It seems as though everyone is talking about Bitcoin these days.

Opinion is now sharply divided over what the future holds in store for this and other cryptocurrencies. If you are thinking of investing in Bitcoin, then you will be interested to learn that there are a number of different ways of doing so, and they don’t only involve buying some Bitcoins.

You can buy them

The most obvious way of getting hold of virtual coins is by buying some. This can be done very easily in an online exchange like Cryptotopia or Coinbase, where you can buy into a cryptocurrency using your everyday currency.

You can even set up a regular transaction on some exchanges that see you automatically buy more Bitcoin every month if you wish to do so. In this way, you will buy coins at differing prices over time, giving you the chance to build up a collection over time.

You will notice that these transactions can take quite a long time to go through when the exchanges are busy, though.

You can trade Bitcoins without buying them

One thing that has characterised Bitcoin to date is the volatility of its price, with huge gains mixed in with dramatic falls. This is partly why some financial experts are expecting the price to carry on sky-rocketing while others believe it is a bubble that may burst at some point.

Bearing this in mind, you may choose to speculate on the value of Bitcoin and other digital currencies through spread betting or CFD trading rather than buying the currency directly. In this way, you can get involved with trading cryptocurrency from home on a platform such as the IG site without actually buying any of the coins.

This approach lets you go long or short, meaning that you can decide whether you think that Bitcoin is still on the way up or whether the price is going to start falling – which would be the right time to sell.

You can mine coins

An alternative approach to investing in Bitcoin that you might not be aware of is that of mining them. This means that you use your computer to try and verify a complex transaction that ultimately rewards you by giving you a coin.

Clearly, the benefit of this approach is that you don’t pay for the coins that you receive. However, the downside is that mining is something that uses a huge amount of energy and it can take a very long time to find a coin, so it isn’t free.

This is something that you are likely to do by joining a mining pool such as BitClub Network or Slush rather than going at it alone.

Accept Bitcoins in your business instead of money

The final way to invest in Bitcoins is to accept them as payment instead of your everyday currency. This is an increasingly popular approach, as many businesses now let their customers pay using cryptocurrencies if they want to.

By doing this you are automatically taking the decision to invest in Bitcoin when you are paid for goods or services. Naturally, you can then choose to convert some of the coins into fiat currency immediately or else leave everything in Bitcoin for the time being.

However you choose to do it, investing in cryptocurrencies can be an exciting way to try and make your money grow, although the volatility of these currencies means that you could be in for a roller-coaster ride.

(Featured image by Freddie Collins on Unsplash)