Should I Go All In On Bitcoin? An Easy Litmus Test

I hear this question, or a close variant, asked a lot: “Should I just go ahead and invest all my money in Bitcoin? I mean, it can never really lose value, right?” First off, you might stop to think about why you are asking someone else this question rather than doing some critical thinking yourself. But perhaps you've done some of that, and you're still curious about others' opinions on this. Okay.

The Test

litmus test n. A test that uses a single indicator to prompt a decision So here it is. The test is based on your level of good humor. Ask yourself this question: if the price of bitcoin goes to a Bajillion, will you laugh? Ok, I guess that part is pretty easy. Part two: If the price of bitcoin goes to Zero, will you laugh? So: if yes to both, go all in. While you are at it, put some smaller percentage of that in Litecoin, and maybe an even smaller chunk in yet another, perhaps Primecoin or whatever else strikes your fancy. You know, diversify at least *slightly* within the cryptocurrency space. By the way, the usual answer to this question is “Don't invest more than you can feel comfortable with losing”. That's not terrible advice, either. Bitcoin is still in Beta, is not guaranteed by anything to do anything, and even as it has been around for 5 years already through all sorts of challenges- past performance is not a guarantee of future success.

An admission

That said, I have studied Bitcoin enough to feel comfortable going 99% with it. And if I lose it all, my life will change as a result, no doubt, but I won't be on the street, so I would be able to laugh about it (laughing combined with crying counts). Also, chances are that even if Big Boy Bitcoin goes down, First Mate Litecoin will just pick up the slack, or some other crypto now in the wings. The blockchain can't be uninvented. The idea is not going to die. And the traditional (legacy) banking system still sucks monkey balls, in fact it's sucking them a little more fervently with every day that goes by. Fiat currency is a dead man walking, even if it doesn't know it yet. Once you've been your own bank, it's hard to hand that back to a dubious third party that plays footsie with the Gubbermint. So, if you can't lose your entire net worth and laugh about it, just invest less. Say somewhere in the range of 25-75%.

So I can just get rid of my regular bank account, right?

Even if you go all in, nah, don't close your bank account. You might want to go back out to fiat in small chunks here and there for various things, like, say, groceries. I mean, unless you have a Whole Foods nearby, in which case Gyft has you covered. And I suppose gas is pretty important, but then there's CoinFueled. And for everything else there's Snapcard. So actually in the near future, closing down your regular bank account will be a very reasonable option, but for the time being, why limit yourself?

Meanwhile, Go Cold

Being your own bank means running your own security. You'll want to do that without screwing up, especially if you are going all in. Check out Secure your Bitcoin without breaking your balls - a (relatively) simple guide to Cold Storage.

Brought to you by Cryptochief.com