by Andru McCracken, Editor
On New Year’s eve the conversation turned to bitcoin, my brother in law Josh and I went over everything we knew about it. That lasted about 30 seconds, most sentences finished with an air of uncertainty: ‘ummm”¦ like, you know?”
If you don’t know, this is a new and substantially different form of currency and its value is skyrocketing. It has something to do with computers and algorithms. There is a lot of hype around it. That’s about what Josh and I knew.
It’s annoying to hear everyone talking about it, especially when you have no idea what the heck it is and you have the vague feeling that everybody is getting rich but you.
So Josh and I decide that the best thing to do it buy a little. Why not become literate by actually using the stuff?
Buying cryptocurrency is pretty sketchy and it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t. Ultimately it’s all a bunch of websites and they all look kind of slick. We went with Coinbase because I had heard of it.
Once.
On a radio program.
At least I think it was Coinbase.
At least they made the interface super easy. In a few minutes both Josh and I were showing a cryptobalance.
I’ve been a cryptocurrency owner for about a week now.
My original investment of $225 into four cryptocurrencies is now worth $304.53 in Canadian dollars.
As an owner, I enjoy watching it.
It’s like a watching a partially deflated helium balloon tied to a jumping bean. It’s jumping up and down all the time but generally going up.
The numbers on the screen keep increasing, which, in the investment world is very important, I think.
But other than knowing that cryptocurrencies go up and down like partially deflated balloons carrying jumping beans, I don’t really know anything more than I did before. Oh, I did learn one possibly relevant thing this morning. It was a special message to Canadian balance holders from Coinbase, the exchange where I bought my cryptocurrency:
“”¦you will not be able to sell digital currency in your country.”
Theoretically I could trade cryptos to another exchange and try to redeem it that way, but that’s not going to be simple or quick for this crypto genius..
Which brings me to my investment advice: Anyone want to buy some jumping beans tied to a partially deflated balloon?
Seriously though, if you choose to have a cryptocurrency adventure, maybe dip your toe in and test the waters before investing your retirement savings. And if you figure out what it is, definitely let me know.
