I own a not insignificant amount of Ether, and have a dabble position in a variety of other coins, including BTC. But I only self-custody Ether.
The most important thing to know about blockchains is that after Ethereum, blockchains are not about being digital money. They are supercomputers designed to be available to the public, open to public code, and yet, paradoxically, highly secure. Once you understand that, it becomes clear that crypto isn't really trying to displace the US Dollar, but Amazon Web Services, and that crypto is a web backend designed to handle really important things securely rather than cheaply or at high speed the way Google and Amazon do it.
This is why I view Ether as a digital equivalent to an industrial catalyst. It does some extraordinarily powerful things, but you have to appreciate it exists in a different web paradigm.
That said, I have to add that this isn't really a good time to get into crypto if you are new. The SEC is practically declaring war on any crypto on-ramp entities, so I am expecting a pretty catastrophic crypto crash in the near future as VCs offload their bags before crypto gets disconnected from mainstream banking.