Newby - looking for a 3 to 5 year investment

[Velkro]

Questions:

1) Is the above understanding correct?

2) If I am going for long-term investment, I should use a paper wallet. What's to stop me keeping my wallet address on one piece of paper and my private key somewhere else? So the two aren't kept together.

3) Can I choose my private key? For example, could I generate my private key from the first paragraph of my favourite book? That way I will never have to write it down nor store it with my wallet address. I will never forget it, provided I use the same method to recreate it each time I need it.

4) Does my wallet address ever change?

5) How do I create a wallet? Is the address allocated to me?

5) Living in the UK, where can I get my coins from in the first instance? I've heard bad things about Coinbase. What is this localbitcoins.com website? Is it safe to buy this way?

1. quite correct
2. yes paper wallet is best free solution, there are hardware wallets but they are expensive for amount u want to invest
3. this is called vanity addresses, you choose public address tho not private key numbers/letters
4. no, u can use always same address
5. u can generate it online, in online wallet or in software wallet
6. localbitcoins u buy from person in real life, other exchanges like coinbase, poloniex, bitstamp, gemini, kraken itd. u buy online

np, welcome in bitcoin world

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[BartS]

Given the size of your investment ($1300), I'd consider going all in on Ether.

Bitcoin and Ethereum both have very good long term growth opportunity, the challenge is that Ether is way earlier in its run than Bitcoin. With Ether currently trading at ~$250 you can buy more Ether than you can bitcoin and it's the number of "shares", coins you own that will give you real leverage to gain return on investment from any price growth in the future.

It's feasible that Ether gets up to the $2000s level and beyond (just as Bitcoin has). And with a cost bases of $250 you stand to make a 10x return on investment. However it's less likely that Bitcoin would take the same 10x run over the same time period...do you think Bitcoin could hit $25000 in just 3 years?

In the end you need to be happy with your investment, and diversification definitely plays a part. I just wanted to add my thoughts as someone who knows a lot professionally about these sorts of things.

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One more comment...

5) How do I create a wallet? Is the address allocated to me?

Check out this site for a list of a lot of wallet options: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Welcome to Bitcoin!

Price is not the most important thing, it is the market cap that matters and now that the market cap of bitcoin and ETH are closer then the logical conclusion is that wit will be very difficult for Ethereum to grow 10 times its current price, if you wanted to win that amount of money with Ethereum you are one year too late.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Since your investment amount is significant, and since you are planning to hold your coins for long term, I would suggest you to purchase a hardware wallet (such as Trezor). They are available for around $100 per piece. I agree that it sounds a little bit expensive, but trust me, it will give you the peace of mind. A lot of robberies are happening with online wallet right now.

[HabBear]

@BartS, you don't understand market capitalization. Market cap is the price of the coin (or investment) multiplied by the total number of coins (or shares) available. The price drives the market cap, which is why the price is so important.

And the comment of yours that I've bolded doesn't follow logic. The size of the market cap doesn't drive or influence buying decisions. Market cap is a consequence, not an influence.

When comparing ETH to BTC, ETH has a greater likilihood of growing 10x than BTC does. And LTC has greater liklihood than ETH, and so on. The OP's question was about whether to invest in BTC or ETH.

Given the size of your investment ($1300), I'd consider going all in on Ether.

Bitcoin and Ethereum both have very good long term growth opportunity, the challenge is that Ether is way earlier in its run than Bitcoin. With Ether currently trading at ~$250 you can buy more Ether than you can bitcoin and it's the number of "shares", coins you own that will give you real leverage to gain return on investment from any price growth in the future.

It's feasible that Ether gets up to the $2000s level and beyond (just as Bitcoin has). And with a cost bases of $250 you stand to make a 10x return on investment. However it's less likely that Bitcoin would take the same 10x run over the same time period...do you think Bitcoin could hit $25000 in just 3 years?

Welcome to Bitcoin!

Price is not the most important thing, it is the market cap that matters and now that the market cap of bitcoin and ETH are closer then the logical conclusion is that wit will be very difficult for Ethereum to grow 10 times its current price, if you wanted to win that amount of money with Ethereum you are one year too late.

[karanj]

According to me Bitcoin and Ether are the best investments apart from that you can go through the whitepapers of the new ICO and can analyse them.There are always hidden gems present.

[TetraFugolini]

I think bitcoin is your "safest" bet, ethereum forked before and all these ICO's are getting way more money than they are really worth.

[Icculus.]

I think bitcoin is your "safest" bet, ethereum forked before...

If Ethereum has forked and is past that hurdle that has unknown consequences, and Bitcoin hasn't...how does this make Bitcoin a better investment?

[arwin100]

I think bitcoin is your "safest" bet, ethereum forked before...

If Ethereum has forked and is past that hurdle that has unknown consequences, and Bitcoin hasn't...how does this make Bitcoin a better investment?

Maybe you should research for yourself so that you could see the result and you must be wise aswell as be more observant since there are several downfalls happening on it. And you must join each downfall happen so that you can earn with the pumps happening.

But you shouldn't be calm that there's always profit on bitcoins since particularly many people lose their capitals for not being attaintive to there investment on bitcoins.