handsomely by an increase in the XMR/XBT or XMR/USD exchange rate.. I have run my own benchmarks and there is no way I can justify selling any XMR in this market. Buying does still remain an option for me.
or what I really recommend:
2) They can cut of their Apple and Microsoft DRM chains of impoverishment, get out of the respective walled gardens and install GNU/Linux. This will allow them to compile Monero from source, run their own benchmarks, and compare them with the benchmarks of the "official" binaries and then form their own conclusions on the wisdom of buying or selling XMR in this market.  

I will point out that I have already profited handsomely from buying Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012 between 2 USD and 10 USD. During this period Apple had prohibited the iSheep form buying Bitcoin. This prohibition was enforced on IOS by the means of DRM.

Edit: Monero compiling instructions. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=652305.msg12033096#msg12033096 Thanks to GingerAle.

Just out curiosity how much ram did Bytecoin need and on what OS?

Edit: I found the answer Bytecoin takes 1.5- 2.0 GB of ram https://bytecointalk.org/showthread.php?tid=86

... but what I do not see here is the Bytecoin comits from 2012, 2013 and early 2014.

The question as to whether Bytecoin was a premine fraudulently disguised as a ninjamine (the most likely scenario) or an actual ninjamine (the claim made by Bytecoin's supporters) is the main subject of the following thread. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.msg8361633#msg8361633.

In either case we are talking of an 82% premine or even if we accept the Bytecoin supporters claim then it is an 82% ninjamine. The choice becomes really ugly + fraud (the most likely) or just really ugly.

If someone is looking for a long term investment and does not mind some slippage a market order on the wall can make a lot of sense. I suspect it may be fake, but it can still be taken down with a market order.  

So essntially 1 XMR = 10 USD and this could work.  In particular if the company were to increase its XMR holdings somewhat in the interim.

Is the public listing of this company on a stock exchange something that may happen in the future? The reason I ask is that this could be attractive to people in Canada who wish to hold XMR in tax free or tax tax deferred accounts (TFSA, RRSP etc).

Monero has had very good volume over the last year, so it is a very good choice to add to BTC-E.