I kick myself for not getting involved earlier since I had read about Bitcoin early on. I don't know where Bitcoin is going long term but I believe the whole crypto-currency market is the way of the future. Short term over the next 5 years Bitcoin has plenty of room to keep growing. (if you don't believe me read the link to John McAfee). He is extreme and I think you could probably drop a zero off his projected number which would still be amazing returns. It seems like more and more average people are now talking about it. And when you decide to jump on board you will see there are very few user friendly exchanges out there. Coinbase is probably the easiest to use. Also Gemini and Kraken are good and still user friendly. But you pay more for the convenience and user friendliest.

Long term over the next decade or beyond Bitcoin has flaws that are driving up the transaction fees where I think it will be hard to use as an actual currency. But the thought is it will be a storage of value like Gold is and if so it will be just fine. And more than likely one of the coins from recent forks or upcoming forks will become the one that is used more like currency. Or it could be another currency altogether that acts that way. Invest only what you can afford to lose like any investment. Bitcoin just has more risk.