Europe: The real Bitcoin and Blockchain superpower?

[bullrun2024bro]

I recently found some interesting statistics on Twitter that left me a little surprised.

Actually, I thought that the US and most Asian countries were ahead in the field of Bitcoin and Blockchain. Especially when it comes to big Bitcoin and crypto services and providers. However, the statistics below show a different picture.

It seems Europe is ahead when it comes to:

• Nodes: Europe has the highest number of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes.
• On-Chain activity: Largest absolute number & relative share of on-chain activity
• Regulation: most comprehensive crypto-regulation globally (MiCa)
• Jobs: two thirds of global crypto industry jobs
• Venture Capital: 50% of venture funded crypto projects globally
• Tax: favorable tax regimes (especially Germany, Portugal, Poland, Belgium)
• Developers: largest share of blockchain developers (tied with US, 29% each)
• Values: Strong values of digital/data sovereignty and decentralization

(at least that's what Patrick Hansen, a well-known EU researcher on crypto strategy and policy, claims after analyzing the statistics; see sources below for original tweet).

Bitcoin, Blockchain and Crypto Jobs:



Global Cryptocurrency Transaction Volume:



VC Investments:



Crypto Tax Rates:



Sources: https://twitter.com/paddi_hansen/status/1675439201347616768

I still have trouble naming big European providers, since all the big names are located overseas. Somewhat established European crypto brands are Bitstamp, Bitpanda, Ledger, Bitcoin.de or Kaiko. However, the big guys are either located in the US or not located anywhere (e.g. Binance).

Opinions on Hansen's standpoint? If you have more statistics on Europe or the rest of the world, feel free to share them. Maybe we can map the development of the global crypto landscape a little better in this thread.

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[Synchronice]

It's hard to say who is the real Bitcoin and Blockchain superpower. There we have China that produces the most miners, then we have the USA that mines the most bitcoins, then we have exchanges like Binance that god knows where is it based, then we have crypto casinos that are registered in Curaçao but have headquarters in different countries. Then there we have El Salvador that wants to move on Bitcoin payments.
Btw one thing that I can say for sure is that most crypto casinos, if not all, are based in Europe. I think that Bitcoin is very decentralized in terms of influence and power That's good.

[Ojima-ojo]

I saw these tweets some days ago and it down on me that Europe was indeed the Bitcoin hub with the statistics pointing out their large involvement most especially in the areas of blockchain jobs which have changed the era of remote jobs and Bitcoin/cryptocurrency amount for the highest employer pf online job within Europe, more interesting also is the area of taxes on bitcoin income which have been one of the most flexible global and up until now many of us thought that the US is leading in this direction but now it's clear that Europe is the real deal for anyone looking for blockchain-based jobs.

[Faisal2202]

I am not that shocked because there are 44 countries in Europe and all of them has adopted crypto instead of few like UK. Because we know UK is more possessive about things going in and out from their country and also there is other factors to so i should not talk about it. But, other countries my like russia, Ukraine, Germany etc. Are big hubs of crypto industry.

But still, somewhere in my mind i thought Afticans and Asian countries have more adoption of BTC but i do agree that due to lack of technological developments and lack of knowledge in most of the asian countries we are behind europe. But still, i can assure if we were provided the necassary needs on time like 4g cellular internet was not available in my region since 2016 or 2017 maybe. (I didn't remember the exact date).

But still, i hope this will improve more and jt would be better if all the power does not go in the hands of europe countries only because they fall under MiCa which is not good and most of the countries are highly regulated by authorities

[LeGaulois]

I believe the data is manipulated.
What I mean is, I can also show you some stats and make you believe what I want you to believe. I just need to include 1 setting (even the divorce rate), and of course without telling you, or something like that

What I read, but what I see:

Nodes: Europe has the highest number of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes.

- Number of Nodes: (with today's numbers)

I take the US to compare the number of nodes
- United States: 10816 (30.90%)
 
Now let's see what's going on in Europe
- Germany 4805 (13.73%)
- Netherlands 1641 (4.69%)
- France 1258 (3.59%)
- Spain 403 (1.15%)
- Italy 384 (1.10%)

I don't consider other European countries since their percentage is near to zero
So we have Europe with ~23% while USA have 30%

Nodes: Europe has the highest number of Bitcoin nodes False
I admit, I have not checked about ETH since I'm a crypto-racist

- Jobs: two thirds of global crypto industry jobs

The majority of these jobs are remote jobs working for companies outside Europe. And that's normal, since the company's aim is to target the European population.
Two thirds, I doubt when you see how it's going on linkedin.com, cryptojoblist.com, and others.
Europe doesn't create jobs but foreign companies do it

- Regulation: most comprehensive crypto-regulation globally (MiCa)

  That was a joke righ? the most killing regulation, worse than genocide.

- Tax: favorable tax regimes

These figures should have been compared with other types of investment in their country. The way it's shown could lead you to believe that these are rates created specifically for crypto, when that's not the case. Even quoting 4 countries where the rate is low, you have to look at the other countries as well and make an average. Look at countries ranging from 30 to 40%. How it's favorable? I'm crying each year

[bullrun2024bro]

I believe the data is manipulated.

That was my first impression too. I had always thought of Hansen as a reputable Bitcoin and crypto researcher and was therefore quite surprised by his post. Nevertheless, I would like to get some feedback, since different stats providers give different results.

So we have Europe with ~23% while USA have 30%

Nodes: Europe has the highest number of Bitcoin nodes False

Where did you get that data from? Would be awesome, if you could link it.

Bitnodes posts 61% n/a and US with 9.71% and Germany with 8.07%. See here: https://bitnodes.io/

The majority of these jobs are remote jobs working for companies outside Europe. And that's normal, since the company's aim is to target the European population.
Two thirds, I doubt when you see how it's going on linkedin.com, cryptojoblist.com, and others.
Europe doesn't create jobs but foreign companies do it

Valid argument, true. However, any stats on this?

That was a joke righ? the most killing regulation, worse than ...

Yea, MiCa.. I am not a fan either. Hansen posted this on MiCa some weeks ago:

"One regulation to rule them all"... WTF, lol.



Source: https://twitter.com/paddi_hansen/status/1649070968579452933/photo/1

These figures should have been compared with other types of investment in their country. The way it's shown could lead you to believe that these are rates created specifically for crypto, when that's not the case.

True, however in Germany the tax regime is indeed very intersting for holders. After one year your coins will be tax free if you don't trade them, while stocks will always trigger a 25% + church tax + soli tax. No matter how long you will hold them. Properties will trigger the regular income tax for 10 years. Accordingly, compared to other asset classes, cryptocurrencies are quite favourably taxed in Europe's largest economy, Germany. But that's only a part of Europe ofc.

Even quoting 4 countries where the rate is low, you have to look at the other countries as well and make an average. Look at countries ranging from 30 to 40%. How it's favorable? I'm crying each year

True, the tax average in all member states would be a useful measure. However, one would also have to weight according to crypto users in the individual states, which would then again greatly limit the significance of the statistics.

[LeGaulois]

Where did you get that data from? Would be awesome, if you could link it.

Bitnodes posts 61% n/a and US with 9.71% and Germany with 8.07%. See here: https://bitnodes.io/

I used Bitnodes.io too

https://bitnodes.io/nodes/all/countries/

Bitnodes crawler captures these nodes from the addr messages returned by all the reachable nodes. Each snapshot or data point in this report represents a rolling window. A snapshot with window size of 1 day will include all nodes by IP addresses with timestamps less than 1 day old. The timestamp for a node here refers to the time when its peer last connects to it. If you turn on your Bitcoin node for only a few minutes anytime during the last 24 hours, it will be included in the latest snapshot with a window size of 1 day.

Multiple nodes from the same IP address, but different port numbers are counted as one node in this report. A larger window size may increase the likelihood of the same node being counted more than once due to e.g. IP lease renewal.

Valid argument, true. However, any stats on this?

Too old, but several years ago the US was THE country to be if you wanted to work on the crypto/blockchain industry.
Nowadays if you check for exemple cryptocurrencyjobs.co there are
- 118 blockchain jobs in Europe
- 224 in the United States

If you visit https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/crypto-jobs-worldwide?position=1&pageNum=0
You will notice the job market (remote, location)

"One regulation to rule them all"... WTF, lol.

Well that's the purpose of the european union. The same laws to rule all european countries. European laws have more power than your local laws. And better to obey otherwise we receive fines and other stupid stuff. It's the programmed destruction of our traditions and values. Even with food

True, however in Germany the tax regime is indeed very intersting for holders. After one year your coins will be tax free if you don't trade them, while stocks will always trigger a 25% + church tax + soli tax. No matter how long you will hold them. Properties will trigger the regular income tax for 10 years. Accordingly, compared to other asset classes, cryptocurrencies are quite favourably taxed in Europe's largest economy, Germany. But that's only a part of Europe ofc.

Yes for German citizens, it's not so bad but it won't last long. Thanks to Europe when they will say the taxes shall be XX% for every country

[bullrun2024bro]

I used Bitnodes.io too

I double-checked the Bitnodes statistics and it looks like Hansen is indeed correct.

Europe (ex. UK) has about 34.68%, while the US only has 30.91%. If you include the UK, the difference becomes even bigger, namely: 37.97% (Europe incl. UK).

Code:

US: 30.91%

Europe (ex. UK): 34,68%
Europe (incl. UK): 37.97% 

United Kingdom: 3.29%

Germany: 13.77%
Netherlands: 4.41%
France: 3.70%
Finland: 1.91%
Spain: 1.18%
Italy: 1.07%
Sweden: 0.95%
Czechia: 0.82%
Ireland: 0.79%
Austria: 0.79%
Poland: 0.78%
Belgium: 0.66%
Greece: 0.65%
Portugal: 0.62%
Romania: 0.41%
Lithuania: 0.40%
Hungary: 0.38%
Bulgaria: 0.35%
Luxembourg: 0.28%
Slovakia: 0.27%
Denmark: 0.17%
Estonia: 0.17%
Latvia: 0.15%

And a few smaller ones ...

Yes for German citizens, it's not so bad but it won't last long. Thanks to Europe when they will say the taxes shall be XX% for every country

To my knowledge, this is not true. As of today, the biggest part of tax legislation (income taxes etc.) in the EU is the responsibility of the individual member states and I have not been able to find any serious efforts on the part of the EU to change this. Accordingly, the competences in tax legislation on the part of the EU are still very limited today. And I honestly do not believe that this will change in the near future. The member states are neither willing to give up their tax sovereignty nor is tax legislation an easy legal field to harmonise.

However, you're right on the last part: I also don't believe that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will remain tax-free in Germany forever (after holding them for a year ofc). Austria has just revised its tax legislation and introduced a 27.5% tax, the same as for shares. I can imagine that similar legislation in Germany will follow in the next few years. The government realised after the last bull market how much tax they were missing out on.

[NotATether]

I am not that shocked because there are 44 countries in Europe and all of them has adopted crypto instead of few like UK. Because we know UK is more possessive about things going in and out from their country and also there is other factors to so i should not talk about it. But, other countries my like russia, Ukraine, Germany etc. Are big hubs of crypto industry.

But still, somewhere in my mind i thought Afticans and Asian countries have more adoption of BTC but i do agree that due to lack of technological developments and lack of knowledge in most of the asian countries we are behind europe. But still, i can assure if we were provided the necassary needs on time like 4g cellular internet was not available in my region since 2016 or 2017 maybe. (I didn't remember the exact date).

But still, i hope this will improve more and jt would be better if all the power does not go in the hands of europe countries only because they fall under MiCa which is not good and most of the countries are highly regulated by authorities

I'm pretty sure the graphs lump UK with the rest of the EU countries despite Brexit happening a while ago.

But anyway, I guess it's clear why crypto is thriving more in Europe compared to somewhere like the USA - it's because when you introduce regulations to make it harder for people to use Bitcoin, and crypto in general, you get fewer adopters there. (in the case of south america and africa, they are simply underdeveloped, or in the case of e.g. Nigeria, both).

[stompix]

But still, somewhere in my mind i thought Afticans and Asian countries have more adoption of BTC

Coinmap:


LN map:
https://mempool.space/graphs/lightning/nodes-channels-map


As for the above discussion about nodes and jobs, Europe might be second after the US but if we talk about continents it's still a game with two competitors. Regulations, taxes, insert <EU is bad> material here, it doesn't change one thing, the main ingredient when it comes to this, and that's a ton of money available. Yeah, Africa has 1.2 billion people and India alone tops that, but if each one of them comes with 10 cents to invest it's not going to go anywhere.

[Lucius]

It seems to me that the author has overlooked a lot and that the US in terms of everything related to cryptocurrencies, and especially Bitcoin, is a much bigger superpower than Europe, especially if we consider only EU members. For my country, which has been a member of the EU for more than 10 years, there is no data at all for some reason, although the tax laws are similar to those in Germany (0% after 2 years), and physical crypto transactions up to 1000 EUR do not require KYC.

Besides, does Europe have any companies similar to Microstrategy, Grayscale or even Coinbase? Only BlackRock and Fidelity have produced more articles and videos in the last month than the whole of Europe produces in the whole year when it comes to cryptocurrencies (at least that's my impression).

[Poker Player]

I'm pretty sure the graphs lump UK with the rest of the EU countries despite Brexit happening a while ago.

Of course the graphs include the UK. They are talking about geographical Europe, not the European Union. If they include Turkey (as well as Norway or Switzerland) why shouldn't they include the UK?

[stompix]

I'm pretty sure the graphs lump UK with the rest of the EU countries despite Brexit happening a while ago.

Of course the graphs include the UK. They are talking about geographical Europe, not the European Union.

But that's not right either!
Apart from the countries that are shown with no data, there are two missing completely, the Island of Ice and Fire and all of Mordor. 

Besides, does Europe have any companies similar to Microstrategy, Grayscale or even Coinbase? Only BlackRock and Fidelity have produced more articles and videos in the last month than the whole of Europe produces in the whole year when it comes to cryptocurrencies (at least that's my impression).

Europe doesn't have the huge companies the US has, we might be all in this EU but companies rarely move and spread to all of it, and this is shown from the smallest thing, like chain stores that pick random countries to open stores, mobile phone companies that are not present in some and even banks. Furthermore, germans would be reluctant to put money in a fund operated in Portugal, Romanian to invest in a Polish start-up and so on, that's why the whole thing is so fragmented and we don't have giant companies like the US or China does.