No, You Probably Shouldn’t Buy BirchBox Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin continued its volatile band yesterday, losing more than half of its value from its December high (it has pulled back a bit today).
But companies are just starting to come up with creative ways to make profits (in USD) from bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, whatever they may be, regardless of their daily fluctuations.
There are Cryptokitties , bred , unique digital cats that you can buy and trade on the Ethereum blockchain. There are companies that add blockchain to their name, such as Long Blockchain Corp (née Long Island Iced Tea), so their shares are going up. And now there is a company that will send you the ” mystery box ” of cryptocurrencies of your choice, for example the bitcoin version of BirchBox.
CBlocks claims this will lower the barrier to entry for people who want to start investing in cryptocurrency but don’t know how to do it.
Here’s how it works: You buy a wallet for between $ 75 and $ 500. Your wallet is loaded with “a unique set of cryptocurrencies known as altcoins, the total value of which is listed in your wallet purchase”, which are then mailed to you in the collector’s case, “keeping your CB wallet until you decide that you want to open it. “
As Next Web graciously informs us, “What’s especially cool is that CBlocks also includes a piece of paper with information about the five coins you received, so you can get a glimpse of the technology behind them.” Yes, how great.
To me, the appeal of these products is that you get something tangible. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are really difficult for us (not to mention blockchain), so actually getting something in return – whether it’s a wallet in the case of a collector or a digital cat – helps people appreciate its value and better understand the blockchain and how it works. (And Cryptokitties are interesting to a lot of people because they show what the possibilities of blockchain are.)
As for CBlocks, I can also understand the appeal of wanting to start somewhere when you don’t know anything. But when it comes to cryptocurrency, caution is the smartest move: you don’t want to invest just because Long Island Iced Tea has renamed itself, and you don’t want to spend a whopping $ 500 on something you really don’t understand.