Is 1 bitcoin a decent and good investment?

[nextblast]

1 btc is decent investment. Rest assured that he owns 1/20M of total wealth some day in the future.

[polynesia]

1 btc is decent investment. Rest assured that he owns 1/20M of total wealth some day in the future.

1/21M of total money supply, not wealth. 

[JayJuanGee]

1 btc is decent investment. Rest assured that he owns 1/20M of total wealth some day in the future.

1/21M of total money supply, not wealth. 

In either event, an investor should NOT place all of his investment in one basket - eg investing 1btc in BTC... and dollar cost averaging is a much better way to shore up your bet(s)... whether you are betting on BTC or some other assets... you would bet what you can afford in any of the areas that you deem are probable good bets... and/or stable bets.. maybe a little of your assets in each class of assets..  and at this time, 1BTC seems to be way too little for most purposes...  unless there remains a lot of luck..

[tee-rex]

1 btc is decent investment. Rest assured that he owns 1/20M of total wealth some day in the future.

1/21M of total money supply, not wealth. 

1/21M of the wealth that 21M bitcoins can buy.

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

Essentially said "Uncle" will be rewarded when/if Bitcoin hits $1 trillion capitalization.

There's a realistic chance of it happening but no guarantee yet.  It would be nice to see Dot.com styled money ($7 trillion in the late 1990s) but there's no signs of that happening yet.

Hard to say what's going to happen with crypto currencies.  It's the uncomfortable truth but maybe the concept is good but the deliverance is bad.  Don't forget that Ripple came before Bitcoin and went no where and still hasn't go anywhere (if you took away the 97% premine Ripple is worth very little).  The myspace comparisons could be correct in that Bitcoin could be replaced by an unforeseen alternate which is better at advertising or is more accessible to use.

Yikes, people didn't lose money when myspace lost out to facebook.
There will be a lot of people who will see their dreams dashed if some altcoin emerges as the bitcoin-killer.

The most likely scenario would be that any replacement of BTC by an alt would NOT occur over night.  Accordingly, astute BTC investors will be best served to pay attention to up and coming seemingly competitive alt currencies... accordingly, if BTC investors were to identify an up and coming competitive alt currency, then the BTC investor could hedge his/her bets by transferring over some, if NOT all, of his/her bitcoin investment into the up and coming competitor currency.

With any market, investors bet on probabilities and likely outcomes and sometimes momentum (what everyone else is doing)...

As time has gone by, I've become more and more convinced that bitcoin is here to stay as the main cryptocurrency.  Some of the alt coins are already better in a lot of ways, but they aren't even close to dethroning bitcoin.  If anything, it seems more likely that alt coin improvements will eventually be integrated into bitcoin to make it better.  But of course I could always be wrong.

[polynesia]

If anything, it seems more likely that alt coin improvements will eventually be integrated into bitcoin to make it better. 

Ah.... the advantages of open source.

[tee-rex]

If anything, it seems more likely that alt coin improvements will eventually be integrated into bitcoin to make it better. 

Ah.... the advantages of open source.

Some improvements simply couldn't be integrated into Bitcoin without affecting interests of all Bitcoin holders. This would be equal to some major monetary reform involving changing one currency for another. And Bitcoin after that wouldn't be the Bitcoin that we know of today.

[Razick]

I'm saving 50$ each month to try to build one bitcoin but I fear that in some months the value will be too high.

This is called dollar cost averaging. When you buy over time, sometimes the price will be lower and sometimes the price will be higher. This will prevent you from spending all of your investible money when the price is at it's peak, but it also means that you won't buy when it is at it's lowest. IMO this is a very good way to invest in anything over the long term.

And without even trying you lower your average purchase cost because you buy more when the price is low and less when it is high.

[Swordsoffreedom]

I'm saving 50$ each month to try to build one bitcoin but I fear that in some months the value will be too high.

This is called dollar cost averaging. When you buy over time, sometimes the price will be lower and sometimes the price will be higher. This will prevent you from spending all of your investible money when the price is at it's peak, but it also means that you won't buy when it is at it's lowest. IMO this is a very good way to invest in anything over the long term.

And without even trying you lower your average purchase cost because you buy more when the price is low and less when it is high.

Yep DCA should work fine the only real issue is when there is a rapid increase in price
Say buy 50 dollars worth at 90 dollars/coin then 50 at 250 dollars a coin then 50 at 125 then 50 at 400 then 50 at 250 then 50 at ...

Actually that might have worked pretty well for them considering Bitcoins price history lol.

[botany]

I'm saving 50$ each month to try to build one bitcoin but I fear that in some months the value will be too high.

This is called dollar cost averaging. When you buy over time, sometimes the price will be lower and sometimes the price will be higher. This will prevent you from spending all of your investible money when the price is at it's peak, but it also means that you won't buy when it is at it's lowest. IMO this is a very good way to invest in anything over the long term.

And without even trying you lower your average purchase cost because you buy more when the price is low and less when it is high.

Good strategy in volatile markets.

[cinder]

Buying 1 bitcoin should be considered insurance rather than investment. Same with gold.

It is a way to insure against total economic collapse.

[JayJuanGee]

Buying 1 bitcoin should be considered insurance rather than investment. Same with gold.

It is a way to insure against total economic collapse.

Whether you call it insurance or hedging your investment bets, it amounts to the same thing, so long as all of your eggs are NOT in one basket.  On the other hand, if you hedge too much, and fail to invest sufficiently, you will miss out on opportunities to dramatically increase your holdings... that is the risk of poosy-footing around too much and failing/refusing to take some risks.

[the joint]

My opinion, condensed as simply as possible, is that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are an extremely unique and rare investment opportunity.  The potential payoff from this type of investment is enormous, and so I think it really boils down to two questions:  1)  Can you afford to lose whatever money you put in? and, 2) Can you imagine any other way to invest the money you can afford to lose that will leave you feeling more confident and/or satisfied with your investment?

The second question is really about your preferences and what you're looking to accomplish.  If you're the type of person that likes to be able to predict your investment returns within a reasonably small margin of error, you might want to look elsewhere.  An extreme example of this type of passive income model would be putting your money into a bank savings account with a known interest rate, or to a lesser extent investing into dividend stocks with a known payout per share.

If on the other hand you're the type of person that can cope with risk well and don't mind the uncertainty of your investment because your uneasiness is easily countered by your hopes of insane returns, then investing into BTC might be for you.

If you want to play it a little safer but still invest, why not take a small percentage (e.g. 1-3%) of every paycheck you receive and invest that money into  BTC on a biweekly or monthly basis?  This will allow you some room to modify your position on the fly as the market continues to evolve.

Whether BTC is a good or bad investment is ultimately an unknown.  However, I think it's quite apparent that decentralized cryptocurrencies in general are causing a global stir, so I would say that finding some way to invest into *something* BTC-related is a good investment idea.  I think at the very least it deserves serious research and consideration.

[dadugan]

Betting on bitcoin should be considered gambling rather than an investment.

Investment is something that has return of investment based on profit and yield on an asset.

[the joint]

Essentially said "Uncle" will be rewarded when/if Bitcoin hits $1 trillion capitalization.

There's a realistic chance of it happening but no guarantee yet.  It would be nice to see Dot.com styled money ($7 trillion in the late 1990s) but there's no signs of that happening yet.

Hard to say what's going to happen with crypto currencies.  It's the uncomfortable truth but maybe the concept is good but the deliverance is bad.  Don't forget that Ripple came before Bitcoin and went no where and still hasn't go anywhere (if you took away the 97% premine Ripple is worth very little).  The myspace comparisons could be correct in that Bitcoin could be replaced by an unforeseen alternate which is better at advertising or is more accessible to use.

Yikes, people didn't lose money when myspace lost out to facebook.
There will be a lot of people who will see their dreams dashed if some altcoin emerges as the bitcoin-killer.

The most likely scenario would be that any replacement of BTC by an alt would NOT occur over night.  Accordingly, astute BTC investors will be best served to pay attention to up and coming seemingly competitive alt currencies... accordingly, if BTC investors were to identify an up and coming competitive alt currency, then the BTC investor could hedge his/her bets by transferring over some, if NOT all, of his/her bitcoin investment into the up and coming competitor currency.

With any market, investors bet on probabilities and likely outcomes and sometimes momentum (what everyone else is doing)...

As time has gone by, I've become more and more convinced that bitcoin is here to stay as the main cryptocurrency.  Some of the alt coins are already better in a lot of ways, but they aren't even close to dethroning bitcoin.  If anything, it seems more likely that alt coin improvements will eventually be integrated into bitcoin to make it better.  But of course I could always be wrong.

I generally agree with this, but as time has gone by, and especially after seeing how market sentiment responds to BTC endorsements and condemnations from various governments, I think that a government- or corporate-issued cryptocurrency would stand a better chance of dethroning BTC, especially if the majority of people don't mind government issued money.  I think that last point is debatable.  Referring back to one of your recent posts, I'm thinking of the 'average Joe' who probably just cares that his money and whatever service he uses to transact with it both work.

[zetaray]

If 1 bitcoin is all you can afford, it is decent enough. Ten times more decent than anyone who owns 0.1 of a bitcoin. You are not going to get rich with 1 bitcoin, but it is a good investment. You should be able to buy something nice in a few years' time.

[the joint]

Betting on bitcoin should be considered gambling rather than an investment.

Investment is something that has return of investment based on profit and yield on an asset.

Gambling and investing fall on the same spectrum.  Some investments are simply more predictable than others.  At one extreme, you have a coin flip which, though having a known probability of landing heads or tails, is a pure gamble.  At the opposite extreme, you have investment into a bank savings account with an exact known compounding rate of return.   Most investments fall somewhere inbetween.  The main difference between investing and gambling is that, when you invest, you have information available to you that, if interpreted correctly, will give you sound insight into outcomes that have not yet occurred.  If. for example, you found out some additional information that a coin that's about to be flipped was modified to give it extra weight on the heads side, then you would know that it's better to call tails.  If you call tails every time with that coin, you will be correct more than 50% of the time given infinite trials.

Investing in Bitcoin in some ways isn't any different than investing into a stock.  When investing in company stock, you research the company (e.g. infrastructure development, company profit model, competency of executive employees, etc.).  With BTC you can research market charts and graphs, sample community sentiment, research infrastructure development and adoption rates, etc.  It's obvious that BTC carries more unknowns and more risk, but it's not a coin-flip gamble.

[asganauei]

I will own 1 btc in september (now I have 0.9), then I'll hold it forever hoping it will be a decent investment.

[klovishey]

I think it is better to hold 1 BTC than 600 USD in saving bank account.

With USD inflation you loose a bit even if you get some interest in saving bank account.
With the adoption of Bitcoin happening right now it is hard to believe Bitcoin will loose value, at least short term (next years)

[giveBTCpls]

Bitcoin in itself is a risky enough investment to worry about investing in altcoins. There isn't a single altcoin besides Monero (and it would be a secondary altcoin) that's worth holding long term, absolutely no other coin has a point to exist, beyond pump and dumps (fuck my life, didn't bough on that Supercoin thing.. but then again, it's just all a lottery).
So yeah, focus on dollar averaging on BTC.