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"You might as well get used to the Bitcoin headlines. They aren’t going away. And that’s because cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin aren’t going away. If history is any guide, this may only be the beginning.

Bitcoin may be the most lucrative trading opportunity since internet stocks such as Amazon.com Inc. in the dot-com era. If that notion sounds as scary as it does exciting, it should. While it is true that trading digital currencies holds real risk, there is also a real opportunity for traders right now.

Please note that I said traders here, not investors. Even if it were true that investors could multiply their money, they would take that trade at the risk of great volatility. Since inception, Bitcoin owners have endured price drops greater than 75 percent of previous peak values. Most recently, during Bitcoin's 2017 June swoon for Bitcoin saw prices fall nearly 40 percent before bottoming out.

Amid the roiling price churn and innovation headlines, it is important to see the bigger picture. Bitcoin and all the other cryptocurrencies (yes there are others — over 800 and counting) are the start of something big. That’s because the blockchain, a technological accounting protocol, is an idea whose time has come."

Read more here: http://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-looks-lot-early-amazon/