Source :
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/economy/article154076094.htmlSlowly bitcoin gained adherents – the number of people using bitcoin now “rivals the population of small countries,” Garrick Hileman, an economic historian and research fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, wrote in a preface to a report on digital currency released in April.
In a subsequent telephone interview, Hileman said between five and 10 million people have used bitcoin or a handful of other digital currencies, and the electronic system has proved extraordinarily resilient.
“It hasn’t been down for a single nanosecond in its 8 ½ years, and it is the largest computer network in history,” Hileman said, adding that without any central control over the network, there is no possible single point of failure.
“How many complicated IT systems, large IT systems had zero downtime over an 8 ½-year period?”
Proof of Work. One of the greatest technological inventions of all times, no doubt about it.
But when Hileman says "...it is the largest computer network in history" isn't he wrong?
I thought the Internet was the largest computer network in the world.