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Topic: Unique Bitcoin Owners (Read 1618 times)

sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
This bull will try to shake you off. Hold tight!
October 22, 2013, 08:00:45 PM
#15

I didn't noticed I was replying to an old post of yours. I'm not jumping on you, I was just curious about what indicator you have used to come up with your estimation.

Here's the thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/back-to-basics-how-many-people-have-bitcoins-267708
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1000
--------------->¿?
October 22, 2013, 03:33:52 PM
#14
I asked the same question some 6 months back or so.

I came to the conclusion that it must be somewhere around 100k. 1 million was seriously overestimated I thought.

This conclusion is based on what? there is 150K members in this forum (I am aware that this is not a good indicator but it gives an idea). Also, this does not include all the people using other platforms such as reddit, facebook, twitter, google+ and so on. Also, there is a lot of people using bitcoin without engaging social interaction in any of those media. My guess is that the number of bitcoin users is more in the range of 500K - 1M around the world.


No need to jump on me.

It was based on several indicators, unique addresses in use, but other interesting calculations also.

By now it may have doubled but that's still just 200k in my rough estimate.

It's in my post history. If you are interested look it up yourself.

I didn't noticed I was replying to an old post of yours. I'm not jumping on you, I was just curious about what indicator you have used to come up with your estimation.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
This bull will try to shake you off. Hold tight!
October 22, 2013, 01:00:29 PM
#13
I asked the same question some 6 months back or so.

I came to the conclusion that it must be somewhere around 100k. 1 million was seriously overestimated I thought.

This conclusion is based on what? there is 150K members in this forum (I am aware that this is not a good indicator but it gives an idea). Also, this does not include all the people using other platforms such as reddit, facebook, twitter, google+ and so on. Also, there is a lot of people using bitcoin without engaging social interaction in any of those media. My guess is that the number of bitcoin users is more in the range of 500K - 1M around the world.


No need to jump on me.

It was based on several indicators, unique addresses in use, but other interesting calculations also.

By now it may have doubled but that's still just 200k in my rough estimate.

It's in my post history. If you are interested look it up yourself.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1047
Your country may be your worst enemy
October 22, 2013, 12:58:58 PM
#12
When I discovered BTC, I tried every software I could find, and every faucets as well. I still own 4 wallets with dust which would barely pay the fee to move them to my main wallet. So those wallets just sit, and I'm sure there are thousands like that. It would probably be more useful to look for the number of unique addresses used per day.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1000
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October 22, 2013, 11:37:24 AM
#11
I asked the same question some 6 months back or so.

I came to the conclusion that it must be somewhere around 100k. 1 million was seriously overestimated I thought.

This conclusion is based on what? there is 150K members in this forum (I am aware that this is not a good indicator but it gives an idea). Also, this does not include all the people using other platforms such as reddit, facebook, twitter, google+ and so on. Also, there is a lot of people using bitcoin without engaging social interaction in any of those media. My guess is that the number of bitcoin users is more in the range of 500K - 1M around the world.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
This bull will try to shake you off. Hold tight!
October 22, 2013, 11:07:24 AM
#10
I asked the same question some 6 months back or so.

I came to the conclusion that it must be somewhere around 100k. 1 million was seriously overestimated I thought.
copper member
Activity: 3948
Merit: 2201
Verified awesomeness ✔
August 25, 2013, 07:17:44 PM
#9
I'm sure there was no warrant for the seizure is just as the article said, a honeypot on Silk Road or the computer itself was seized and there happened to be bitcoins on it and the news media twisted it to say the coins had been seized
I am going to agree with this.
legendary
Activity: 2087
Merit: 1015
August 25, 2013, 07:12:08 PM
#8
You might be able to achieve a rough estimate if you do some cluster analysis on transactions, looking for which transactions from separate addresses eventually collide into a single address or group of addresses that are closely related. This might give you some indication of which addresses are grouped in a wallet or controlled by the same entity.

In the (not too?) distant future, I expect law enforcement will seek these kinds of tools for criminal transaction analysis. Can you imagine a time when they present a blockchain analysis to a judge to secure a signed warrant? You know... assuming we in the United States have any sort of Fourth Amendment rights at that point.

I've been wondering about how they got the warrant to seize bitcoins in this case:

http://www.dailydot.com/business/11-bitcoins-seized-government-dea/

Apparently they already have something compelling enough for a seizure?
I'm sure there was no warrant for the seizure is just as the article said, a honeypot on Silk Road or the computer itself was seized and there happened to be bitcoins on it and the news media twisted it to say the coins had been seized
sr. member
Activity: 366
Merit: 258
August 25, 2013, 07:03:44 PM
#7
You might be able to achieve a rough estimate if you do some cluster analysis on transactions, looking for which transactions from separate addresses eventually collide into a single address or group of addresses that are closely related. This might give you some indication of which addresses are grouped in a wallet or controlled by the same entity.

In the (not too?) distant future, I expect law enforcement will seek these kinds of tools for criminal transaction analysis. Can you imagine a time when they present a blockchain analysis to a judge to secure a signed warrant? You know... assuming we in the United States have any sort of Fourth Amendment rights at that point.

I've been wondering about how they got the warrant to seize bitcoins in this case:

http://www.dailydot.com/business/11-bitcoins-seized-government-dea/

Apparently they already have something compelling enough for a seizure?
full member
Activity: 142
Merit: 100
Hive/Ethereum
August 25, 2013, 11:09:54 AM
#6
You might be able to achieve a rough estimate if you do some cluster analysis on transactions, looking for which transactions from separate addresses eventually collide into a single address or group of addresses that are closely related. This might give you some indication of which addresses are grouped in a wallet or controlled by the same entity.

In the (not too?) distant future, I expect law enforcement will seek these kinds of tools for criminal transaction analysis. Can you imagine a time when they present a blockchain analysis to a judge to secure a signed warrant? You know... assuming we in the United States have any sort of Fourth Amendment rights at that point.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
August 24, 2013, 11:56:26 PM
#5
you could possibly work out how many is the average amount of wallets or addresses people have but amount of coin. People like to keep quiet on that.
newbie
Activity: 32
Merit: 0
August 24, 2013, 07:22:49 PM
#4
Kudos on the intellectual curiosity, but as others mentioned, it's a question not to be answered for many reasons..
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
July 29, 2013, 11:39:26 AM
#3
So there are over 11,000,000 bitcoins in the world.  How many unique bitcoin owners are there?
That is an impossible metric to measure accurately since one user (merchants) may use hundreds of addresses. There is no way to associate addresses to unique users and there is no other information stored in the blockchain to identify users.
Isn't this kind of why Bitcoin exists? To keep secret how many people are using bitcoins (and/or for what purposes)?
legendary
Activity: 2087
Merit: 1015
July 29, 2013, 11:34:46 AM
#2
So there are over 11,000,000 bitcoins in the world.  How many unique bitcoin owners are there?
That is an impossible metric to measure accurately since one user (merchants) may use hundreds of addresses. There is no way to associate addresses to unique users and there is no other information stored in the blockchain to identify users.
full member
Activity: 160
Merit: 100
July 28, 2013, 07:11:58 PM
#1
So there are over 11,000,000 bitcoins in the world.  How many unique bitcoin owners are there?
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