https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ethereum-600x315.jpg

Often I think I've had an original idea, only to find out later that (of course) someone else has had it before. And so it was with thinking of Ethereum like an Index Tracker.

I covered my investing history way back in this post: https://steemit.com/investing/@alanfreestone/investing-in-the-steem-age-part-3-my-investing-mistakes

Basically I cut my teeth in equity investing, and I think that exactly the same principles that work in equity investing can be applied to crypto investing.

So last year when my nice friend (thanks Alu) built an Ether miner for me (a basic PC with a smoking graphics card), I was trying to figure out what would make ether increase in value. My instinct was, IF the USE of the Ethereum network is increasing, then the price should rise... but I wasn't sure. This site: https://ethstats.net/ made absolutely no sense to me!  The logic was: Ethereum is a network to build (D)APPS on. IF one of these apps takes off & is installed & used on 100s of millions of smartphones, then the ether price will soar. Then 'The Dao' debacle happened....& an ether crashed to $7 or $8.

Here we are 12 months later & the ether price has **EXPLODED** ($265 at time of writing)! (dammit I wished I'd kept on mining ha ha). And why has it exploded? Because the DAPPS are finally coming online, the ICO craze has begun. 

NOW we can get rich, just invest in the next hot ICO. However there are two little, tiny problems with that: 

**1).** Us plebs probably won't get any tokens in the next hot ICO (the BAT sale sold out in 24 seconds).

**2).** Most ICOs will burn through the money & we'll lose everything invested in them.

**Solution?**
The solution has been my instinct from the beginning....just buy & hold Ether. It's like an index tracker... buy Ether & then you don't care which ICO soars, which DAPP becomes the one 200 million people in India install...just trust that it will happen. 

**The Result**
You'll lose out on the 1000-bagger (an investment that rises in value a 1000-fold), BUT you'll still get rich. I just cannot see a scenario where in 10 years, **IF** the ethereum network is still around, each ether won't be worth many **many**  multiples of what it is now.  Why? Well it seems like it's structured in a way that Vitalek Butterin profits most (as a holder of **A LOT** of ether) if the ether price rises. So in 10 years he'll be a trillionaire & us owners of ether will have enjoyed the ride.

**The Alternative**
Ether turns out to be a terrible investment. The underlying code is flawed & people switch to better crypto. A possibility, & why you shouldn't put 100% of your net worth into ether.