http://statistics.ecdsa.org/

Sadly not up to date though.

Already mentioned here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=159164.0

I think it is possible that at this point, already 2 or 3 million coins are "lost", because back in 2009 people toyed around with very large amounts and then just deleted their wallets as they never expected the value to skyrocket at a later time.

See http://statistics.ecdsa.org/, for example. I might be wrong though.

So, do they accept BTC directly? Or are they using a service like bitpay or similar as a "proxy"? 

I don't know if it has been mentioned yet, but if off-blockchain tx become so popular that they endanger the security, then all businesses who are involved in off-chain tx will basically be forced to invest into increased security themselves, perhaps by paying miners directly or by making nonsense-tx with high fees to attract miners.

Otherwise, their whole business would fail if the core Bitcoin system itself fails. They would basically have to decide between no more profits (due to breakdown of the Bitcoin system because of a lack of sufficient fees) or reduced profits (by ensuring the security of the network with their own investments). I am sure that all involved in such business would chose less profit over no profit anytime.

I think it could turn out to be a self-regulating system, basically. Or maybe not, for me Bitcoin is foremost a very interesting experiment, and I am sure we will have learned a lot even if it fails.

I have the impression that in most comment sections, there are usually no more than 2 or 3 VERY outspoken individuals who dominate the discussions by quickly throwing out as many arguments against Bitcoin as possible. They seem to prefer quantity over quality. They also often use the typical vocabulary like "buttcoins" etc. that was introduced by the SA forums, which has always had a vendetta against Bitcoin. Maybe that is where they are coming from, i don't really know.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/4/4063084/new-bitcoin-only-electronics-retailer-competing-with-amazon-newegg


I do not quite understand where the hostility towards Bitcoin and Bitcoin users that I see in so many comments under different articles comes from. It seems like some people try very hard to discredit Bitcoin in any way possible.

Is it really true that BTC is widely used to purchase child porn? I see that accusation thrown around a lot, but are there any sources to back that claim up? I think not?

Hi,

I think this site (http://statistics.ecdsa.org/) is very interesting, but no new data has been added since the end of 2012. Does anyone know if there will ever be an update?

I think it is time to finally unnoob my account.

ARISE!!

One commonly listed advantage of BTC is the potential usefulness for micropayments.

Let's say BTC becomes significantly more popular. The no. of transactions per day will increase significantly. There will be far more big transactions. These will probably include high transaction fees in order to get processed, raising the average amount of fees used per transaction. Miners will try to prioritize these transactions, for economic reasons. But afaik the amount of allowed transactions included per block is limited. That means that micro-transactions will either not get processed. Or they will need to include an unreasonably high amount of fees, probably making up a large percentage of the total sum, thus making micropayments unattractive.

I have a habit of being wrong, please explain where and why I am erring this time.

TL;DR: Things!

Good Sir, thank you very much for your warm and loving welcome.

1) The concept of tipping is kind of foreign in my country, so I did not know that. I appreciate the information.

2) You compare the system to giving money to a beggar on the street holding out his hands. I would rather compare it to a street artist, who actually offers something (music, paintings, performance) which may or may not be of worth to bypassers. Personally, I like to give a coin to street performers when I enjoy their work. In this way, I can also ensure that the artist may come back some other time to delight me again with their skills.
I have seen people in online forums who invest a ridiculous amount of time and energy to write detailed tutorials, or to help out helpless newbies. Often I have wished to give them s.th. back for their efforts. These people have offered their advice many a times, and will probably continue to do so in the future. So I disagree with your opinion that I would not get "value for my money", as the job has basically already been performed, and with my donation I may even increase the chance of more jobs being performed in the future (in the form of more tutorials and advice and stuff).

Hi,

I want to present in this posting a possible way to enhance the popularity of bitcoins in the internet community. English is not my first language, please bear with me. I will give a step-by-step overview:

1. Visit your favourite internet forum. The more traffic that forum has, the better. You should already have an account on that forum, so you do not appear as a random spammer.

2. Look for a user who writes a lot of helpful postings in that forum. That user should be really popular and well-liked and competent.

3. Tell that user (via pm or maybe better publically?) how much you enjoy their postings, and that you would like to pay a smallish amount back for his efforts, as a donation or a tip. Tell the user you do not want to use paypal, because they tend to randomly freeze accounts and because you value a certain degree of anonymity. Instead, ask him to put a bitcoin adress into his profile or signature. Offer an amount of bitcoins as a donation/tip that will be just high enough to make it worth their time to download and install the bitcoin client (??like 2 or 3 coins??). Also, tell the user that maybe more people would like to send out a tip/donation if he/she puts the bitcoin adress in his/her signature/profile.

4. Now a highly popular user will openly show a bitcoin adress. This will hopefully lead to two thing: First, more people will see this and will hope to recieve bitcoins for writing useful postings, so hopefully they will also copy that example from the first user and put an adress in their sig. Second, since you picked a popular member who has already helped out a lot of people with his texts, more people will hopefully donate to that user.

The goal is to establish an online-culture of tipping for useful and helpful postings. If enough of the big forums start adopting that practice, it will sweep into the smaller forums by itself, I could imagine. Please think of all the people out there who invest a lot of their time every single day to fill all those forums out there with content. That content is basically generated "for free", and at this point in time there is no way for the readers to give s.th. back to the writers. I believe that such a system of tipping will be welcomed. And bitcoin is the way to make it possible.

If this succeeds, bitcoins will become much more widespread in the internet community. This will in turn cause more services to accept bitcoins, since people will want to exchange their tips for money or goods at some point. From there on, bitcoins will continue their crusade to become the most awesome currency EVER! Or maybe not?

I may or may not try this out in one of the forums I regularly visit, and if I get a popular user to put a bitcoin adress in their sig, I will post about it here, with link and all...