Bitcoin Forum

I'm interested to know just how much people are relying on Bitcoin, and what's a better way to find out than to ask the forum community exactly how much they have?

Also, any success stories out there?  Or any suggestions for making money?

I crawled my way to 700 BTC.

I am too impulsive. I only have around 20 at the moment. I have gone through over 300 BTC at the least.

I started mining btc at the end of 2009 and also was one  of the first (or maybe even the first) buyers of bitcoins from the only available bitcoin trader http://newlibertystandard.wetpaint.com/ At that time 800 bitcoins were equal 1 USD :)

Hehe, I miss newlibertystandard's 0.005 rates...

I spent ~8000 btc (almost all I had) on a month's rent of a VPS the day before the slashdot. Not my best financial decision so far given current rates. :)

Keep 2100 BTC. Save 50% and spend the rest.

Keeping 2100 BTC is a good symbolic number since it is 0.01% of the total amount of bitcoins.

The problem is that it is hard to earn bitcoin. I have to make sure that my earning outpaces my expenses.

It looks like the vast majority of bitcoin is in the hands of a few tenth of people.


I was always replying that Bitcoin might work, that it was not a bubble. When I see this poll, I really doubt. People like me that cannot/don't want to mine have really hard time trying to gain a few BTC from there and there. On the other hand, some have 10.000BTC and keep half of it as an investment.


There should be a way to help more newcomer. The faucet is really nice. Maybe it should be increased a bit so it gives more than a symbolic value. People with more than 1000BTC should really consider donating 5% of their wealth to either the faucet or to people that actually sell goods for BTC (they are making the economy).


All those actions would actually lower a bit the value of a bitcoin. Which is a sane thing to do in the current situation. It's an investement for the long term. It might help to make the bitcoin economy sustainable (I don't think that it is the case right now).

How'd you come up with that conclusion from this poll? 

Ploum, why do you think these people with a lot of coins have them? If it is to never spend then so what? If it is to spend, then the situation will not last.

I suspect it will become a power law distribution of wealth.

Not much we can do about it, and bound to happen in a free market.

The presence of some super-rich bitcioners has some advantages too. For instance, one rich entrepreneur who is passionate about making a technology happen (say BitDNS), will get it done a lot faster than a collective of thousands of small investors politicking among themselves.



From the point of view of a vendor who accepts Bitcoin, it makes no difference whether a BTC is worth 0.1 USD or 10 USD. None whatsoever.

The only thing that does make a difference are monthly and quarterly fluctuations in the BTC value because that makes it difficult to cover his costs in USD.  At least as long as the Bitcoin economy is small and most of his costs are not payable in BTC.  He can protect himself against that through currency hedging, which I think will be on the market soon.

Indeed, hedging would be a great great service for people that would like to accept bitcoins but still cannot spend them.

This poll would be more interesting if there was a parallel question asking how long people have been involved in the BTC economy.

I have 2 whole bitcoins, hell yeah.

In march-april 2010 I mined 450 BTC i spent at that only,If i would have preserved till today then I would have have 20000 INR but alash!!

The quantity of money you own has very little to do with your wealth, really.

It's actually silly to hoard large amounts of cash.  Somehow it's a kind of acetism, because money you hoard is money you don't spend, it's consumption you refuse to enjoy.  There is no reason to envy someone who owns a lot of cash, really.  You might even mock him.  Because it's foolish.

I own about 1,400 bitcoins, and about 150 euros.  Most of my wealth is in stock holdings and precious metals.  I hate owning cash, even in bitcoins (although I prefer bitcoins to euros). 

I think a more interesting question would be: how many BTC have you spent so far and how?

(For example, my only spending so far was some donation to bitcoinme)

Somewhere over a thousand BTC. Bounties, fees for people who helped me with technical things, file downloads, advertising, pyramid scams, donations, exchange fees, tcatm's "hash for hire", etc.

Oh, and a fabulous Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar note that I'm going to frame. I think that's the only physical thing I've bought with BTC so far.

I bought many things with bitcoins.  Usually not directly though, but by using a currency exchange first.  Most often via bitcoin2cc, or via my selling site on my signature.

Does that count for you?  I think it does but I'm afraid you meant a "direct" purchase from bitcoin to goods and services.

Poll needs a category for people with <1 BTC(faucet).

Someone with a large bitcoin balance could join http://witcoin.com (http://witcoin.com) and offer to hand out coins to people if they wanted too lol.

You can send amounts to other users on the site (hint)

People who really own a LOT of bitcoins should consider giving me some at the following address:

1MHT1WZxPwH5gLdUb7gmum3xgqcTdFS5j1


I'm a good person.  Plus, I will contribute to the bitcoin economy, for I won't just hoard those bitcoins.  Don't hesitate to give me 1, 10 or even 100 BTC.  Thanks.

People who really own a LOT of bitcoins should consider doing whatever they want with their BTC.

grondilu, I know that you are a good person. I have no doubt.
I would send you bitcoins, but you have more of them than me.

I sent you one, because I enjoy reading your insightful posts. Don't spend it all at once on drugs and hookers!

lol  thanks ;)

I've spent 136 BTC on tangible goods and a donation to some hipster physicists. Still waiting on the tangible goods...

I am one of the most poor cyber-rich in the net :P after two months of mining i only have 5 bitcoins =) in crypto we trust!

Thanks to putting a valid bitcoin adress in every article I write in order to advertize bitcoin everywhere, I made some profit. Today, thanks to http://www.youtipit.org/en/tip?junketId=J2656 , I became cyber-rich: I now own more than 10BTC and should change my answer to the poll.

If someone really owns a lot of bitcoins, I want to suggest one thing.
Please donate bitcoins to Bitcoin Faucet (http://freebitcoins.appspot.com/) to strengthen the economy.

I have never used the bitcoin faucet and will never donate to it.  Bitcoin is free money as in free speech, not free beer.

Yeah!  Those damn socialists!

Lol, I haven't used or donated either, but I think it's an awesome idea. People get to see the thing work without having to beg or put up money first. It isn't about the 5 cents, it's just about building confidence that this damn newfangled thing works properly. Maybe I will donate a few cents.

Out of curiosity, Gavin, do you get a lot of .05, .04 and .01 donations?

It seems so. http://blockexplorer.com/address/15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC (http://blockexplorer.com/address/15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC)