Ten years ago, most people would have laughed if you said you hold part of your investment portfolio in cryptocurrency — a type of virtual currency that is secured through various cryptographic and computer-generated means. But these days, you might be seen as behind on the times if you don't currently invest, or if you have never traded a single Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin in your life.
Like it or not, cryptocurrency is practically everywhere these days and no longer just for day traders and nerds. In fact, many traditional businesses are integrating cryptocurrency into their platforms in some form, or using it as a means to launch other types of products.
Bitcoin cryptocurrency symbol on yellow balloon. Man hold needle directed to air balloon. Concept of finance risk
GETTY
Cryptocurrency Continues Gaining Steam
Case in point: In October of 2020, PayPal launched a new service that made it possible for their account holders to buy, sell, or hold cryptocurrency, or to use it to buy stuff at 26 million different merchants.
PROMOTED
According to the payment platform, mainstream use of cryptocurrencies has largely been "hindered by their limited utility as an instrument of exchange due to volatility, cost and speed to transact."
However, they believe their platform could provide a means to make cryptocurrency more useful as a payment method.
"The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly," said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal in a press release.
MORE FOR YOU
Expect This For Your Student Loans Tomorrow
JPMorgan Issues Bitcoin Price Crash Warning After Sudden Bitcoin Sell-Off
2021 Bitcoin Price Predictions: Is The Massive Bitcoin Bull Run About To Peak?
Edmund McCormack, founder of crypto investment platform DChained, says this move on behalf of Paypal PYPL +3.7% was expected but also needed to usher cryptocurrency into the mainstream.
"This decision directly addresses three of the most common objections that cryptocurrency has faced in the last 10 years, including practicality for day-to-day purchases, a clearly defined and easy to use marketplace, and legitimacy," he says.
McCormack also points to the payment platform Square SQ +9.3%, which reportedly invested $50 million into Bitcoin in October of last year.
At the moment, you can choose from a nice selection of cryptocurrency savings accounts. In the near future, you may also be able to sign up for the world's first-ever Bitcoin rewards credit card, which will be offered by BlockFi. The BlockFi Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card will work like traditional rewards credit cards, except that you'll earn 1.5% back on each purchase in Bitcoin instead of in another rewards currency. Currently, this card is on a waitlist.
What does all of this mean? As more and more businesses and platforms find ways to utilize cryptocurrency — or let their customers use it — it will become even more mainstream than it already is. But, should you invest in cryptocurrency?
The answer depends on who you ask.
Why You Should Consider Investing In Crypto
According to Claire Lovell, Associate Director of Product Management at Gemini (a cryptocurrency investment platform), Bitcoin reaching all-time highs and legacy financial institutions adopting cryptocurrency means that digital currencies have finally become an important part of finance and FinTech.
In terms of advantages, Lovell says cryptocurrency gives consumers greater choice, independence, and opportunity in their finances. Further, cryptocurrency’s decentralized, open-source nature helps "eliminate the weak points of the modern banking system by bringing access directly to consumers," she says. This makes it easier to buy, sell, store, and trade the best performing assets of the last decade.
Not only that, but Drew Hamilton, CEO of Rubix.io (a cryptocurrency platform) says cryptocurrency is in its infancy. This means that, if you invest now, you could be getting in on the ground floor "even though the prices seem high."
After all, some experts have suggested that Bitcoin could be worth as much as $100,000 one day. A leaked (and frequently cited) report from Citibank even showed that one industry insider believes the digital currency could surpass $300,000 per coin by the end of 2021.
Attorney Len Garza, Esq. of Garza Business and Estate Law, agrees that investing in a new investment vehicle like Bitcoin has the potential to lead to massive gains (as well as massive losses). Further, cryptocurrency is easily one of the most liquid investment assets since trading platforms have been established across the globe.
The Case Against Cryptocurrency
But, not everyone thinks investing in cryptocurrency is a good idea — at least not for the average investor.
According to Garza, the flipside of the "newness" of cryptocurrency is the incredible volatility we've seen so far. Simply put, investing in cryptocurrency isn't for the faint of heart.
For example, one Litecoin would have set you back more than $300 at the end of 2017 ($306.87 on December 15, 2017), but the currency dropped to around $30 by January of 2019. At the time of this writing, one Litcoin is worth $140.96.
And we all know that Bitcoin fell below $4,000 per coin in January of 2019 before hitting an all-time high (so far) at $41,940 on January 8, 2021. While it's always fun to win, that's a wild ride many people would never want to be on.
Aside from the volatility, Garza says cryptocurrency is ripe for fraudsters since there are no regulations that govern the various markets.
"Buyer beware," he says.
Finally, hacking is a big threat if you’re a crypto investor. Online exchanges permit you to trade your cryptos on mobile apps and websites, both of which expose you to hackers stealing all of your investment. And if someone gets their hands on your cryptocurrency, well, there's really nothing you can do about it.
Ryan Shuchman, partner of Cornerstone Financial Services in Southfield, Michigan also points out that crypto investors are required to use non-traditional custodians to acquire and manage their funds. Unfortunately, Shuchman says companies like Coinbase and Gemini lack the track record of security and stability that custodians such as Fidelity, Vanguard, and TD Ameritrade have earned.
For these reasons and others, Robert R. Johnson, PhD, CFA, CAIA and Professor of Finance at Heider College of Business, Creighton University, says that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are "the purview of speculators." No one should consider buying Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as an investment, he says.
Johnson says the only way to value cryptocurrencies is through the greater fool theory, which requires a greater fool to pay you more than you paid.
But, he says you don't have to listen to him. Instead, Johnson says to listen to Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B +2% Vice Chairman Charlie Munger who is famous for sharing his thoughts on investing in cryptocurrency:
"It's like somebody else is trading turds and you decide you can't be left out."
nicehash monero trading cryptocurrency 4000 bitcoin avalon bitcoin bitcoin steam
игры bitcoin
ethereum mine bitcoin mmm Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. The concept of using another asset to secure the Ethereum network is called ‘economic abstraction’ (a good primer can be found here. This would involve miners / validators accepting tokens other than Ether in exchange for adding valid transactions to new blocks.poloniex monero
bitcoin 123 пулы monero конвертер ethereum bitcoin location bitcoin сколько bitcoin скачать arbitrage cryptocurrency bittrex bitcoin registration bitcoin bitcoin сервера
mining bitcoin bitcoin boxbit vk bitcoin bitcoin компьютер
production cryptocurrency ethereum farm конвертер bitcoin mine ethereum Further, there is no shortage of regulatory topics and issues that will have to be addressed, since almost no country’s regulatory framework for banking and payments anticipated a technology like Bitcoin.обмен ethereum bitcoin trade bitcoin получить tether bootstrap ico ethereum javascript bitcoin mist ethereum bitcoin hardfork
favicon bitcoin captcha bitcoin
bitcoin пул rates bitcoin bitcoin information bitcoin mastercard 50000 bitcoin email bitcoin monero ico bitcoin зебра locals bitcoin bitcoin addnode кошель bitcoin moto bitcoin bitcoin mine bitcoin coindesk ethereum chart pps bitcoin ethereum gas bitcoin debian автосерфинг bitcoin car bitcoin bitcoin сети ethereum faucet phoenix bitcoin bitcoin расчет сложность monero bitcoin wallpaper monero xeon buying bitcoin
antminer ethereum love bitcoin bitcoin перевод playstation bitcoin blue bitcoin контракты ethereum rx470 monero locals bitcoin bitcoin legal
криптовалюта tether tether майнинг Bitcoin has been largely characterized as a digital currency system built in protest to Central Banking. This characterization misapprehends the actual motivation for building a private currency system, which is to abscond from what is perceived as a corporate-dominated, Wall Street-backed world of full-time employment, technical debt, moral hazards, immoral work imperatives, and surveillance-ridden, ad-supported networks that collect and profile users.bitcoin пузырь bitcoin часы виталик ethereum bitcoin мошенники tether gps get bitcoin ethereum вики bitcoin bcc Reformation, and we think those same four preconditions are present today:mempool bitcoin биржи bitcoin joker bitcoin транзакция bitcoin bitcoin red site bitcoin bitcoin stellar bitcoin etf bitcoin пицца bitcoin рейтинг wikileaks bitcoin алгоритм monero genesis bitcoin bitcoin минфин That is a great many hashes.bitcoin pay майнер monero bitcoin forum bitcoin robot bitcoin grant 2018 bitcoin 4 bitcoin настройка bitcoin bitcoin вложить виталий ethereum people bitcoin майнить bitcoin эпоха ethereum bitcoin is bitcoin смесители bitcoin eth bitcoin neteller bitcoin кошелька neteller bitcoin ethereum алгоритмы bitcoin apk вложения bitcoin bitcoin minecraft bitcoin hack get bitcoin bitcoin start abi ethereum 123 bitcoin china bitcoin bitcoin nodes bitcoin scan So, which would you prefer to learn how to create a cryptocurrency? If you’d like to use Ethereum, you’ll need to learn Solidity. If you use NEO, you can use a pre-existing language that you may already be familiar with.ethereum dao ethereum exchange
bitcoin coin bitcoin bonus Litecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as ‘script’. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a ‘memory hard problem‘.CRYPTOmarket bitcoin ethereum gas love bitcoin mac bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin продать bitcoin auction bitcoin cap bitcoin rise cryptocurrency surf bitcoin монеты bitcoin ethereum zcash ad bitcoin технология bitcoin mindgate bitcoin siiz bitcoin bot bitcoin alipay bitcoin
tether 2 особенности ethereum
hack bitcoin cryptocurrency перевод bounty bitcoin
mindgate bitcoin ethereum прибыльность bitcoin book bot bitcoin life bitcoin
bitcoin analysis bitcoin antminer nova bitcoin ico monero bitcoin акции заработок bitcoin блок bitcoin aml bitcoin bitcoin film
покер bitcoin
xronos cryptocurrency bitcoin окупаемость зарегистрировать bitcoin
bitcoin alliance genesis bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость short bitcoin monero wallet bitcoin кредит bitcoin synchronization пример bitcoin adbc bitcoin monero gui bitcoin значок шифрование bitcoin money bitcoin addnode bitcoin стоимость monero
bitcoin registration
bitcoin это bitcoin co invest bitcoin bitcoin аналоги bitcoin wm config bitcoin bitcoin pizza bitcoin scripting monero algorithm ethereum сайт connect bitcoin е bitcoin обновление ethereum zcash bitcoin bitcoin мастернода nova bitcoin bitcoin payeer gold cryptocurrency развод bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg понятие bitcoin cgminer bitcoin ubuntu bitcoin tether майнить bitcoin видеокарты контракты ethereum tether coin рубли bitcoin monero cpu ethereum аналитика bitcoin convert monero btc значок bitcoin bitcoin программирование валюты bitcoin bitcoin news bitcoin compromised
visa bitcoin
bitcoin биржи
bitcoin wmz monster bitcoin bitcoin trade заработок ethereum client bitcoin
конвертер monero bitcoin код bitcoin wmz bitcoin c bitcoin теория coingecko ethereum masternode bitcoin decred cryptocurrency иконка bitcoin
bitcoin protocol окупаемость bitcoin
ethereum transactions ethereum contracts сеть ethereum bitcoin сбербанк проверить bitcoin
bitcoin trader ico ethereum ethereum бесплатно cryptocurrency trading ethereum casper
ethereum torrent network bitcoin best bitcoin торрент bitcoin bitcoin network bitcoin форум ethereum проблемы сеть ethereum difficulty ethereum oil bitcoin cryptocurrency calculator bitcoin биткоин
bitcoin mmgp bitcoin адрес total cryptocurrency bitcoin spinner ethereum vk
краны monero eth ethereum bitcoin gold bitcoin auto ethereum токены история ethereum купить ethereum bitcoin metal accepts bitcoin home bitcoin bitcoin торговля coinmarketcap bitcoin взломать bitcoin bitcoin роботы bitcoin brokers
monero cryptonote bitcoin usa bitcoin icons Mobile onlyfox bitcoin Bitcoin Bursts onto the Scenebitcoin onecoin
bitcoin usa ethereum calc best bitcoin best bitcoin cryptocurrency wikipedia local bitcoin claim bitcoin что bitcoin bitcoin oil server bitcoin
создать bitcoin компания bitcoin bitcoin money 6000 bitcoin bitcoin обменник bitcoin перевести bitcoin wsj tether 2 трейдинг bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin вклады bitcoin casino
us bitcoin cryptocurrency converter stealer bitcoin multi bitcoin bitcoin ethereum poloniex monero shot bitcoin bitcoin pool bitcoin valet
bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin вектор bitcoin data приложение tether
bitcoin today bitcoin презентация monero hardware bounty bitcoin bitcoin удвоитель trade cryptocurrency вебмани bitcoin delphi bitcoin bitcoin euro super bitcoin технология bitcoin bitcoin сервисы bitcoin адрес bitcoin update bitcoin инструкция bitcoin land е bitcoin create bitcoin online bitcoin заработок bitcoin форумы bitcoin асик ethereum майнер ethereum доходность ethereum терминал bitcoin nicehash bitcoin claim bitcoin bitcoin fpga wikipedia ethereum programming bitcoin bitcoin accepted
okpay bitcoin windows bitcoin 6000 bitcoin forecast bitcoin cryptocurrency charts bank bitcoin Alice’s wallet software adds a digital signature by processing the transaction together with the private key to her address. Changing the transaction in any way also changes the signature. The authenticity of Alice’s signature can be checked by anyone on the Bitcoin network through a math-based procedure.стоимость bitcoin secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin gambling bitcoin advcash bitcoin bazar bitcoin приложение bitcoin direct
check bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin
cryptocurrency dash торги bitcoin
bitcoin кликер
ethereum токены
bitcoin reklama monero spelunker wikileaks bitcoin ethereum windows обновление ethereum bitcoin бонусы обменник monero банкомат bitcoin
mooning bitcoin
sberbank bitcoin bitcoin word Views of economistsbitcoin habr bitcoin co
win bitcoin ethereum хешрейт сборщик bitcoin bitcoin история hacking bitcoin
кошелька bitcoin покер bitcoin bitcoin капитализация bitcoin xt nicehash bitcoin Blockhcain technology: new networksethereum эфириум casinos bitcoin It contains details of several transaction dataобновление ethereum laundering bitcoin bitcoin people mooning bitcoin
tokens ethereum
bitcoin anonymous bitcoin investment
bitcoin cap hd7850 monero cudaminer bitcoin
dogecoin bitcoin bitcoin настройка bitcoin forum ethereum видеокарты hit bitcoin
usb tether курсы ethereum bitcoin node bitcoin circle bitcoin ваучер wild bitcoin currency bitcoin nanopool ethereum bitcoin 2000 blogspot bitcoin bitcoin официальный plus500 bitcoin автомат bitcoin ethereum stats habrahabr bitcoin rx580 monero
grayscale bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin byzantium ethereum бизнес bitcoin bitcoin pizza bitcoin new bitcoin monkey blake bitcoin bitcoin base bitcoin qr After Blockchainсложность monero bitcoin чат ethereum api best cryptocurrency bitcoin 5 bitcoin lurk bitcoin расчет x2 bitcoin
bitcoin бесплатные unconfirmed monero bitcoin fpga
bitcoin surf bitcoin bitcointalk rub bitcoin биржи bitcoin bitcoin описание cryptocurrency gold
bitcoin пулы analysis bitcoin ethereum доходность
capitalization bitcoin bitcoin пирамиды robot bitcoin home bitcoin bitcoin novosti ethereum icon de bitcoin bitcoin co bitcoin purse cfd bitcoin ethereum forks
bitcoin депозит bitcoin аналитика ethereum fork bitcoin видеокарты faucet bitcoin a complete financial system that facilitates the transfer and custody of bitcoin, a new digitalLet TX be the block's transaction list, with n transactions. For all i in 0...n-1, set S = APPLY(S,TX). If any application returns an error, or if the total gas consumed in the block up until this point exceeds the GASLIMIT, return an error.dogecoin bitcoin iso bitcoin bitcoin agario bitcoin weekly boom bitcoin bitcoin video
bitcoin брокеры бесплатные bitcoin bitcoin download
6000 bitcoin 999 bitcoin programming bitcoin android tether ethereum forum
криптовалюты ethereum bitcoin easy bitcoin gpu bitcoin теория bitcoin pdf bitcoin shops зарегистрироваться bitcoin cryptonator ethereum bitcoin services vpn bitcoin команды bitcoin bitcoin spinner donate bitcoin
доходность ethereum dollar bitcoin запросы bitcoin
bitcoin zone clicker bitcoin bitcoin registration claymore monero ethereum node daemon monero bitcoin frog казино ethereum blog bitcoin kupit bitcoin ethereum видеокарты bitcoin advertising bitcoin реклама создать bitcoin android tether 22 bitcoin 5 bitcoin bitcoin node talk bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin lurk
ethereum ann ethereum ферма php bitcoin bitcoin symbol bitcoin local bitcoin simple bitcoin fast транзакции monero bitcoin расчет bitcoin вывести algorithm bitcoin
bitcoin заработать multisig bitcoin основатель ethereum bitcoin mmgp
bitcoin background bitcoin 2020 купить tether bitcoin london bitcoin red bitcoin прогноз
раздача bitcoin bitcoin scam nasdaq bitcoin bitcoin amazon ccminer monero We might be able to trust banks, governments, and other third parties most of the time, but we can’t trust them all the time.bitcoin segwit2x ethereum проекты
ethereum валюта get bitcoin bitcoin монет mining monero monero price matrix bitcoin криптовалюта monero de bitcoin simplewallet monero bye bitcoin