Since we achieved a milestone and got one step closer to mainstream adoption, a strange misconception has spouted across the entire crypto community. The influx of new members, who are keen to get their hands on this beautiful, new technology called Blockchain, has allowed for a new, secret society of self-proclaimed "investors" to emerge.
At this point, we would like to point out, that buying a cryptocurrency token is not an investment neither is the purchase of a rare baseball card, gold, or Beanie Babies. You indeed do not own a portion of Ty Inc just because you have a brand new Beanie Babie sitting on your desk, do you?
An investment typically is considered a financial instrument that is going to generate some reasonably expected income. That could involve the purchase of stocks, which give you the ownership of a little portion of a company and give you the right to a portion of the company's value. An investment could also mean the purchase of real estate, which can generate a steady income while preserving your initial investment. There are also lending investments, where you invest in a loan and make a profit from the interest payments of the counterparty.
Buying a cryptocurrency, however, is NOT an investment. Typically, cryptocurrencies are bought on so-called coin exchanges, where buyers and sellers are brought together by some market matching algorithm. So, when you go to an exchange and purchase any cryptocurrency, you are not buying it from any specific company (much less from the "core developers"). You are buying it from some random person on the internet that, at that very moment, just decided to sell his coins. You are not buying anything from any centralized company, and even less so does anyone promise you anything for your purchase.
While there are indeed some so-called "security tokens" which guarantee your participation in some company proportional to how many coins you hold, this by no means applies to all cryptocurrencies. Certainly not to XEL. In the general case, holding a cryptocurrency token or coin can be used to interact with the platform. Due to the decentralized nature of Blockchain projects, however, nobody can guarantee you whether the platform will change, will be adopted by many users, or whether it will evaporate into the ether because a new, better project emerges in the future. Nobody can and will give any of these guarantees. Crystal balls have not been invented yet. Besides, it's common sense, that a "decentralized system" and "expecting promises from a central party" don't go well together in the first place.
To be safe, and this applies to all cryptocurrencies: if you want to use a platform, feel free to get some coins from someone (check if it is legal in your jurisdiction first) and use them. However, do not buy any coins to "invest" - that would be speculation (or gambling) at most, and you will be disappointed if things develop differently from what you expected.