Soon to be college grad in need of advice- what's the deal with Bitcoin?

[SpontaneousDream]

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest. Is this the real thing? Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life? What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it? What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now? Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

Thanks!

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[str4wm4n]

there's enough information on this forum for you to answer all your questions and more without having to make a new thread...

[jonald_fyookball]

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest. Is this the real thing? Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life? What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it? What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now? Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

Thanks!

It's the real thing.  Could have a huge return on investment, but nothing is certain and
The timeframe is unknown and depends on many factors.  Many helpful YouTube videos
Are out there to explain the concept.  You definitely will want to do a bit of research
On security before you invest.  IF you know what you are doing, it is very secure.

[freedomno1]

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest. Is this the real thing? Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life? What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it? What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now? Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

Thanks!

Yes it is the real thing
Treat it as both an investment and a gradual change to your everyday life as it gets more adopted
Value would drop if something superior was created
Governments can regulate it at exchanges but not destroy it without destroying the internet itself as it is decentralized
Best way is through Satoshi Nakamotos Whitepaper.
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Debt is something you should pay off but at the highest interest rates first
Investing in Bitcoin can speed up the process possibly of removing your debt if you can hold a time horizon of one year
Pending past results, since we cannot predict the future it is hard to tell but it would be a good time to get in as any now.

Very secure the weakest link in the system is you Human Errors

[semaforo]

  You can buy plane tickets with bitcoin- good prices on destinia.com

  Bitcoin is not an investment- it is a way to get out of the utter corruption of the current financial swamp. Seriously, just using dollars might go down in history as criminal- just because everyne is doing it doesn't make it right. It is our moral responsibility to avoid supportig the power of elite bankers who are using the labor of the oppressed for extravagant and luxurious life styles.

    You have to patronize bitcoin businesses and help the network grow, and the value of bitcoin will grow with it. You can put off paying your loans- every country in the world has done it.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Different-Centuries-Financial/dp/0691152640

[hello_good_sir]

I've been using bitcoin for three years now, and following it before then.

Is this the real thing?

Today I got a check in the mail for $30k from my credit union, the proceeds from selling a fairly large portion of my bitcoin holdings.  It doesn't get more real than that.

Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life?

Bitcoin was designed with certain properties that make it very similar to gold and other precious metals.  If you understand why gold is valuable (few do) then you will understand why bitcoin is valuable.  Based on its use as an investment we can expect the price per bitcoin to reach somewhere between $10k to $100k.  I believe that this will happen over the next 20 years.  However I think that the price will actually be higher, because of its non-investment uses.

Useful in your everyday life?  Some people are finding it useful in their everyday lives.  I haven't really had that experience yet.  However, as time goes on more and more infrastructure will be built, making bitcoin more and more useful.

If bitcoin starts to become widely used then the price per bitcoin may climb into the millions.  If this happens it won't be for a long time, at least a couple of generations.  Maybe it will happen before I die, maybe it won't.

What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it?

Government hostility would suppress its value.  A currency is less valuable if you can't use it without risking prison.  Can it be shut down?  That is debatable and kind of a big topic that would be hard to explain to a newbie.  I feel confident enough in bitcoin that I am keeping the majority of my wealth in bitcoin.

What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

Figure out why gold is valuable (hint: fungibility, scarcity, and convenience).  Then imagine that you could send gold over the internet (very convenient!).

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now?

I think that bitcoin won't perform well this year, so if you wait a while you'll probably still be able to get coins fairly cheaply, before we start to hit the $2000+ prices.

That said, the easiest way to get out of debt is to buy $1000 worth of bitcoins and wait a couple of years.

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

That's entirely up to you.  I keep my bitcoins in cold storage using 2 of 4 paper wallets distributed throughout the country.  The only way that I can lose my coins is if the site custodians collude against me.  I used to have much lower security but no one stole my coins then.

[CJYP]

Responses inline.

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest.
Is this the real thing?
Yes. This is a real thing with several billion dollars invested in it.
Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life?
Yes and yes. The thing is, they're tied -  The more useful it becomes in your everyday life, the better of an investment it will be. If it goes way up in value, it's probably partly because it's becoming useful in your everyday life.
What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value?
An altcoin dethroning bitcoin, enough governments banning its use that it won't have use in everyday life ever, a successful attack on the network, unforseen better thing comes along in the future, bursting bubbles, any number of other things I can't predict.
Can governments actually stop it/regulate it?
Yes and no. Governments can try, and they would be successful in stopping it from becoming mainstream. Which would cause it to lose a large portion of its value, leaving the network susceptible to attacks. However, they will have no more success than they did stopping bit torrent in terms of killing the concept of cryptocurrencies as a whole. There are altcoins that use different backing schemes and are thus less susceptible to attacks. If bitcoin was successfully attacked after a ban by governments, there would still exist a black market for one of those coins.
What's the best way for me to understand the concept?
How knowledgeable are you in computer science? I can't answer that without a little more information.

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now?
Pretend all the money you put into bitcoin is lost forever. You'd better still be able to pay off your debts and food, electricity, rent/mortgage, and have a little saved for bad weather if you can. Any money you have on top of that, feel free to invest in bitcoin, just go through the emotion you would experience if you lost it all in your head first. In my opinion, this could go either way - to the moon or to zero. You should do your own assessment of the situation though, and be wary of the advice of people on this forum. Yes, that includes my own.
Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?
Depending on where you're going, you may have the option to use bitcoin. Most big cities have a few places to spend your bitcoins. Outside of that, probably not so much. Though, that might change in a year.
Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?
Be careful. Your money is entirely tied to a number called your private key. Anyone with your private key can spend your money, and if your private key gets lost or deleted your money is gone forever. There are viruses that will try to steal your private key. Fortunately, bitcoin wallets have a feature to encrypt your private key. If you use that feature, and back up your (encrypted) wallet to several physical locations such that no one event can cause you to lose access to it (aka, give a friend who lives halfway across the world an encrypted copy - or put an encrypted copy on a cloud storage site), you are mostly set. Of course, it is possible that a virus could have a key logger. Fortunately, you can use something like lastpass to allow you to type in a different password, then copy-paste. Just set it to make you enter your last pass password every time you access the bitcoin password (for the record, you should be using something like last pass anyway for your random passwords on the Internet). Also, write down your wallet password on paper in case you lose access to your last pass account for whatever reason (don't worry, last pass can't read your passwords).
Finally, you might think it's simpler to let a service on the Internet like an exchange or web wallet hold your bitcoins for you, to deal with security. DON'T DO THAT. There isn't a service mature enough to trust with your coins yet. The probability that they'll just steal or lose them is significant.
Thanks!

there's enough information on this forum for you to answer all your questions and more without having to make a new thread...

That is not a helpful answer.
When someone comes to the forum asking for help, we should help them, not just say there's enough information on the forum. If the thread is deemed useless, it'll be closed.

[skooter]

  You can buy plane tickets with bitcoin- good prices on destinia.com

  Bitcoin is not an investment- it is a way to get out of the utter corruption of the current financial swamp. Seriously, just using dollars might go down in history as criminal- just because everyne is doing it doesn't make it right. It is our moral responsibility to avoid supportig the power of elite bankers who are using the labor of the oppressed for extravagant and luxurious life styles.

    You have to patronize bitcoin businesses and help the network grow, and the value of bitcoin will grow with it. You can put off paying your loans- every country in the world has done it.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Different-Centuries-Financial/dp/0691152640

Lol, you realize all currencies, including bitcoin is a ponzi scheme right?

Guess where the money came from to pay off early bitcoin investors? You guessed it, new investors.

At least with the dollar, you know what it's going to be worth. It has a steady decline of a few % / year in value (due to inflation). Yes, if you hold a dollar for 50 years, it'll lose almost all it's value, but you KNOW that in advance, it's NOT a surprise. And in 5 years, it'll have 80 - 90% of the purchasing power it does today.

With bitcoin, who the fuck knows what it's going to be worth a year from now. Could be 1000, could be 100.

[jonald_fyookball]

 You can buy plane tickets with bitcoin- good prices on destinia.com

  Bitcoin is not an investment- it is a way to get out of the utter corruption of the current financial swamp. Seriously, just using dollars might go down in history as criminal- just because everyne is doing it doesn't make it right. It is our moral responsibility to avoid supportig the power of elite bankers who are using the labor of the oppressed for extravagant and luxurious life styles.

    You have to patronize bitcoin businesses and help the network grow, and the value of bitcoin will grow with it. You can put off paying your loans- every country in the world has done it.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Different-Centuries-Financial/dp/0691152640

Lol, you realize all currencies, including bitcoin is a ponzi scheme right?

Guess where the money came from to pay off early bitcoin investors? You guessed it, new investors.

At least with the dollar, you know what it's going to be worth. It has a steady decline of a few % / year in value (due to inflation). Yes, if you hold a dollar for 50 years, it'll lose almost all it's value, but you KNOW that in advance, it's NOT a surprise. And in 5 years, it'll have 80 - 90% of the purchasing power it does today.

With bitcoin, who the fuck knows what it's going to be worth a year from now. Could be 1000, could be 100.

...or it could be $10,000. You do realize that the very uncertainty
you speak of is, is a necessary ingredient of a speculative
Investment, right?  (If the future value was a certainty,
everyone would jump on it and the opportunity would disappear)

Also you doing a disservice to bitcoin and this conversation
by labeling "all currencies a Ponzi scheme".

That is ridiculous.  Is gold a Ponzi scheme too?

You might as well say the entire economy is a Ponzi scheme
because anything that is ever sold has to be paid for by someone
else. 

[LAMarcellus]

Read my friend.
Read!

[Bit_Happy]

What is your college major?
You can work (part-time?) for BTC, and not need to invest much at first.

[jc01480]

Join the US armed forces, travel the world, and get paid while your student loan debts are forgiven.  Or buy BTC.  Or both...  Congratulations on your achievement.  May your future hold many fulfilling adventures.

[bitpop]

Bitcoin will be $1 million in a very short time

[Beliathon]

Hello and welcome to the Bitcointalk forum.

Is this the real thing?

Yes it is.

Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life?

Both. By the time this investment matures, there will be no fiat currencies left to "cash out" to, as everyone will be using cryptocurrency. The video I link below will elaborate on this explanation.

What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value?

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Many people invested in Bitcoin hoping that it'd be a "get rich quick" scheme. It didn't work out, as crypto's widespread adoption is going to take at least a couple of years, maybe as long as five to ten. These people bail out by the thousands at the first downturn, They also bail back in by the tens of thousands at the first upturn. This is why Bitcoin's price has been so unstable. Fear and greed.

Can governments actually stop it/regulate it?

No, nation-state governments cannot effectively do either. It's decentralized, just like file-sharing over torrents. They are powerless to stop it unless they destroyed the internet itself (won't happen).

What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaPgfErzeu0

Good luck, be safe, do your homework about smart security practices, and HAVE FUN!

[Brangdon]

Is this the real thing?

Yes.

Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life?

It's value as an investment is predicated on it being useful in every day life. However, in practice today, there isn't much you can do with it that you can't do at least as easily with a credit card. For me it's interesting for intellectual and philosophical reasons, and I expect/hope it will eventually be more practical.

What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value?

Success of a rival crypto-currency. If someone like Google or Amazon decided to support Litecoin and not Bitcoin, for example. That seems unlikely today. Bitcoin has all the momentum; for good or ill it has all the visibility and PR, and it's where the venture capital money seems to be going. However, that could change very quickly.

Can governments actually stop it/regulate it?

They can regulate it but not stop it, and generally they have no valid reason to stop it.

What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

Read a lot.

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now?

Short answer: yes, stay away. Long answer: don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Bitcoin is high risk. There's a real chance it will crash suddenly and in 6 months will be worth a fraction of its current value. It's not a safe and easy route to make enough to pay off your debt.

Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Perhaps. Today probably not, but if it takes a few years to pay off your debts, the situation hopefully will have changed by then.

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

It depends on how you manage your private keys. Most thefts have happened because people let websites manage the keys, and the websites got hacked. Some thefts have happened because people stored their keys themselves, and had bad security - not using encrypted wallets, or having a compromised machine with a keylogger that took their password. Good security is possible, but takes knowledge and effort.

[J_Dubbs]

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest. Is this the real thing? Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life? What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it? What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now? Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

Thanks!

Instead of paying the loans just buy Bitcoins, then when it goes up you just payoff the loan! If you buy Bitcoins you can be your own boss, getting wealthy is the reward for being smart enough to identify this investment opportunity!!

Okay. Dude, you went to college, right? Put some effort into it, don't be lazy and expect good advice from anyone.

[Bit_Happy]

Bitcoin will be $1 million in a very short time

Wow, I can give away BTC and still be rich! 

[bryant.coleman]

Bitcoin will be $1 million in a very short time

In a very short time? Seriously?

Here I am having enormous problems after the price nosedived from $1,200 to $450, and you are saying that the price will rocket to $ 1,000,000. Please tell me that the post was sarcastic.

[Bit_Happy]

Bitpop was being optimistically sarcastic.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

Hi all,

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin the other day and it sparked my interest. Is this the real thing? Should I treat it as more of an investment or will it actually be useful to my everyday life? What would cause Bitcoin to lose much of its value? Can governments actually stop it/regulate it? What's the best way for me to understand the concept?

I'm a soon to be college graduate with about 15k in debt that I need to pay off (should be able to do it within a year), should I stay away from Bitcoin for now? Also, I plan on traveling around the world for a while after my debts are paid off, will Bitcoin be used for this?

Also, how secure is it if someone tried to steal my money?

Thanks!

it's a way to buy drugs over the internet.  i wouldn't buy any