Bitcoin is becoming an increasingly popular investment, for a number of reasons, but dipping your toes into the cryptocurrency world can be quite different to conventional investing. Popular search queries such as ‘how to invest in bitcoin stock’ suggest that many of those who are interested in buying bitcoin do not understand it well.Bitcoin is a digital currency: a form of online money that can be transferred from one user to another without any third parties like banks or payment processors. It is peer-to-peer electronic cash. Unlike regular currencies such as dollars and euros, though, Bitcoin has a fixed supply. There will never be more than 21 million BTC. This makes it more like a commodity, such as gold. In fact, bitcoin has become known as ‘digital gold’ by the cryptocurrency community, due to its guaranteed scarcity. As such, bitcoin is not subject to long-term inflation – a property that has helped push its value from $1 early in 2011 to over $10,000 at the time of writing.