Should I invest $70,000 in Bitcoin? How should I do it?

[wachtwoord]

Buy MasterCoins then. It  was 0.01 few weeks back and now it' selling for 0.29 per MSC on http://buymastercoin.com/
MasterCoin Buyer/Seller Thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=287145.0

Being 29 times as expensive as a few weeks back is more of* an argument against buying something rather than for it. Did you ever tell a friend: "Dude, I bought an apple yesterday for 20 cents but today they're selling them for $5.80, you should really go buy one!" ?

* "More of" because it's not really an argument against buying something either. If something worth $1000 is selling at $1 one day then it's still a good value at $29

[1713926170]

1713926170

[lukey]

If you're getting 70k. I would not spend it all on bitcoins. 35% on bitcoins, and save the rest. And if you want, why not buy mining gear?

[Birdy]

And if you want, why not buy mining gear?

Because that's a terrible investment choice right now.

[pinger]

And if you want, why not buy mining gear?

Because that's a terrible investment choice right now.

I've to agree with that. Lets see how is difficulty by january.

[reannypleas]

How long should I keep it invested? What is my probability of loosing money?

If you look at BTC/USD graph then any 1 year investment did not loose value regardless when you bought. But then, no one knows future and there is always possibility BTC gets banned worldwide

[kickbit]

I think yes But never invest all your money in single place.

[nynexx]

Well if you ask, if you can invest, the short answer is yes. But it depends on your time frame.

You can buy shares for cex. Check my sig.

On the question on how you should do it, buy bitcoins from bitstamp or localbitcoins and then buy shares in cex and sell when it's a little bit profitable. You also will have a mining power in every share.

I would rather set fire to my own private parts than buy shares in cex.io. It is designed to fleece fools of their money.

So I bought a BUNCH of CEX.io shares at 0.0890 BTC/Gh/S. They mined for a week or so and they made me some BTC. Fractional compared to what I invested, yes, but it made me BTC regardless. Earlier this week, I sold off all my shares at 0.1089. 29% profit, not including the BTC I mined with their service. I was then able to buy back in at 0.0900. Today's price? 0.1110. I could do it all over again if I wanted.

Sooo... Keep telling yourself that, and keep sitting on BTC that is not technically earning you any money other than change in market price. I'll be over here making cash while I sleep, while I watch TV, and while I shower (but only during those times).

To the OP - yes put SOME of your money in BTC. Then, hedge that investment by using it to mine for you (like on CEX: https://cex.io/r/0/neuros/0/) as well as using an EMA trader for a long view on BTC. Because while sitting on BTC is profitable, trading them is more so. Also, I would take a certain percentage of that cash and put it in a traditional investment. $40k USD goes a long way in a mutual fund (not as volatile but promised, steady returns, usually).

[wachtwoord]

Mining for Bitcoin is more risky than holding Bitcoin directly.

I'd recommend to buy Bitcoin (don't make it 100% of your holdings though! ) but Dollar-cost average in over several months to a month (or indefinitely after that from your wages).

[MAbtc]

If planning to hold long term, anytime is a good time. If you are going to fret day to day over the price, consider not putting all your eggs in one basket.

[firstlast]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNo1-AqU61A

If I were you I'd buy a separate bitcoin only computer to do transactions. I would never use it for anything else.

And look into two-factor authentication. And paper wallets. $70K is a huge sum, and bitcoin is very unforgiving.

[gamersglory]

A great idea would be to invest 2-4k in Bitcoins (money that you can lose), and bring the rest to a trusted financial adviser.
If you are fully comfortable with the possibility of losing more money you can use the cash to invest in BitCoin startups or companies, to be honest, it would be better than speculating in BTCs directly. 

trusted financial adviser  No such thing! World markets are just as volatile. But one would think that sense bitcoin diffaculty is stedaly going up so should the value of bitcoin. less steady supply should = Higher value. so It's a gamble ether way. If it were me bitcoin would be the better risk   

[Kake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNo1-AqU61A

If I were you I'd buy a separate bitcoin only computer to do transactions. I would never use it for anything else.

And look into two-factor authentication. And paper wallets. $70K is a huge sum, and bitcoin is very unforgiving.

so do you actually have a separate computer yourself to do only bitcoin transactions?

[BTC^_^]

I am about to receive $70,000 in a couple days. My parents want me to put it into an investment account, but I am thinking about investing in BITCOIN. Do you think that I should do this? What would be the best way to invest in BITCOIN? How long should I keep it invested? What is my probability of loosing money? Thanks a lot for your opinion.

In my opinion, it depends on how long you wanna be invested in. If you are talking about long term (2~5 yrs) and have a strong heart against short-term dramas, investing some of your EXTRA money in Bitcoin right now is not a bad idea. Right now the best way to invest in Bitcoin is to buy actual Bitcoins and hold. But remember to backup the wallet file every time after sending out Bitcoins, otherwise you can lose the entire balance.

[BTC^_^]

I am about to receive $70,000 in a couple days. My parents want me to put it into an investment account, but I am thinking about investing in BITCOIN. Do you think that I should do this? What would be the best way to invest in BITCOIN? How long should I keep it invested? What is my probability of loosing money? Thanks a lot for your opinion.

In my opinion, it depends on how long you wanna be invested in. If you are talking about long term (2~5 yrs) and have a strong heart against short-term dramas, investing some of your EXTRA money in Bitcoin right now is not a bad idea. Right now the best way to invest in Bitcoin is to buy actual Bitcoins and hold. But remember to backup the wallet file every time after sending out Bitcoins, otherwise you can lose the entire balance.

The tragic lesson: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0
and "Insti" has the explanation:

"It sounds like they are lost for good.

Sad

Lesson to other people: Remember you need to back your wallet up after every transaction!
(The wallet metaphor is actually a bad one, because it makes problems like this more common than they should be.)

Edit: (more explaination)

When you do a transaction you always spend ALL of the coins in that address, part of the money goes to whoever you're paying, and there rest is returned to you an a new 'change' address. (This helps your anonymity as someone watching cannot tell which amount you spent and which amount you kept.)

Before transaction:
Address1: 9000
Address2: 0

After transaction:
Address1: 0
Address2: 1
Address3: 8999

It sounds like you have wallet.dat that contains the private keys for Address1 and Address2, but not Address3.
(Although the numbers in your story don't add up.)
What were the Bitcoin addresses? (If we know these we can do some more in-depth block chain research)
"

[ninjaboon]

Buy MasterCoins then. It  was 0.01 few weeks back and now it' selling for 0.29 per MSC on http://buymastercoin.com/
MasterCoin Buyer/Seller Thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=287145.0

I don't think invest in another alt coin is a good investment long term, at least is higher risk than bitcoin.

MasterCoin is technically not an "alt coin".
Do check this out: 300 BTC Coding Contest: Distributed Exchange (MasterCoin Developer Thread)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292628.120

[ninjaboon]

I am about to receive $70,000 in a couple days. My parents want me to put it into an investment account, but I am thinking about investing in BITCOIN. Do you think that I should do this? What would be the best way to invest in BITCOIN? How long should I keep it invested? What is my probability of loosing money? Thanks a lot for your opinion.

In my opinion, it depends on how long you wanna be invested in. If you are talking about long term (2~5 yrs) and have a strong heart against short-term dramas, investing some of your EXTRA money in Bitcoin right now is not a bad idea. Right now the best way to invest in Bitcoin is to buy actual Bitcoins and hold. But remember to backup the wallet file every time after sending out Bitcoins, otherwise you can lose the entire balance.

The tragic lesson: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0
and "Insti" has the explanation:

"It sounds like they are lost for good.

Sad

Lesson to other people: Remember you need to back your wallet up after every transaction!
(The wallet metaphor is actually a bad one, because it makes problems like this more common than they should be.)

Edit: (more explaination)

When you do a transaction you always spend ALL of the coins in that address, part of the money goes to whoever you're paying, and there rest is returned to you an a new 'change' address. (This helps your anonymity as someone watching cannot tell which amount you spent and which amount you kept.)

Before transaction:
Address1: 9000
Address2: 0

After transaction:
Address1: 0
Address2: 1
Address3: 8999

It sounds like you have wallet.dat that contains the private keys for Address1 and Address2, but not Address3.
(Although the numbers in your story don't add up.)
What were the Bitcoin addresses? (If we know these we can do some more in-depth block chain research)
"

Thanks for the lesson. All newbies should learn about this.
On the other hand, if you use Electrum [http://electrum.org/], it works diffferently from the Bitcoin-QT.

Electrum is an easy to use Bitcoin client. It protects you from losing coins in a backup mistake or computer failure, because your wallet can be recovered from a secret phrase that you can write on paper or learn by heart. There is no waiting time when you start the client, because it does not download the Bitcoin blockchain.

[firstlast]

I am about to receive $70,000 in a couple days. My parents want me to put it into an investment account, but I am thinking about investing in BITCOIN. Do you think that I should do this? What would be the best way to invest in BITCOIN? How long should I keep it invested? What is my probability of loosing money? Thanks a lot for your opinion.

In my opinion, it depends on how long you wanna be invested in. If you are talking about long term (2~5 yrs) and have a strong heart against short-term dramas, investing some of your EXTRA money in Bitcoin right now is not a bad idea. Right now the best way to invest in Bitcoin is to buy actual Bitcoins and hold. But remember to backup the wallet file every time after sending out Bitcoins, otherwise you can lose the entire balance.

The tragic lesson: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0
and "Insti" has the explanation:

"It sounds like they are lost for good.

Sad

Lesson to other people: Remember you need to back your wallet up after every transaction!
(The wallet metaphor is actually a bad one, because it makes problems like this more common than they should be.)

Edit: (more explaination)

When you do a transaction you always spend ALL of the coins in that address, part of the money goes to whoever you're paying, and there rest is returned to you an a new 'change' address. (This helps your anonymity as someone watching cannot tell which amount you spent and which amount you kept.)

Before transaction:
Address1: 9000
Address2: 0

After transaction:
Address1: 0
Address2: 1
Address3: 8999

It sounds like you have wallet.dat that contains the private keys for Address1 and Address2, but not Address3.
(Although the numbers in your story don't add up.)
What were the Bitcoin addresses? (If we know these we can do some more in-depth block chain research)
"

Only partially true. The current client stores the next 100 addresses in the backup. This includes change addresses and newly generated addresses. You only need to backup your wallet once every 100 transactions.

[faizaa123]

I've invested approximately $30,000 into Bitcoin miners.  In my experience I would say that it certainly is worth it if you know what you're doing and you have your logistics covered.

If you are looking for a quick buck without putting in any time and learning the particulars of whatever currency you're after... you'll be in for a rough haul.

Also, your country of origin is an important factor.

[Klubknuckle]

Invest $35,000 in Bitcoin and $35,000 in Litecoin. 10 years later WOHOOO...

[bored]

Diversify. Sure it sounds good to maybe hit the btc jackpot, but there is always the opposite end of that as well.