If you’ve read the news in the last four months, you’ll know the hottest investment this year is the Bitcoin. Started in 2009 by a developer known as ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, this red hot virtual currency has gone from zero to being worth over £668 per bitcoin (BTC). There was a story about the guy who bought $30 USD of Bitcoin’s in 2009 for a project, forgot about them and then realised this year he had over 900,000 EUR. There was another story about a Bitcoin miner who lost several million pounds worth of Bitcoins when he accidentally chucked out his PC. The stories go on, but the main interest in these stories are from people who just wished they had invested in them back in 2009.
Bitcoin paved the way for tens of other virtual currencies to emerge. There’s now Litecoin (LTC) – being touted as ‘the silver to Bitcoin’s gold’. There’s Feathercoin (FTC), by a man in Oxford. There’s tens of different acronyms for virtual coins which have all emerged and begun to gain significant value on the marketplace today. With the US dollar plummeting, and a worldwide frustration with such heavily regulated currencies, there’s only one place to turn.
So this year, I’m exploring what the options of giving a portion of digital currency to someone as a present for Christmas would be like. I invested £100 to play about with, and quickly lost a bit of money. As someone who has never invested in the stock market, I found the learning curve steep – yet not steep enough to steer clear from. I kept going with the money I had left and begun to realise what the market was like. I watched the market like a hawk: a tabbed browser constantly open through my work day just to check the fluctuation in prices. It was fun, and slowly I started making some money back and broke even. It was a great experience – I’m still playing around with it, and while I may not have made very much right now, I do have hopes that one of the currencies I invested in will take off in the future.
This learning experience is a rather fantastic one for young people who may not have any experience with investing their money, which made me realise what a prime present this would be. While BTC has shot through the roof in price, there are a plethora of other currencies you could buy as a gift for someone. Set up an account and deposit some money into it and give someone the login for Christmas. Sure – they can take the money straight out and cash it for a real present, but chances are that they will start researching into which currencies might yield the biggest profits. If they lose all the money – a lesson has still been learnt, and they may be more risk adverse in the future, opting to hedge their bets on safer options. If they end up gaining money – hey, you might even get a drink back from them in a couple years when they’re loaded! Either way, it’s an incredibly educational present – and an educational present in a fun way. While the stock market generally fluctuates mildly on a day-to-day basis, the virtual currency exchange right now swings back and forth, giving ample time for people to sell high and buy low and learn all the ins and outs of investing while not risking a penny of their own money.
To find out more about setting up an account to do this, you can have a look through the following sites:
1. https://bitbargain.co.uk/
2. https://bittylicious.com/
