First found out about in early 2011 when I was reading up on tor networks (when the price was $10 or something). Since it main purpose at the early times was anonymous transactions in the silk road (meaning can't be tracked to the person selling and buying a illegal product, like drugs). Although I know people would want to use this in the future and the price would definitely increase, I didn't buy any since at the time there was no easy way to get it (there was no Coinbase, blockchain, etc), I used most of my money for college tuition, also see no use for me since I don't do drugs
Anyways, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.. If you need to think how it does things, think of it as a ledger... Keeping a log of transactions in a chain that gets update via electronically
Here is a video that explains how bitcoin works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jOJk30eQsMost people like bitcoin because it decentralized so no local authorities govern them so it's price tag is varied from events, economic collapse from centralized financial institution, etc (no regulations and no safety net for ur funds).. However I feel that the developers and miners have a huge impact on the market (hard fork incident that is happening right now 8/1/16).. Also since it's decentralized, the price can go to $xxx to nothing quickly.. One incident is the MT Gox incident (a bitcoin exchange)where bitcoin was at $1200.. After the bankruptcy and frozen withdrawals, the price dropped down to$250ish
I think bitcoin might go back to it's peak price, but it might take a while until people get more comfortable with it (mostly millennials or tech people using it instead of cash)
Another cryptocurrency Ethereum gained some ground this year, however due to some incident there are two brands of it.. The other is Ethereum Classic is gaining ground due to the support of ethereum miners/exchanges and the bitcoin dilemma right now.. Most people think its a pump and dump, but I have gained profits from trading etc.
Another tip.. Use coinbase if ur starting out in cryptocurrency (has bitcoin and ethereum option) and also don't get into mining bitcoin unless ur an investor with a lot of $$$ and could support a lot of hardware).
If your investing in cryptocurrency be wary of the news, since it could dramatically affect the price of it...Its almost like a stock