Welcome back! Thank you for coming over to see what I'm blabbering on about again!
Now I would be talking absolute rubbish if I said I was just getting into crypto because of my ideology, or to "stick it to the man". Although I do share some Libertarian beliefs that governments and institutions should have less involvement in our personal lives. I also want to earn some money!
Don't we all?
When I first heard about Bitcoin it was $200 per coin! If I had invested $1000, which isn't too great a sum, I would have coins to the value of around $35000 now! This is a crazy return from an investment. If I had put $1000 into a bank account and left it I'd have maybe $1100 over 3 years, if I was lucky!
In the crypto world there is huge volatility, this is the first thing I have realised. Coins can double in value overnight, or they can plummet. In this volatility there is much money to be made, and lost I suppose, but you've gotta be in it to win it as they say!
I feel the most risky way to try and make money would be through shorter trades. Trying to scalp the profits from the daily fluctuations in the market would take more time and expertise than I have.
Ok I'm not going to be a millionaire any time soon. But simply put, I think my best chance of making some money is playing the long game. "Hodling" is what the community refers to it as.
My plan is to pick around 5 crypto currencies that I think have a really good use case. If I can pick coins that have the best chance of wide adoption, these will surely off the best long term gains. Then I will slowly buy more coins in each of these currencies, trying to buy in dips in the market so I get a good price. Sorted.
This is the tricky part. What I know about cryptocurrency right now I could fit on a beer mat. Maybe two beer mats.
After much deliberation over the past few weeks, I have invested in four coins.
One of them I am little ashamed about right now so I will keep that one secret. Unless it makes me lots of money! In which case I will shamelessly brag about it! Or if you comment below I may just let you in on my secret.
Bitquence say they are "the people-powered cryptocurrency platform for everyone".
Their vision is to make the crypto market available to everyone, and make it easy to get involved.
One of the ways they plan to do this by creating a "Universal Wallet" which can be used to store and keep track of all your different coins in one place. It will also allow you to see how your portfolio of coins is performing and give you up to date analytics.
They also have a social element to the platform which will allow contests between the community to earn rewards by making price predictions.
The universal wallet and analytics plus other features will be combined onto one simple user friendly interface.
Why I like it: I think this platform will attract a high number of users if they get it right. Right now the wallets for some currencies can be a little more technical to set up and keep safe. A universal and easy to use wallet, with some of these other cool integrated social and analytical features will be very appealing to the many! The more people use it the more BQX will increase in value, and thats what I think will happen!
My Investment: I've bought some BQX at $0.9, and since buying a week ago to today it has gone up to $1.42 per coin!! Thats a 57% increase in my investment. Pretty chuffed! Long may it continue!
Civic coin is my second investment. They provide blockchain-based, low-cost access to identity verification (IDV) on demand. This removes the need for background and personal information verification checks that are undertaken every time a new institution requires one. People/institutions will use the ‘Civic token’ to transact in IDV-related services.
Why I like it: If this system can be proven to work reliably it has the chance to be adopted worldwide. Currently, verification of a persons identity can be time consuming and incur multiple costs. Other use cases for the CVC platform include for voting in an election. In many countries the nation has little trust in democracy and in their leaders. Using blockchain it could be made impossible for elections to be rigged and restore power to the voter.
My investment: I have invested in CVC while the price was at $0.29. It did rise for a few days when Bitcoin fell, but it currently sitting at $0.27. A small loss for me right now of 7%.
Ripple is my third investment. This is a bit of divisive coin in that it isn't strictly a decentralised cryptocurrency in the same light as the others.
Ripple describe themselves as "The worlds only enterprise blockchain solution for global payments". Using blockchain they hope to work with the worlds financial institutions to facilitate faster global payments. And it's working, I think.
Why I like it: They have teamed up with some of the biggest names out there such as American Express and Santander. A huge number banks and FI's are also testing their platform behind closed doors. The fact that they are working with the worlds current financial system and not trying to disrupt them upsets some crypto diehards and causes many not to invest. However, if Ripple can come to be adopted globally a far greater number of investors than any current blockchain based technology will be attracted.
My investment: I invested in XRP when it was around $0.22. And its pretty much been stuck there since. Just give it time :)
