Bitcoin, that crazy cryptocurrency that many people still haven’t heard of, is going bonkers.
In UK terms, if you had bought just £100 of Bitcoins 50 years ago when the price was 1 shilling and sixpence, you’d be a Ga-Jillionaire in today’s money.
Apparently, Richard Branson bought 3 Bitcoins when he was 17 and he now owns islands in the Bahamas and on the moon. His youthful Bitcoin purchase has also enabled him to buy a rocket ship to take him to his moon base as well.
As he owns lots trains and planes, there will most likely be a railway station and airport on the moon anytime soon (assuming he hasn’t already built them in secret).
Enough about Bitcoin history…
OK, so now we’ve covered the entire history of Bitcoin, let’s look at whether you should buy any.
As 1 Bitcoin will now set you back around $50 million, you probably can’t afford one. You can however, purchase 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin for $72,674, which is not too bad when you think about it – That’s a hell of a lot of Snickers bars.
Like the popular board game, Snakes and Ladders, Bitcoin can go up as well as down. As evidence to support this, I checked on two consecutive days last week. The first day it went up and on the second day, it went down.
C’mon, should I buy any?
If you sell your house, car, shoes and socks, you’ll be able to buy some Bitcoin. If the price goes up, you too could buy a house on the moon – or perhaps even Mars.
However, if the price goes down, you may end up sleeping under a bridge covered in Cheerio boxes sellotaped together
So, the moral of the story is “buyer beware”.
Shoe shining lessons
It’s worth bearing in mind that Bitcoin has now finally made its way into the minds of us common folk. This may not be a good thing. If you’re looking to invest in this volatile currency, everyone else who now knows about it probably is too.
According to a well-known financial anecdote about Joe Kennedy, the father of the famous, ill-fated dead president John F. Kennedy, who made his fortune by playing the stock market:
Joe Kennedy exited the stock market in timely fashion after a shoeshine boy gave him some stock tips. He figured that when the shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too popular for its own good.
In other words, if your mate down the pub tells you to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon, you’ve probably already missed the boat.
Disclaimer: The author of this blog is full of shit, talks bollocks and doesn’t own a calculator… or any Bitcoin for that matter.
bitcoin is now at £12,000 and I was thinking about buying it cos it’s been going up so much much. Should I buy it still?
nice article and i like the bit about kennedy. was thinking to get some bitcoin but not sure about it now