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A wise investment

I remember the first time I heard about bitcoin. It was 2012 on Christmas Eve and 1 bitcoin was valued at 13.40 USD. As of today, November 24th 2017, 1 bitcoin is worth 8,264.62 USD. Needless to say, if you bought bitcoin around the time of when I first heard of it and you held onto it to this day you would have made a serious profit. If I had put $1,000 into it then, today I would have $616,762.69 in bitcoin and more if you include bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold (these two are topics of themselves, so I won’t go into them here.)

Bitcoin is “cryptocurrency.” Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.

I believe we can look at bitcoin as an example of how these currencies can explode in value in a short amount of time. There are many cryptocurrencies that are fairly low in price at the moment that could skyrocket over night, just like bitcoin. A few are Ethereum, Ripple, Monero, Dash, and NEO but there are many, many more. Any one of these could be the next bitcoin and multiply in price.

What I’m getting at is that there is money to be made by participating in the exchange of these currencies and I encourage people to invest in them while they are relatively cheap. If you won’t believe me, Mark Cuban, one of the venture capitalists on the show “Shark Tank” and former skeptic of Bitcoin, encourages individuals to invest in the cryptocurrency market.

For those anti-government types that are out there, these currencies also give you financial independence from any state power, since there is no centralized bank involved. And with many businesses such as Tesla, Microsoft, and Wikipedia now accepting bitcoin as a valid form of payment, it is becoming easier and easier to use it in your day to day life.

Investing in cryptocurrencies is similar to investing in stocks, and just like the stock market it is crucial to be informed in the cryptocurrency market.

Before investing it is essential to do your own personal research, because you may lose money in this market if you jump in without the prior preparation.

Taylor L. Nickens

Williamsport

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom

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