If Bitcoin were a country...

[dree12]

Some interesting statistics.

General

Statistic	​	Ranking	Source(s) & Note(s)
Date of independence	2009-01-03	—[1]	Date of the genesis block, de facto beginning the Bitcoin experiment.
Population	155200[2]	#178 Saint Lucia #179	2328 stores on CoinMap at estimated 0.015 stores per capita.
Government	Decentralized governance.[3]	—
Demonym	Bitcoiner	—

Economy

Statistic	​	Ranking	Source(s) & Note(s)
GDP	$15.943 billion USD	#111 Brunei #112	Blockchain.info; estimated transaction volume over last 365 days.
GDP Growth	2549%	#1	As above measuring 1-year change.
GDP per capita	$102770.62 USD	#2 Qatar #3	Average Bitcoiner has very high standard of living.
Inflation Rate (CPI)	−98.2%	—[4]	One-year. Based on XBTUSD and USD CPI.
Military expenditure	$342 million USD per annum	#86 Botswana #87	Miners' revenue (last 365 days), blockchain.info.[5]

Currency (Millibitcoin [mXBT, mBTC])

Statistic	​	Ranking	Source(s) & Note(s)
Value	$0.92 USD	#11 Canadian dollar #12	Bitstamp.
Lowest denomination in common use	0.00001 mBTC	—[6]	Lowest allowed over network.
Value of Lowest denomination	$0.0000092 USD	—[7]	Third-lowest value of any lowest denomination in common use; only Uzbekistani tiyin and Burmese pya have lower valuations.
Monetary base	$11.62 billion USD	#75 Zimbabwe #76	Based on total mined rounded down to approximate currency destruction, in addition to an estimated 1 million in deposits, subtracting an estimated 1 million coins suspected to be lost permanently.

Footnotes

• ^[1]: What constitutes a “country” is subject to much political dispute. It is generally accepted that the given date is after the independence of Montenegro but before the independence of South Sudan.
• ^[2]: It is important to clarify what is meant by “Population”. Evidently, there are many possibilities for defining this term. If every person to know about Bitcoin were to be included, that would be akin to including all people who know about a country in that country's “population” figure. If every person to have ever touched a Bitcoin (or part of one) were to be included, that would be akin to including every tourist who once stepped foot in a country as part of the country's “population”. It is the opinion of the author that counting Bitcoin merchants is the most effective way of generating a realistic number for population.
• ^[3]: The author opts not to mention the Bitcoin Foundation, as its equivalent in most countries is not the government but rather a non-profit.
• ^[4]: Hyperdeflation is extremely rare. Bitcoin's inflation rate would be far lower than that of any other country. It would be misleading to present a ranking and a nearby country as that would imply similarity between the numbers.
• ^[5]: The Bitcoin network “pays” miners to defend the network from 51% attacks. Thus, defence spending can be equated to the amount paid to miners. Defence spending for the Bitcoin network is extremely efficient thanks to the built-in market dynamics; only the best miners are selected and paid and there is little to no corruption or waste. In a way, Bitcoin is the first 100%-efficient military.
• ^[6]: Due to the differing units, this cannot be ranked. However, it is interesting to note that more decimal places are supported than other currencies.
• ^[7]: Because this ranks among the lowest few, it is difficult to give an exact ranking. This difficulty is compounded due to the ambiguity apropos the word “currency”.

Any others?

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[Matthew N. Wright]

Some interesting statistics.

Population: ~2000000 (estimate) (#148, after Botswana)
Estimate based on growth thanks to Max Keiser's 1000000 campaign.
GDP (last 365 days): $1.269 billion USD (#172, after Dijbouti)
Blockchain.info.
GDP per capita: $634.50 USD (N/A)
The average Bitcoin user grosses $600 USD annually in Bitcoin. Bitcoin seems to not yet be a significant portion of most people's lives.
Monetary base: $730 million USD (#120, after Fiji)
Based on total mined rounded down to approximate currency destruction.

Any others?

I'd be interested to see the rate of crime for this "country", the rate of "incarceration" (scammer tags, outcasting, etc) and the health of investments, stocks, bonds, etc in the businesses of this "country".

Are there any other countries where ponzi schemes are so prevalent? 

[alexeft]

Try your calculation again in the summer. I bet the numbers will be waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy different!! 

[dree12]

Some interesting statistics.

Population: ~2000000 (estimate) (#148, after Botswana)
Estimate based on growth thanks to Max Keiser's 1000000 campaign.
GDP (last 365 days): $1.269 billion USD (#172, after Dijbouti)
Blockchain.info.
GDP per capita: $634.50 USD (N/A)
The average Bitcoin user grosses $600 USD annually in Bitcoin. Bitcoin seems to not yet be a significant portion of most people's lives.
Monetary base: $730 million USD (#120, after Fiji)
Based on total mined rounded down to approximate currency destruction.

Any others?

I'd be interested to see the rate of crime for this "country", the rate of "incarceration" (scammer tags, outcasting, etc) and the health of investments, stocks, bonds, etc in the businesses of this "country".

Are there any other countries where ponzi schemes are so prevalent? 

While data for financial crime are hard to collect, this country incidentally has some of the lowest rates of violent crime .

[rebuilder]

Is GDP really counted as the total amount of currency traded over a year?

[dree12]

Is GDP really counted as the total amount of currency traded over a year?

GDP = consumption + investment + export − import

The first two terms are approximated by amount traded over a year, so:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year + export − import

Exports and imports are hard to define, really, so we set them to zero and get:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year

[blablahblah]

Is GDP really counted as the total amount of currency traded over a year?

GDP = consumption + investment + export − import

The first two terms are approximated by amount traded over a year, so:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year + export − import

Exports and imports are hard to define, really, so we set them to zero and get:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year

How do you get trade over a year? Doesn't the automatic "change" make the amounts uncertain?
Why not add up the estimated throughput of the 100 largest businesses? The result will probably be somewhat less impressive, but likely more real.

[dree12]

Is GDP really counted as the total amount of currency traded over a year?

GDP = consumption + investment + export − import

The first two terms are approximated by amount traded over a year, so:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year + export − import

Exports and imports are hard to define, really, so we set them to zero and get:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year

How do you get trade over a year? Doesn't the automatic "change" make the amounts uncertain?
Why not add up the estimated throughput of the 100 largest businesses? The result will probably be somewhat less impressive, but likely more real.

Blockchain.info gets rid of the change for me; I'm not sure how they do it but I expect it to be more accurate than "add the throughput of the 100 largest businesses".

[WiW]

Is GDP really counted as the total amount of currency traded over a year?

GDP = consumption + investment + export − import

The first two terms are approximated by amount traded over a year, so:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year + export − import

Exports and imports are hard to define, really, so we set them to zero and get:

GDP ≈ amount traded over year

Sorry for the large image, I just have to.

[Akka]

Sorry for the large image, I just have to.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20130114.gif

Love it. 

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Madame, was does the dotted line represent?

A Meze Grill patron, declaring from his oversized black naugahyde chair, "Up! Up! Up!"

[melvster]

Some interesting statistics.

Population: ~2000000 (estimate) (#148, after Botswana)
Estimate based on growth thanks to Max Keiser's 1000000 campaign.
GDP (last 365 days): $1.269 billion USD (#172, after Dijbouti)
Blockchain.info.
GDP per capita: $634.50 USD (N/A)
The average Bitcoin user grosses $600 USD annually in Bitcoin. Bitcoin seems to not yet be a significant portion of most people's lives.
Monetary base: $730 million USD (#120, after Fiji)
Based on total mined rounded down to approximate currency destruction.

Any others?

Needs a flag:  I made this today:

http://bitflag.org

Let me know if there any other designs out there

[Wilikon]

[/quote]

Needs a flag:  I made this today:

http://bitflag.org

Let me know if there any other designs out there
[/quote]

The most amazing thing is not the flag (no, it is definitely not), but that bitflag.org exists. Maybe you should erase that flag and instead put up an email address or an online vote system where the most talented bitcoin designers would submit to you the flag of the day. Maybe only people from bitcointalk.org would be able to post to bitflag.org to make sure things get a little bit tunneled?

[lleibowitz]

Needs a flag:  I made this today:

http://bitflag.org

Let me know if there any other designs out there
[/quote]

The most amazing thing is not the flag (no, it is definitely not), but that bitflag.org exists. Maybe you should erase that flag and instead put up an email address or an online vote system where the most talented bitcoin designers would submit to you the flag of the day. Maybe only people from bitcointalk.org would be able to post to bitflag.org to make sure things get a little bit tunneled?
[/quote]

That'd be a great idea. Do a contest and let's decide on a "official" bitcoin flag.

[TheButterZone]

Perhaps a variant of http://onebasispoint1.home.comcast.net/~onebasispoint1/flags/military/come_and_take_it_full.jpg

[dree12]

I updated the OP with some more statistics.

[veteranBtc]

Where did you get the statistics for countries?

[dree12]

Where did you get the statistics for countries?

From various sources. Since different sources list different countries, it's not exactly a controlled comparison. It's more of a visualization of how big Bitcoin has become.

[bg002h]

Needs a flag:  I made this today:

http://bitflag.org

Let me know if there any other designs out there

The most amazing thing is not the flag (no, it is definitely not), but that bitflag.org exists. Maybe you should erase that flag and instead put up an email address or an online vote system where the most talented bitcoin designers would submit to you the flag of the day. Maybe only people from bitcointalk.org would be able to post to bitflag.org to make sure things get a little bit tunneled?
[/quote]

That'd be a great idea. Do a contest and let's decide on a "official" bitcoin flag.
[/quote]

I think it's great that people are thinking about a flag. I hope someday we get one...also hope we someday get a logo that doesn't suck so much. We need a graphic artist to overhaul everything Bitcoin so we can stop looking like little school children with a papier mâché volcano.

[dree12]

Updated to reflect recent price & GDP increases.