First a little history of my experience with crypto...
I first learnt about Bitcoin in 2011, and decided to try mining it. I earned 4.2 BTC after about a month of mining full time, but the price back then was so low, that I felt it was not worth it. My first mistake... I DELETED my wallet and moved on to other things.
I late 2012, Bitcoin was back in the news and I checked it out, only to find that the price had risen considerably ~$30CAD/ea. At that time I looked into mining again, but realized a lot had changed since 2011. I instead got an account at an exchange, and went through all the hoops to get some money deposited there, and by JAN 2013 I was all set up. The price had risen to $80CAD/ea. I then purchased $2.5K worth with the price varying up to $100/ea. before I had spent all my funds.
I then sat on them for quite awhile. To this day, the only losses I have incurred were while learning what NOT to do. I lost 1 BTC ($750CAD at the time) because I left it in a Silk Road wallet when the severs went offline. I also lost 5 BTC($2500CAD at the time) on the Cryptsy exchange, because I had just traded them for 500 DASH coins, but the withdrawal request for the DASH was never executed. The site went offline and the owner embezzled all the funds there. In each case trust in a 3rd party cost me.
I am much more careful with what I have remaining ($100K worth), storing almost all of it offline on paper wallets. Some I have kept handy to give out as donations to people that accept it, pass some to Youtuber's that post great content, or just buy things with. When the price of BTC is this high, a $60 fee for a VPN service is like $5 out of pocket when paid in bitcoin, considering how cheap they were when I bought them. I now just re-supply my hot wallet as I spend via a Coinbase account.
(image source: coinmarketcap.com)
Is this a BUBBLE about to come crashing down? I really don't think so, and here is my non-scientific reasoning...
Of all the people I told about crypto-currencies since I first learnt about them in 2011 (est. 150+), friends, family, co-workers and on and on, only one person (here in 2017) has actually bought some and taken the time to understand it. Many of these people are very intelligent and upper middle class earning $150K+/yr, and I could not convince them to risk $500 in 2013. In every case, they still don't want to buy in, because the feel they missed the boat, and that it is now topped out.
Everyone should just spend some time getting their own anecdotal evidence in the general public, and they will find, like I did that:
- 2of100 people have heard of it, and neither actually own any
- hardly any of the Youtube videos (outside of the crypto/finance topics) post a BTC wallet address, including some of the biggest subscriber channels, PewDiePie 55M, Ozzy Man Reviews 1.3M to name a couple
Its still early folks, this is like the internet early '90s, NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR and a dial up connection. Enjoy the ride.