Are we still in the early adopter stage of Bitcoin?

[oprahwindfury]

I'm aware that the people who bought in when Bitcoin was only $1 or so were definitely early adopters. But statistically, do the majority of bitcoins belong to only a few small hands. Because if it did, that would suggest there are already a few very very rich individuals and less room for adopters to hitch a ride on the train.

I've been doing some reading and apparently the top 200,000 keys, that is keys containing at least 1 BTC are spread out across 99% of all bitcoins in existence. What does this mean exactly? Does it mean that the majority of users DO NOT have at least 1 BTC? What do you guys think?

[yatsey87]

Yes, we are still the early adopters, especially if BTC becomes worth several thousands or even tens of thousands.

[olinnebit]

Yes, we are still the early adopters, especially if BTC becomes worth several thousands or even tens of thousands.

What? We are early adopters yes, but it has nothing to do with the prize of bitcoin

[gsan1]

Difficult to say. How do you define the word early adopter? Refering to the actual prize of bitcoin, I would definitely say yes. I see great protential! 

[DooMAD]

I guess it partly depends how high the price goes.  If it stays under or around the $1000 mark and it remains something that most people have maybe heard of but don't really understand, then anyone who got in before the $500 will be probably be considered an early adopter.  If, however, Bitcoin becomes truly mainstream and goes up to something crazy like $10000, then all of us will be considered early adopters.

[ermahgerd]

We're certainly still in the early adopter stage of crypto, if you look at the bitcoin charts you can see the huge jumps bitcoin takes periodically, followed by a crash and then a slow settle back to norm. We're due a nice big jump again early 2014

[Eqjunkie]

We're certainly still in the early adopter stage of crypto, if you look at the bitcoin charts you can see the huge jumps bitcoin takes periodically, followed by a crash and then a slow settle back to norm. We're due a nice big jump again early 2014

Jump! Jump!

[hilariousandco]

Yes, we are still the early adopters, especially if BTC becomes worth several thousands or even tens of thousands.

What? We are early adopters yes, but it has nothing to do with the prize of bitcoin

Depends how you look at it. I'd say you can look at it both ways.

[Reece523]

I first found out about Bitcoin when it was $30 / BTC. I felt I had missed the boat then. Nobody really knows how high it will go but you may very well look back upon your decisions and regard it as a mistake to not invest money that you can afford to lose (whatever amount that may be - it doesn't have to be a large amount). I sure wish I had even put a couple hundred bucks into Bitcoin back when I found out about it at $30... I'd have to spend $5000 today to get what I could have had earlier this year for $200...

[bit.craft]

I'd say we're late early-adapters.

[organizer]

I think it's still in the early innings. In my opinion, the Wall Street crew will get more and more involved (i believe this whole heartedly that they will push BitCoin to crazy highs in the next year or two). Barring a complete government shutdown of things, my approach is to mine some, trade some and stash some away.

[Dogtanian]

I think were still in the early adopter phase and will still be until bitcoin gets accepted by the mainstream.

[kenji543]

Only time will tell, but it does look like bitcoin it self is still in the early stage. It also depends on how much market penetration that bitcoin will have when it matures. At the moment, bitcoin awareness is increasing but people are still leery of buying or doing anything with bitcoins. Once people become more comfortable, and the software matures to the point that your grandma can buy with bitcoins then I think bitcoins will start too boom even more than it already has. Right now it's being invested heavily by speculators, and by people who want to put some money into something other than fiat currencies, and even with these activities bitcoins are at this price, imagine what the price will be when it becomes used by the mainstream?

[yatsey87]

Yes, we are still the early adopters, especially if BTC becomes worth several thousands or even tens of thousands.

What? We are early adopters yes, but it has nothing to do with the prize of bitcoin

I think it does. If Bitcoin price skyrockets then anyone who owns btc will be known as early adopters still.

[jongameson]

Yes, we are still the early adopters, especially if BTC becomes worth several thousands or even tens of thousands.

this man is right.  believe him.  bitcoin to the moon!! ($10,000,000) within a few summers

[whatever48]

I think we still are in the early adoptors phase...

here is a nice article that covers the subject: http://www.vdschagt.com/myth-im-too-late-to-start-bitcoins-innovation-curve/

[beetcoin]

depends on where bitcoin will go in the future, and no one has the answer for that. most likely we are in the late early stage.

[DooMAD]

I think we still are in the early adoptors phase...

here is a nice article that covers the subject: http://www.vdschagt.com/myth-im-too-late-to-start-bitcoins-innovation-curve/

It's a good article, but my only criticism would be the sentence "Imagine what happens to the value of one bitcoin when adoption grows!". 

If we're being honest, it should read "Imagine what happens to the value of one bitcoin IF adoption grows!".  There are no guarantees here.  For all we know, this could be as big as it gets.  But fingers crossed it gets much, much bigger.   

[whatever48]

Yeah you're right... nobody knows what the future of bitcoin will look like. I think however that only small percentage of the world population has bitcoin

[Hunterbunter]

Yes, you're still an early adopter.

Bitcoins are definitely not mainstream yet...most non-computer folk I talk to still haven't heard of them.