Crypto-currencies: I am ready to dip my toe in the water

Disclaimer: I am not a certified financial planner or financial adviser.The information provided should not be used as financial advise, it is used to promote financial literacy and discussion. The views and opinions on this site are my own. Any suggestions or investment advice should be reviewed by a financial professional before acting on them.

I was one of those nerds that knew about Bitcoin from its inception. However, at the time; back in 2009 after getting the 411 from a former co-worker about it; I did not think much of it and thought it was a nerdy novelty that would never take off. It was like the Chuck E Cheese “token” of the nerd world. It was not like Bitcoin and the current crop of cryptos are the first digital “money” per say.

The technology has come a long way and after waffling about buying Bitcoin for over a year now; with the price at $1,500 the last time I considered buying. I went as far as setting up a Coinbase account and only had to add a payment method. For those not in the know; Coinbase is a popular US based exchange for buying a few of the popular crypto currencies. The exchange has its pros and cons; with the cons being prevalent during wild price swings.

I plan to buy and hold long term; so the access during wild volatility does not bother me. I want to put just 1-2% of my net worth into Ethereum and Litecoin. These are the two crypto currencies whose technology I believe in; with Ethereum being my favorite. “Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.” www.ethereum.org. I believe the potential for Ethereum is similar to the invention of the INTERNET in terms of the magnitude of change it will have on the lives of the people on this planet.

Litecoin is my other choice over its popular cousin; Bitcoin. It has faster transaction speeds and payment systems using Litecoin are coming online. We will see how this pans out in a couple years. Notable mentions for other cryptos are Iota that used a different technology called tangle instead of blockchain.