Bitcoin Forum

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/bitcoin-tops-paypal-for-first-time-in.html

I didn't realize that we had already bested both Discover Card and Western Union.

this is nuts.. i think we've hit the point of singularity now. it's time for either a boom or a bust.

I think that $145Million transaction is actually only a $400 transaction made with a fat wallet.

Edit: I think that 194.994 kBTC transaction is actually only a 500.00004 mBTC transaction made with a fat wallet

This statement doesn't parse.

Bitcoin sends a lot of money back to the same user automatically, even when users aren't moving their own money around. This doesn't have a real-money analogy, as paying your electric bill doesn't transfer your Bank of America balance to Wells Fargo. Statistics that attempt to measure transaction volume inevitably miss this fact.

They also don't include off-network transactions.  I never claimed that this was a particularly good comparison, but it certainly still is a milestone.

Amazing news!

These are great news, I really think that bitcoin should for all transaction made online.

But it is a false impression.  Paypal is used for payments, not transfers, as are some of the others topping that list.  Meanwhile inter-bank transfers are completely ignored, which would dwarf all the but the top 4.  Want to compare payments or want to compare financial transfers?  They are not the same thing.  As covered, the number is distorted by a single transaction. And a lot of people don't seem to realise this is pretty small numbers compared to major banks, investment banks, hedge funds, insurance, pension funds etc that move billions a day.

Underlying this is an interesting question of just how do bitcoin movements breakdown between payments and transfers?  

What you are asking is a difference in the intent of the interested parties, and due to the semi-anonymous nature of bitcoin, it's impossible for us to know the intent of these transactions unless those parties intend to tell us.

of course.  so one shouldn't compare bitcoin to the likes of Paypal too much.  many advocate bitcoin's abilities to be used for money transfers, if that is key driver then to compare with services aimed at purchases is painting a false impression.

Meh, can't compare the two.  The way bitcoin works, many transactions are to the same person.  Hell, someone rich could just transfer his money to a paper wallet and there'd be a huge log.

Bunch of killjoys, I swear!

the transaction:
https://blockchain.info/block-index/442297/0000000000000006eb3b7ad8c85f7755213247e67af3107393feccef8597c339

worth nearly $150mill is impressive, especially when the guy didnt pay a fee.

if western union and paypal did accept this kind of value as a transfer that can happen without question. check out the fee's
paypal 1.5% fee ($2.25m fee instant paypal to paypal rest-of-world cross border fee)
western union ($12.5m fee for its 1 minute service)

Am I the only one considering the word "Average" in that post ? You don't get the volume over one day and call that the average volume in a network.