How do you invest $100 in Bitcoin?

Investing is boring as hell when you play it safe.

You tediously remove small chunks from your paycheck, lamely put them away in some snooze-ass mutual fund, watch it all slowly appreciate over a period of many, many years, and then, finally, after you’ve inched close enough to death to smell it, you finally stupidly take it all out and spend it on some new toy for your nephew. Ho-hum, who cares?

Visit here for bitcoin to paypal

This is why investing in Bitcoin, or the other cryptocurrencies that are currently out there seems so exciting. It’s volatile, with massive ups and downs every few minutes, let alone over the course of a day. It’s hot and new, so you can show off your hipness to the kids. And it’s extremely confusing, meaning you’ll be in the driver’s seat during any crypto-forward conversations at cocktail hour or funeral processions.

But, first things first.

Should You Do It?

Before you invest in cryptocurrency, heed some advice from experts in the field that I polled about such a move.

Michael Cianfrocca, the managing director of communication at Charles Schwab, told me that "virtual currencies are highly volatile and still lack many of the regulations and consumer protections that legal tender currencies have. Due to the high level of risk, investors should view Bitcoin as a purely speculative instrument that should be traded only with money that they can afford to lose."

Parker Thompson, the partner at the angel investor matchmaking website AngelList, told me cryptocurrencies "should be seen like venture investments, highly risky with a very small chance of massive upside. The market is being driven by psychology today and has no fundamentals, so I put little stock in pundit predictions of future price movement. Nobody knows."

Carolyn Wegemann, a public relations representative of Vanguard, told me that "given cryptos’ extreme volatility and lack of intrinsic economic value, [we] caution against investing in cryptocurrencies as they may expose investors to undue financial risk. Cryptocurrency prices are generally not based on economic fundamentals, and have depended more on speculation about eventual adoption and use."

Preston Byrne, an independent consultant, and blockchain expert said "I don’t invest in cryptocurrency. It’s a very wild west market. There are allegations of market manipulation right, left, and center. And if you don’t know who the sucker is in the room, it’s you."

Kyle Woodley, the senior investing editor at Kiplinger, told me that "you’re gambling, you’re putting money on red because you have a gut feeling red is coming up. It is far from proven, and could very well be like the dot-com era, where a lot of people lost money. Some legit companies came out of it, but a lot of garbage died, and we don’t know if it’s going to be five, 10, or 50 percent of the cryptocurrencies that die."

Okay, the wet blankets are out of the way. You don’t give a cold shit about those common sense-ass experts, anyhow. You’ve got $100 to your name, and you’re gonna burn it.

Open a wallet

You’re going to need one if you want to do anything with cryptocurrencies, as these are how you prove that you’re the one who owns the thing you’re trying to cash out. These crypto wallets don’t hold actual currency, as much as they hold the code to access the currency, which will always remain out there in the blockchain ether. When you purchase crypto from someone, two wallets are essentially syncing up for a moment as they adjust their respective ledgers; you, as a buyer, will then have more crypto, while they, as sellers, will have less.

Online wallets are the easiest to set up, involving only a few simple downloads to your browser, before setting up a password. Do not, do not, do not lose your password. However, online ones are also the easiest to hack, and so blockchain experts recommend updating software regularly to patch any exploits, or dole out for an extra-secure wallet, like Armory, which requires permission from another user before a crypto transaction can place. The safest option is an “offline” wallet, wherein you create a “paper wallet” document with all the necessary information to access your coin.