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Ah, the Bitcoin ETF has fallen. Or one of them anyway. But what difference does it make? Wanting a Bitcoin ETF is a bit like wanting to use a condom with your wife. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Bitcoin is built on the idea of eliminating intermediaries. Why so much fuss about adding one?

The real future for bitcoin is in the masses. When everyone in the world is connected to money without intermediaries, it will be massive. It’ll be a first step towards a renewed independence. It’s this expansion of access that has allowed Bitcoin to grow. And it’ll continue on that path.

Courtesy Cointelegraph

But, the Bitcoin ETF will come regardless. If not today, then in one of the next. In the meantime, what other ways are there to invest in bitcoin?

The most obvious is to buy bitcoin. You can do this at any exchange. Some are online such as CoinCafe and CoinBase. Some are peer to peer (think Uber) like Local Bitcoins. And some are classic ATM style exchanges like CoinVault ATM. Buying bitcoin can be thought of as buying a digital property. If Bitcoin has 21 Million acres of land, 1 Bitcoin is one of those acres. As the value of land goes up, so does the value of your property. Vice versa as it goes down.

Then, there are the companies. The bitcoin ecosystem has a number of companies involved with maintaining the various functions needed by the currency. Mining is the best example. Bitcoin is run by millions of computers all over the world in a process called Mining. As these computers process transactions, they receive new bitcoins as well as transaction fees. By mining bitcoin you can claim a percentage of these fees.

The easiest way to do this is to join an existing pool. Most of them will allow you to invest in order to join them. Secondarily, you can create your own pool. It can take a pretty significant investment to have enough computing hardware to run a standalone pool, but it can be done. In fact it is being done all over the world (much to the chagrin of hyperinflationary economies like Venezuela). Either way, mining represents a low maintenance and fairly regular income. Combined with investments in renewable energy, it’s a sustainable income as well.

And finally, there are the more speculative investments. These would be shares of companies or other cryptocurrencies in the space. It’s a tangled mess with companies trading cryptocurrencies, companies making cryptocurrencies, and even companies making cryptocurrencies that make companies. But with the right knowledge, the rewards can be extremely high. It’s a sector where the average investor hasn’t bothered to look so it represents a significant opportunity to those willing to put in the work.

So the ETF didn’t happen today. The Winkelvoss Twins haven’t given up. The price has already recovered 50%. The world moves on. In the meantime, there are a number of ways to invest in bitcoin without the bankers it was built to obviate. Enjoy.