I agree that 12 million is inflated number... There are probably less than 1 million
active users(People that are spending at least once a week), but 4-7 million BTC holders due to services like changetip and coinbase.
Proof-
https://www.coinbase.com/aboutCoinbase has 2,100,000 unique users (2,700,000 wallets) as
they follow KYC and cannot lie about these numbers due to the amount of investors doing their due diligence and they aren't even available in some of the largest countries of bitcoin investors like china and uk.
Many people like myself have given out 100s of gifts in bitcoin with changetip and coinbase and we see who accepts it or not. Most of these non -bitcoin users accepting it are simply sitting on the bitcoin because they cannot be bothered with 5-50 usd of btc at the moment but are aware that it may go up in value so are willing to spend a minute setting up the account to accept in hopes that it does appreciate and not to be rude to their friendly gift giver.
How many of those 2.7 million sign ups are not bitcoin USERS? Perhaps they received $5, $10 worth of BTC from somewhere and immediately cashed it out to fiat, and coinbase is the easiest way in the US to 'cashout'. In my book that is not a bitcoin user. I went kayaking once, but I am not a kayaker.
I already admitted that many of those
2.1 million users aren't active, read my post. A majority of my projected 4-7 million worldwide
holders are essentially acting as speculators with some starting to become regular users like myself due to the benefits and savings realized(20-30% off everything from amazon is very nice).
Most user will not waste their time verifying their bank with coinbase or figuring out how to sell or spend their coins.... but will just go through the 1 minute process of claiming the gift many of us send them. People that regularly give out gifts know this because we see from coinbase and changetip when a gift isn't claimed(thus the people don't go through the 1 minute process of primary KYC) and than we know they aren't selling it because:
1) We understand human psychology and know how lazy people and how averse they are with learning to use new systems. Primary KYC is easy , learning to sell and spend BTC is a whole other step. Claiming and sitting on 5-50usd of BTC is easy, spending it may not be worth their time.
2) These are our friends and family members who we often speak to who admit they are just sitting on the btc in hopes that it goes up.
The beauty about all this is that many of these holders (speculators) will convert overnight to spenders , users, and advocates during the next dis inflationary bubble ... which is likely to happen in 2016.
Bottom line is to continue to follow Roger Ver's lead and give out bitcoin and spread the wealth around as this is one of the most effective methods growing adoption.