Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had been on a market for a long time now. When the topic is brought up, most people think Bitcoin, unpredictability of these currencies, and that they are a great opportunity to get rich fast. However almost none of these people know what cryptocurrencies even are, and yet some of them still try to invest using tips from the internet.
In the text linked below it’s said that decentalized nature of cryptocurrencies make the investor more in control, because there is no 3rd party like government involved the profits won’t be subrtacted by them. However that is not enough to compansate how it is impossible to predict price of ex. Bitcoin, and basicaly no one has any control of a price. Article also mentions limited supply of cryptocurrencies, and how that makes purchasing power increase over time. But that doesn’t mean profit for investors if price dies down completely, which can happen anytime. Another thing said in article is how secure they can be and safe to trade thanks to being open-source. That is however not true, hackers steal cryptocurrencies all the time and one safe way is to store them on a remote drive, which can be easly lost. Next it is mentioned how good investment it is in a long run investment, and the wait will pay off eventually, in real life however almost 20% of cryptocurrencies are completely forgotten, which makes them worth 0$, and the price can easily go either up or down.
All mentioned above in my opinion makes it not worth to invest in cryptocurrencies, they are even riskier than stock market, and sometimes don’t even provide more profit. Esspecially if it is done by people who don’t know what they are playing with.
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Of course investing in for example Bitcoin without having any knowledge about cryptocurrencies is very risky and misguided. But I have to disagree with the thing you said about cryptocurrencies being decentralized, but not stable enough – there are stablecoins such as USDC (with is pegged to USD) and it has a profit of being decentralized, but also isn’t as volatile as e.g. Bitcoin. When it comes to limited supply of digital currency, it gives the advantage of eliminating the risk that the fiat money has – the value of currency dropping because of printing money by the Central Bank. Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. Problem with hackers stealing the cryptocurrencies is really a thing, but isn’t it the same with keeping your money on the account when technically anyone can hack your bank info? It is a fact that a significant number of digital currency is being forgotten after some time, but definitely it doesn’t mean that the whole idea behind the cryptocurrencies is wrong and meaningless. I personally thing that digital currency can be a wonderful way out for some countries that have a problem with hyper inflation (like for example in the Venezuela).