Quote from: ploum on June 19, 2011, 01:23:24 PM

Quote from: jbgc on June 19, 2011, 04:47:22 AM

3. If you personally had $10,000+ to spare, would you invest it in bitcoins?

I would bet on the success of bitcoin in the long term without betting on its future value. How? Simply by investing in a business that accept bitcoins or by creating a new business based on bitcoins or anything similar.

Good advice.

It's funny how, in a matter of months, Bitcoin turned from "how can we put this to use" to "I want to make $$$ off of it". Absolutely nothing wrong with the latter, but still...

The appeal of Bitcoin to me, is that you have a chance to help make it successful. It's not a blind bet, it's something you can work towards, earn and be proud of. The current success of Bitcoin is the work of the people who nurtured it and built around it when it was still a baby. It's hard to identify from an external viewpoint though. As an example, I suggest following Namecoin as a younger sibling, which, although having a lot of advantages by walking on a path that has been walked before, still has to go through the same route. Yes, there are lots of miners, speculators and whatnot, but its success solely depends on people who build an infrastructure and people who put it to use. The core idea of it all, is that rational investors have an incentive to build that structure.

By investing in a business that accepts Bitcoin, or investing your time to make bitcoins, you are not only investing it on its success, but helping it succeed at the same time.