12 Million people use Bitcoin today according to XAPO's CEO

[BitExperts]

Here is today's interview with XAPO's CEO:

http://www.strictlyvc.com/2015/04/20/wences-casares-on-the-future-of-xapo-and-bitcoin/

It was interesting that he quoted an estimated 12 million of peolpe using Bitcoin today.
As people pointed out on Reddit, it is overly optimistic number to say the least.

BlockChain.info had 70K wallets in April 2013, then it hit 1 Mil wallets in Jan 2014 (less than a year x 15 times growth). Now, another year+ has passed. How many wallets Blockchain now has? I would estimate at least 3+ millions, or more. B/c the growth slowed down in 2014 with the BTC price crashes etc. So just one provider has 3+ millions.

There is also CoinBase, Xapo, Circle, CoinKite, whole bunch of mobile Android wallets, iOS wallets, and everyoine else.

So maybe 12 millions is a stretch, maybe it is just a sum of estimated amounts of wallets from all major providers.

It would be nice to know the exact number of people who use Bitcoin, but at this point we could only "guestimate" it, still I think people need to pronounce those larger numbers in the press, business community, etc - to spread Bitcoin awareness and interest. In this case, it was published in StrictlyVC who serves business / entrepreneur / investor community.

So having a higher (althouth overly optimisctic) number like that quoted is a good publicity for Bitcoin, and it needs good publicity to somewhat recover after less than favorable 2014

If anyone has more accurate numbers in terms of how many people worldwide are engaged with Bitcoin, please share your numbers / guestimates!
Thanks!


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[fox19891989]

IMO this figure is overestimated, 1 million people is possible. 12 million is impossible. One guy can open many wallet in blockchain, I registered 3 wallets in blockchain in 2013, but I seldom use it.

[coinableS]

No way can it be close to 12 million users. The amount of people that may have tried it once and never used it again, could be a pretty big number. But number of currently ACTIVE users must be below 500,000 IMO. There are only ~750K addresses with a balance over 0.1 BTC

[coinableS]

No way can it be close to 12 million users. The amount of people that may have tried it once and never used it again, could be a pretty big number. But number of currently ACTIVE users must be below 500,000 IMO. There are only ~750K addresses with a balance over 0.1 BTC

Wow that is discouraging to say the least, but lets hope this is increasing daily.

It shouldn't be discouraging, shows we have a lot of room to grow.
The average number of transactions per day keeps rising.

[hl5460]

8btc: Chinese Bitcoin Community Report

Highlights:
 ~250k Chinese crypto players
5000+ QQ groups
Top 3 cities: Beijing, Guangzhou,Shenzhen
Derivative/Futures markets are expanding.
Top 3 altcoins: BTS/DOGE/YBC
30% of all players had mining experience
8k qq members remain active on a daily basis.
30k active traders
10% renewal of the whole community
Some players have returned to the crypto market after 6 month absence.

Full report:
http://www.8btc.com/community-report (in Chinese)


And the number has been shrinking due to the recent rise of A share market.

[coinableS]

There's growth, just look back,
3 years ago:


Today:

[Chef Ramsay]

No way can it be close to 12 million users. The amount of people that may have tried it once and never used it again, could be a pretty big number. But number of currently ACTIVE users must be below 500,000 IMO. There are only ~750K addresses with a balance over 0.1 BTC

This is not happening in the real world at this point. We all should do so much more to and be recogonized in that this will be huge.

[qiwoman2]

We really would need the figure to go up 100 times to make it barely mainstream so it has taken a very long time, a few years just to reach a million users?. I really thought by now there would be a lot more Bitcoin users and enthusiasts. Looks like we have a long road ahead of us convincing the world of this new technological advancement.

[Kprawn]

Do we need to lie about the total number of people who use Bitcoin to progress? Nope... we could simply demand that more vendor's and merchants accept the currency as a payment method, and the number will increase by itself.

By demand, I acctually mean... a lot of people target the same merchant, and "ask" if they accept BTC.... once enough people asked, it would spark the interrest of the merchant, to accept it. {This is a tried and tested way to do it}

My guess is, about +/- 1 milliion people world wide is using Bitcoin. {The 12 million reflect multiple wallets from the same people on different platforms}

[BitExperts]

Hey guys, thanks for sharing real data

@coinableS - great insight & data

@hl5460 - I've followed you on Twitter

Yes it looks like 12 mil number was pulled out of thin air...
You are right, more needs to be done to promote BTC to mainstream users.
I am actually launching few projects that would have an impact in terms of bringing a lot of new TECHIES into Bitcoin, but that would take another thread

I think in 2015 Bitcoin will rise again, and it will get to 12 million users eventually

 

[QuestionAuthority]

That is kind of depressing. If there were one million Bitcoin users that equals roughly 0.0142857% of the worlds population.

81% of foreign-exchange transactions use the U.S. dollar, 10% use euros and 7% use the yuan. An estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide (almost one third of the worlds population) transact using the dollar at least once annually. 

[bornil267645]

Some people might say that's rather low considering the other currency market and world population, But look at it in this way, for a currency that's been only 6 years old, It has sure grown a awful lot. So all the best for the ever growing Bitcoin Community.

[Slark]

There is also CoinBase, Xapo, Circle, CoinKite, whole bunch of mobile Android wallets, iOS wallets, and everyoine else.

So maybe 12 millions is a stretch, maybe it is just a sum of estimated amounts of wallets from all major providers.

It would be nice to know the exact number of people who use Bitcoin, but at this point we could only "guestimate" it, still I think people need to pronounce those larger numbers in the press, business community, etc - to spread Bitcoin awareness and interest. In this case, it was published in StrictlyVC who serves business / entrepreneur / investor community.

Is it possible to count online bitcoin wallets as they are being controlled partially by 3rd party service. But you can't really count other types of 'standard' wallets like Bitcoin Core (qt), Multi Bit, Electrum, Armory etc.
This statement of Xapo CEO is overoptimistic in my opinion. As we have to think of scenario when one person can hold multiple wallets in result effectively doubling users base, and that is not so uncommon practice.

[Light]

Is it possible to count online bitcoin wallets as they are being controlled partially by 3rd party service. But you can't really count other types of 'standard' wallets like Bitcoin Core (qt), Multi Bit, Electrum, Armory etc.
This statement of Xapo CEO is overoptimistic in my opinion. As we have to think of scenario when one person can hold multiple wallets in result effectively doubling users base, and that is not so uncommon practice.

Even that isn't really a viable option - there will undoubtedly be some people with multiple accounts on these online wallet services (which by the way you shouldn't use unless you want to lose those coins) and some of these people may even overlap between services. Unless you were to somehow get the ID of everyone on top of a complete list of what addresses they own you'd never be able to properly document the number of users - just guess. Personally, I think even 1 million is a little high but it's all speculation without any hard evidence.

[Amph]

IMO this figure is overestimated, 1 million people is possible. 12 million is impossible. One guy can open many wallet in blockchain, I registered 3 wallets in blockchain in 2013, but I seldom use it.

in fact i read that there were only 2.5 millions users using bitcoin, now to go from 2.5M to 12M there is a long way, not possible in just few months

xapo isn't well informed, or is just increase the number to obtain more popularity...

[fox19891989]

No way can it be close to 12 million users. The amount of people that may have tried it once and never used it again, could be a pretty big number. But number of currently ACTIVE users must be below 500,000 IMO. There are only ~750K addresses with a balance over 0.1 BTC

I agree with you, 12 million is impossible, XAPO's CEO is bragging about the number of BTC users, so he can sell his company to investors in the future. 

Less than 500k is reasonable and logical. Some people just register online wallet but never used, it doesn't mean they are all btc users.

[Snail2]

I'm not sure if addresses are providing the correct number. E.g. I have a few cold wallets for long term storage and a couple of "hot wallets" for everyday use. So I'm using nearly a dozen of different wallets.

[fox19891989]

I'm not sure if addresses are providing the correct number. E.g. I have a few cold wallets for long term storage and a couple of "hot wallets" for everyday use. So I'm using nearly a dozen of different wallets.

Yes. I have registered almost every big btc exchanges, and I have multiple deposits addresses, I have created over 20 addresses, but only a few is usually used. Many people do like me, it is obvious that the number of address is not equal to actual users.

[amiryaqot]

I'm not sure if addresses are providing the correct number. E.g. I have a few cold wallets for long term storage and a couple of "hot wallets" for everyday use. So I'm using nearly a dozen of different wallets.

Yes. I have registered almost every big btc exchanges, and I have multiple deposits addresses, I have created over 20 addresses, but only a few is usually used. Many people do like me, it is obvious that the number of address is not equal to actual users.

agreed with you many people doing like this made account on online bitcoin exchange for test purpose but only very few people keep balance or use them, i think so 750k is much reasonable amount of people with balance in their wallet and they regular user of btc but 12 Millions seems fake and doubtful.

[crazyivan]

I think you people look at this the wrong way. Not reaching 20 mil yet is not a problem. It s an opportunity.
Go promote and educate.