The more that I learn about investing in Bitcoin mining businesses the less rational it seems. A stock or bond should pay a dividend and hold it price relatively well, or it should pay no dividends and rise in price accordingly so the investor can sell it at a profit. Why is what should be so simple so complicated when it comes to Bitcoin-related investments?
The thing is, it seems to me many of these "mining companies" were just set up as a way for the "CEO/operator" to get a bunch of mining hardware by using other peoples money and thus have no risk, thus the assets were not set up with the investor's best interest in mind. Investing in these is high risk/low return. In the end, a fixed hash rate will go down in value until the difficulty stops growing, which will not be any time soon.
That is not to say they are all bad. Some are set up as companies that will grow to stay competitive.
I second this sentiment. These are possibly the two oldest companies on the GLBSE. They will not give a great return (when compared with other bitcoin investments) but I would say they are low risk (relatively). Plus, they are not involved in mining so it is a way to diversify your holdings.
BitcoinTorrentz in particular was a great innovation, a way to utilize the properties of Bitcoin to solve a particular problem.
Buying gold/platinum would not be my pick as those assets are basically pegged to the exchange rate. So this would not actually generate revenue in fiat in my mind.
Buying physical gold/platinum would expose you to exchange rate. If I understand correctly, buying any of the GLBSE assets GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM, or RAREEARTH does not expose you to such, these are essentially bonds secured by a holding of the named metal. If you believe the operator that he does in fact have such an amount of metal in his vault, then this would be less risky than an unsecured bond. See this thread for an explaination
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1160562