Imagine paying your student loan off with virtual currency. It's possible, but what you have to ask yourself now is how risk averse you are.
Bitcoin, by definition, is a worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central repository or single administrator. Released as an open-source software in 2009, the peer-to-peer transactions that take place are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.
Bitcoin graduation / Shutterstock
Investing in education, to begin with, is probably the best investment a young person can make.
“Without an education, you’re limited in the types of jobs and employment you can get,” Lance Messervy, a portfolio manager with One Capital Management (OCM), said.
As a full-time student, it might be difficult to invest in another asset while enrolled in school. Most people at this point in their lives don’t have the funds to invest in anything substantial.
Bitcoin has garnered the interest of millions and rapidly has become a commercialized idea. Investing in something like Bitcoin with such a high volatility might seem like teetering on the line of gambling, though. At any given day, the price movement of Bitcoin can go down dramatically.
A student at the University of British Columbia, who asked to remain anonymous, invested their entire student loan into bitcoin and other altcoins. Since investing for their first time in August 2017, the student has more than doubled the $5,000 student loan, making a $6,250 profit.
“My friend told me about Bitcoin… I started reading about it, started getting some FOMO,” the student said. “I was teaching myself about trading and reading up about different coins and diving in head first.”
Should you invest in Bitcoin because it’s the oldest and most stable cryptocurrency? Or do you invest in newer technology that’s looking at the holes within Bitcoin, trying to improve upon it? It’s all uncertain, which makes it a highly volatile investment for not just a student but anybody. The one thing that every cryptocurrency expert can agree on is that the technology behind cryptocurrencies is here to stay, meaning the blockchain technology.
This student took the risk and is in a position to pay off their entire student loan at this point while offering some insightful advice for people just getting started with investing.
“Don’t invest based on emotional decisions," the student said. "Some people lose money and try to make a decision right away to get that money back. If you lose money, sleep on it, make the decision the next day.”
There is little doubt among cryptocurrency experts that Bitcoin will continue to grow, evolve and so forth, but the bottom line of whether or not to invest is summed up by Lance Messervey, the portfolio manager at OCM.
“It’s like riding a wave, right? You can jump on right now and you can have a great ride and have a blast. It’ll be awesome, but, if you don’t get off soon enough, the wave is going to come down and you’re going to get crushed. And when you get crushed, you’ve got nothing left,” Messervey said.
