How many people were into bitcoin in 2009?

[Will H]

Was it in the 100s or 1000s? I tried googling without any luck.

Also, a quote I saw a lot after the recent talk by everyone's favourite: “Fuck Raspberry Pis, if you can't afford a $20,000 node to help the network, piss off.”

Watched the whole thing and what was actually said: “Quite frankly, I don't care about Raspberry Pis. If you have been in Bitcoin since 2009 and you can't afford a $20,000 node to help this network, piss off.”

So, what would that mean? How much would that help in terms of decentralization and the network in general if everybody that was into bitcoin in 2009 had a $20,000 node?

[NorrisK]

How would more people with a 20,000 usd node help with decentralization?

Nodes don't need to be a small server farm to run.. More cheap nodes would be better for decentralization than a few high end ones.

[Xavofat]

It's just another question that can't be answered definitively.

In 2009 I'd think that you're talking about less than 100 people.  You can view the old mailing list.

In November 2009, satoshi started this forum.  Notice how many posts there were on the new forum thread that were actually from the time?  It's only two.

Even going into the 2010 threads which satoshi posted in, you're talking about less than 100 different users posting in them.  There were very few people until Bitcoin's first bit of mainstream publicity from Wikileaks and PC world.

[NavySeals]

Was it in the 100s or 1000s? I tried googling without any luck.

Also, a quote I saw a lot after the recent talk by everyone's favourite: “Fuck Raspberry Pis, if you can't afford a $20,000 node to help the network, piss off.”

Watched the whole thing and what was actually said: “Quite frankly, I don't care about Raspberry Pis. If you have been in Bitcoin since 2009 and you can't afford a $20,000 node to help this network, piss off.”

So, what would that mean? How much would that help in terms of decentralization and the network in general if everybody that was into bitcoin in 2009 had a $20,000 node?

It was probably around 3,000-4,000 and now it should be around millions at least all around the world. But this couldn't change that situation. We wanna get involved with the bitcoin and we don't have money. What should we do? Nothing? Or pay $20,000 ? Very stupid, unfortunately.

[MarkReuter]

Maybe a  few 100s. Boy! $5 would gave gotten me $4.4 million. I need to go back in time

[Love!]

Maybe a  few 100s. Boy! $5 would gave gotten me $4.4 million. I need to go back in time

Buy one now and just sit on it for 5 years. In 5 years look back and you will see NOW as the good old days. Like the one's who put down 5 dollars in '09.

[squatz1]

Maybe a  few 100s. Boy! $5 would gave gotten me $4.4 million. I need to go back in time

Buy one now and just sit on it for 5 years. In 5 years look back and you will see NOW as the good old days. Like the one's who put down 5 dollars in '09.

I don't know how people like you can simply think that Bitcoin will just follow this insane incline up and up, I just can't see it happening in the least.

Anyway. When you go to Bitcoins wiki page, you can see that they don't really even have 2009 listed anywhere to be looking for information, it's in the 'pre-history' area which would probably mean that only a couple hundred people knew about Bitcoin and were involved in it.

Not too many people involved, made a select few a ton of money -- sounds like a penny stock that caught FIRE.

[Kaller]

Maybe a  few 100s. Boy! $5 would gave gotten me $4.4 million. I need to go back in time

Buy one now and just sit on it for 5 years. In 5 years look back and you will see NOW as the good old days. Like the one's who put down 5 dollars in '09.

I don't know how people like you can simply think that Bitcoin will just follow this insane incline up and up, I just can't see it happening in the least.

Anyway. When you go to Bitcoins wiki page, you can see that they don't really even have 2009 listed anywhere to be looking for information, it's in the 'pre-history' area which would probably mean that only a couple hundred people knew about Bitcoin and were involved in it.

Not too many people involved, made a select few a ton of money -- sounds like a penny stock that caught FIRE.

I agree that likely there were under 1,000 by the end of 2009. 2010 & 2011 are when it first started getting traction and made tons of millionaire who could still mine on their laptops/GPUs and make a Bitcoin a day or more.

Heck, even in 2012 the average person could have invested part of their weekly McDonald's paycheck and would now be a millionaire.

Same thing could be said in 2013. Bitcoin was still in the $10-20 range at this point.

I think this recent drop all the way to $200 before rising back up to over $2,000 is the last time average people will be able to buy any decent amount of Bitcoin. I wish I could go back in time to when it dropped to $200 not long ago and would invest everything I had. Hindsight is 20/20...

[JL421]

Very less one of them is surely the owner satoshi but till now we have only one proof who has made millions from bitcoin as a early holder. His identity is again a mystery but it is still good to hear all the early holders who took all those risks which no one would take at that time are now millionaires. My guess would be max 30 people who were really early investors

[FasTroy]

Maybe a  few 100s. Boy! $5 would gave gotten me $4.4 million. I need to go back in time

Haha, you should have a time machine to go back in time. 
Anyways, I think in 2009 there isn't many people where into bitcoin community. I think few of them like satoshis and theymos, Maybe they are under 1000 persons.
I hoped that i been here in this time, so maybe in this time i can collect a lot of bitcoins and i will be too rich now, but i am not lucky too much. I think even i will be here in 2009, I didn't know that bitcoin will be like it be nowadays, and maybe i quite the community.

[zeze18]

Of course i would do the same if i knew that bitcoin prices would increase like this, maybe i would save and never spend the bitcoin i have on the gambling table. I know bitcoin from 2015 but by that time the bitcoin price is still $ 424 but at that time i didnt have any knowledge about the trade, until i wasted it through gambling, it would be so sorry if I knew bitcoin price would be as high as Now that could Reach the $ price 2131 and currently price of bitcoin has declined.

[eann014]

Oh I am not in, in that year. I really like to have a bitcoin and if I will turn back time and if I just known bitcoin as early as I could I will earn it and wait until today, maybe if many people known bitcoin for that year and earn a lot for sure a lot of us are all rich.

[Will H]

How would more people with a 20,000 usd node help with decentralization?

Nodes don't need to be a small server farm to run.. More cheap nodes would be better for decentralization than a few high end ones.

It was probably around 3,000-4,000 and now it should be around millions at least all around the world. But this couldn't change that situation. We wanna get involved with the bitcoin and we don't have money. What should we do? Nothing? Or pay $20,000 ? Very stupid, unfortunately.

So what did he mean by helping the network, or is there really no substance to the claim?

It's just another question that can't be answered definitively.

In 2009 I'd think that you're talking about less than 100 people.  You can view the old mailing list.

In November 2009, satoshi started this forum.  Notice how many posts there were on the new forum thread that were actually from the time?  It's only two.

Even going into the 2010 threads which satoshi posted in, you're talking about less than 100 different users posting in them.  There were very few people until Bitcoin's first bit of mainstream publicity from Wikileaks and PC world.

Appreciate the reply with links and all! I have a follow-up question, made me think about the number of users versus number of nodes. Made a new post about it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2024134.0

[maydna]

i really don't know how many people were into bitcoin in 2009 but my guess is approximately 100 or more because bitcoin itself is not yet known by many people. in that time, i think people still asking what is bitcoin, what is function of bitcoin for us and else. and after its launched, maybe the question is how much money i can earn from bitcoin, why the price is not increase high and else.

[Mr.grin]

There may be very few people joining bitcoin at the time, but I am so sure, that they are great people and dare to take risks. Well, now they must have become important people for bitcoin development. 

[JoMarrah Iarim Dan]

People who are in bitcoin in 2009 ? . throwback last eight years ago . Well I think last eight years ago there are just almost hundred people who do it or maybe lower than hundred. By that time, not all country already adopted an advance technology so they ( and I am one of them ) do not know alot in internet. They are just starting to explore what could be the internet.

[sobsitesearch]

Way back 2009 i think only few people knows about bitcoin even in crypto currency but they are the one who are lucky enough they are now one of the riches people or billionaire because the value of bitcoin was already multiply in 1m times. And we proved that in our selves.

[eaLiTy]

It is not that easy to know how many people knew about bitcoin way back in 2009 but there are a few members in the cryptography mailing list where Satoshi published the white paper of bitcoin and many were interested and some were skeptical during that time,i do understand from where you are quoting these things,but statistically speaking it is the truth ,if you are not able to afford $20000 then you were not into bitcoin in the early stages.

[mrayazgul]

It is not that easy to know how many people knew about bitcoin way back in 2009 but there are a few members in the cryptography mailing list where Satoshi published the white paper of bitcoin and many were interested and some were skeptical during that time,i do understand from where you are quoting these things,but statistically speaking it is the truth ,if you are not able to afford $20000 then you were not into bitcoin in the early stages.

Even if we knew exactly how many people were in bitcoin in 2009/2010, most of them would have left the bitcoin thinking them as a piece of garbage and they could not think of the value it is now. Maybe they are regret that why they did not collect them when it was of zero value almost.

[BTCbengi]

Was it in the 100s or 1000s? I tried googling without any luck.

Also, a quote I saw a lot after the recent talk by everyone's favourite: “Fuck Raspberry Pis, if you can't afford a $20,000 node to help the network, piss off.”

Watched the whole thing and what was actually said: “Quite frankly, I don't care about Raspberry Pis. If you have been in Bitcoin since 2009 and you can't afford a $20,000 node to help this network, piss off.”

So, what would that mean? How much would that help in terms of decentralization and the network in general if everybody that was into bitcoin in 2009 had a $20,000 node?

In 2009, I thought there were very few people who knew Bicoin, when it was Bitcoin, that nothing was going to happen, only a few people noticed it, I thought there were not 1000 people. If you were in Bitcoin and kept it till now, I'm sure you are a billionaire