I wouldn't say there's an equal chance of the "currencies" collapsing. There seems to be enough momentum behind them that the only true concern I have are hacking/scams and government interference. I don't mean momentum as upward price appreciation, just adoption, transaction rates, etc.

My friends, who are more interested in the space than I am, compare where crypto is now to the beginning of the internet. We're still trying to determine who's netscape/AOL/amazon/google and to some degree, what the underlying protocols are (tcp/ip = ethereum?).

Honestly, I don't see the true value of the blockchain yet. Most of the proposed ideas could be cool, but have no value or aren't practical. What I do see, however, is increased attention in Japan and Latin America. In the US, I think it's coming into mainstream attention. And if we find one real use case that allows mainstream adoption, it will be huge and transformative.

As a former trader, I don't mind speculating on the hype, but if we're still on the "ground floor" of what crypto could one day be, a little speculation could be a huge investment one day.