If you think about it, it's pretty crazy to think that it's been 4 whole years since I started off with cryptocurrency. I don't know if it counts, but I remember the Liberty Reserve days -- shame, really; look what happened to that guy. That owner of Liberty Reserve deserves that time for that child pornography and all that. Anyways.
Look where we are now. Coins that used to be worth 2USD a piece and were traded on a Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Exchange (anyone familar with the site I'm referring to)? are now at a near year high of 670. You know, now that STEEM has came around, I really wish I was more involved in cryptocurrency; didn't sell my 7k USD worth of Zetacoin after holding them for 2 years; I wish I had more than 20 bitcoins to sell when the price was 1273. But that's a different story.
Bitcoin has succeeded as one thing that almost all can agree on: bitcoin is now considered a "viable" asset class of its own, and many financial analysts and reporters say to invest 10% of your fixed income into this 10% asset segement. While gold prices have been the norm for the past 100 years, Bitcoin remains bullish as ever, with prices forcely driving up from 470 to 730 within the last month. While the current sitting price of bitcoin is 665 dollars, my point being is this: I think it's great and all that Bitcoin can be used to buy goods and services. However, on the same token, who will ever want to pay for toilet paper and make an exchange for a minuscule amount of Bitcoin? Rather than wasting your Bitcoin on CryptoThrift, some illegal gambling site or some darknet market site, HOLD YOUR BITCOIN. MAKE IT YOUR 10 PERCENT!
Will bitcoin fluctuate? Yes, like every other equity. However, due to the basic nature of economics and the laws of supply and demand, bitcoins are going to be worth MUCH more than they are today. This is why I recommend holding at least 250-1000USD of Bitcoin at all time, just to be safe (source for Bitcoin gets cut out of the picture, get banned from Circle, etc). Bitcoins will eventually, whether we like it or not, /rise/ in value over time. And given the 21 million bitcoin that will be produced and the 16 million already in people's wallets or exchanges are already set in stone. Hold your bitcoin -- don't spend it. That's my advice. It's worth more in the long run.
On the other hand, we have STEEM. To be honest, I was thinking about some type of blogging service to set up sometime a week ago, and 6 days ago I find out about the beauty of STEEM. I love the principals of STEEM Power and Credits (and Units) and I love the curator and payout system. I feel that STEEM will takeoff even more than it's initial push of up to 5USD/STEEM. We're sitting around 3.30, but we'll get that pumping soon. And you know why? People are /addicted/ to social media. Truly addicted. And being the smart-guy team they are, the guys being STEEM created basically a Reddit with cryptocurrency and other familar social media features.
STEEM will be worth something, one day .. just like Bitcoin started out at 2USD when it was first traded, STEEM will be worth more than the three and a half bucks its at right now. Due to the inherent nature of our nature being reliant on social media, people are flocking to steemit.com. Hell, even my girlfriend uses steemit now -- she would have never used a cryptocurrency in the past!
Either way, I have more insights to come. It's just really hot here where I live and I want to go the hell to sleep.
Oh, and if you liked this, please upvote! I'll give you some cheese.