I recommend the book Cryptoassets. It’s a bit dated since it came out in 2017. But it covers all the fundamentals about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Dives in specifics such as the differences between utility tokens, smart contracts, ledger blocks. Also talks about centralized and secret slide networks / private and public block chains. I’ve had a chance to meet the authors in person and pick their brains, very knowledgeable guys. My recommendation.
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
The best book I read on the subject is "Cryptoassets: the Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond". It is rich in content, well-written and well-explained, and tackles many different aspects of cryptoassets, from the technology to the psicological and financial one.
Definitely invest. Always remember that your money should be working for you at all times, if you're not getting a 4-7% apr minimum, don't have your money in it, barring emergency funds.
I always recommend 1-10% into cryptocurrencies, depending on your risk tolerance. A lot of people who know nothing about cryptocurrencies have a knee-jerk reaction to it that results in downvotes in this sub, but for those people, there's a book you should read so that you can at least downvote intelligently. cryptoassets. Though I'd expect you to sing a different tune after, it definitely explains crypto in a way that people can understand.
one more quick follow up - it sounds like while you may be skeptical you are interested in getting a deeper understanding of the space. There are a lot of good books out there but one that recently came out I think is a good starting point for background information and tying it into investing.
It is called cryptoassets
I just started reading this one. Looks promising. I’ll leave full Amazon link without shortening.
You should really spend some time researching the space and understanding the market and various underlying protocols before making flippant comments.
Cryptoasset is a much more accurate term for the space than "currency", "token", or anything else - organizations such as the CFA Institute agree as they begin baking in educational aspects of the space into the curriculum and certification process for the next wave of charter-holders to serve their clients.
You can actually start with this book appropriately named Cryptoassets, written by Chris Burniske.
That presupposes I'm interested in convincing you. You know it's funny, while your post inspired my initial response the reason I laid it out with the challenge at the end was to see if this community (well known as staunchly anti-crypto) could lay forth a convincing argument about why it would be wrong or why I should pull my money out. Perhaps something about the limitations of the technology, discussion of the effect of a recession or a potential black swan event I hadn't considered that showed someone had actually taken an objective look at the value proposition of bitcoin/cryptos and said I can't possibly add this to my portfolio. Instead what I mostly see are tired outdated talking points about crypto and ideology (index funds > all) of FI as outlined by people like MMM. There's nothing wrong with the principle tenets of FI and I follow them very closely but I also actively look at my portfolio to see how it can be enhanced or diversified through various investment instruments with varying levels of risk. Your OP represented to me that this sub would rather just not think about anything other than 3 fund portfolio index funds. Perhaps that's fine for the average person but I can't help but take a critical eye to everything I do with my money to maximize return while minimizing risk. Hence why I think bitcoin/crypto is worthy of discussion in this forum and further why I think it should be part of your portfolio (however small that may be). In any case, I find it humorous because we're coming from opposite ends where you say my argument is the 'least shitty' while I look at the likely thousands of people who have entered this topic and not one could provide a definitive argument of why my challenge is wrong or why I should not invest. It's almost disappointing that some of the smartest people on the planet gathered into this community with incredible foresight and outside the box thinking toward FI could not come up with something better. You in particular have offered less than nothing, implicitly agreeing that I am correct with my challenge and even outright trying to misinterpret the spirit of the question to somehow turn it against me. Sad, really but that's the state of things. Many will come around to this space when it's too late or not at all but I suppose that is their loss, not mine.
In any case, if I were to indulge your supposed good faith inquiry as to why you should invest in bitcoin or otherwise, I would start by reading the white papers for Bitcoin and Ethereum. It will help you understand the first generation of a public blockchain as compared to the second generation which offers greater versatility than a simple digital distributed ledger.
A good book to read on why cryptos are a good investment would be the one I linked below. They highlight a lot of why an uncorrelated asset like bitcoin, despite the risk and volatility, actually reduces the risk of your overall portfolio.
If you're interested in a professional trader's opinion, I would check out this video by Bob Loukas on the "bitcoin cycle". He specializes in asset bubbles and believes bitcoin operates like an emerging asset going through several cycles as adoption increases. It's tied to the economic policy built into bitocin via the halvening, cutting supply issuance in half per block every 4 years.
Here's another interesting article for the case of a small allocation of bitcoin.
Searching youtube for Andreas Antonopoulos, he talks a lot more theory about why bitcoin is revolutionary.
There are other resources of course but frankly I think we are wasting key strokes on one another. It is quite likely one of us will be thoroughly embarrassed in the next few years and I really don't think it will be me.
Everyone gives me shit when I tell people to buy cryptocurrency in here, but I'm pretty confident that they don't understand it and haven't researched it anywhere near deeply enough to have a valid opinion on it. You should buy some cryptocurrency, I'd recommend somewhere between 1% - 10% depending on your risk tolerance. If you don't understand crypto, there's an excellent book that really goes over it well called Cryptoassets.
Modern portfolio theory has a lot of different suggestions, Morgan Stanley says 56% stocks, 19% bonds, 3% cash, 28% alternatives. Your asset allocation is very important for building a robust portfolio. Most models put alternative investments at around 20%, but considering the volatile nature of crypto I don't want you getting scared because it can ruin a good investment. If you're investing, you need to invest an amount that you won't worry about. Don't make the stakes so high in any singular investment that a large loss would really mess you up.
If the amount your investing makes you worried, lower the amount, whatever that amount is, invest it. 1%, 5% 10%, whatever, just make sure that you have some exposure to the cryptocurrency market, because it's going to revolutionize the future whether the average person understands it or not. You can wait till cryptocurrency indexes are available, I believe coinbase has an index of their cryptocurrencies, though personally I don't like their asset grouping.
Regarding paying off your debt or investing, it depends on your APR rates. Investing in the stock market should net 4-7% per year, you can get similar numbers loaning on prosper. If your house apr is less than your average returns, investing is > paying off the house. That goes for credit cards and everything, it all comes down to math. My cars APR was 1.5%, obviously paying that off is not smart, because investing in any index will beat that by a good chunk. Money is the score, and the goal is to get more of it, the only way to do that, is to use math, watch the numbers, and strategize.
I'll also add that some of your debt can be moved around in order to lower your APR rates, for instance credit card debt can be balance transferred for 3-5%, sometimes 0% if you get a new card or a good promo. It's all about keeping your debt APRs low, and your investment ROIs high.
This book is an interesting read.
It is still a good time to invest, but only the amount you can afford to lose. A good read is https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
Read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
Helped me learn tons about traditional investing, and of course crypto.
I happen to believe bitcoin and at least some other cryptos have an obviously bright future. I realize there are risks and am not even close to 'all in' in terms of what I do with my savings, but I probably have more in crypto (~10-15%) than most skeptics would consider sane.
That said, read this book.
Great resource on crypto's space in a portfolio. Risky assets can make a portfolio less risky via diversification. Here's a random article I googled on the same idea. I did not read all of it nor do I vouch for it :D
I'm currently working my way through Chris Burniske's new book Cryptoassets, which I'd highly recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
Read the Cryptoassets book, it's a superb overview of markets strategy and investing, well worth a read, it will pay for itself many times over.
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoassets-Innovative-Investors-Bitcoin-Beyond/dp/1260026671
Fantastic read and just came out recently so quite relevant.
Thanks! That's what this sub is about and the anithesis of OP's automatic downvoting, healthy discussion about various investment options towards FIRE. Ironically I was turned onto crypto in 2017 from a discussion on this board as well.
I am not in finance, I am in tech like many here. I have spent the last 5 years reading about finance and investment strategies though so I feel like I've done due diligence on the topic. Most importantly, I've accepted the risk involved because I think it's asymmetrical to the upside. I would recommend reading the bitcoin whitepaper and also check out Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar. It talks a lot about why bitcoin as an investment is a solid bet.
You're not wrong about a lot of that, but you're wrong on bitcoin. While it might not pay lots of dividends, I wonder exactly what % people gained simply from the forks, bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, and bitcoin diamond? Probably a lot more than any dividends in the stock market.
Bitcoin is not at all bad as an investment, that's absurd. So is the "Maybe we're about to lose it all" stuff, it goes back to the 80% doesn't know anything about the tech statement you made. We know the US isn't banning it, we know China isn't banning it, we know Korea isn't banning it, we know Japan embraced it. The only risk to crypto, is that some quantum computer cracks it. That's not to say the price is guaranteed to go up over any short timeframe, it's just to address the often said, but always wrong assumption that there's some high probability of it going to 0.
The tech behind all of this, will build the new internet, and it'll be based on tokens as a financial incentive which allows for decentralization, so long as the other tech exists, and BTC is the crypto you buy to access these tokens, BTC has a bright future. I'll again recommend my favorite book on crypto, cryptoassets, it does a good job of explaining things in a way people can understand.