Bitcoin slowly losing its popularity?

[x8008]

thoughts?

[1715027229]

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[1715027229]

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[leex1528]

Do you have any articles, stats, on why you think this, or are you just proposing an open question? 


I for one don't think it is slowly losing popularity, I think it is gaining it....More and more companies are starting to accept it as a payment.

More and more people I talk to about it have now at least heard of it, and like the idea, still hesitant to hop on but are interested now...

[x8008]

open question to hear what others think

[DannyHamilton]

You meant to say "Bitcoin slowly gaining popularity", right?

[Beliathon]

It's growing faster than the internet was in 1995; faster than twitter; faster than facebook.

Price != adoption

[franky1]

bitcoin is not losing popularity. and this is the 3rd FUD topic trying to push this falacy onto the community.

but i guess the OP just wants a price crash to buy in cheap.. without realising that waiting for a $1-$500 bitcoin and not buying in now, will simply mean they will regret it when it gets to $1000 and they didnt make the 80%+ profit in just a few months.

alot of people complained in march about the low price and saying it was gonna fall.. they missed the $450 boat and when it got to $650 they whinged they missed out on the 50%

[DannyHamilton]

but bagholders aren't selling enough, and artificially propped up prices

How can you tell the difference between a proper price, and an "artificially propped up price"?

Isn't the price always determined by the market based entirely how much the "bagholders" are willing to sell their "bags" for?

If the "bagholders" decide to sell at $50, wouldn't that mean that the "price is too high for bitcoin, and it needs to come back down to 5-10 and then it'll sell more, but bagholders aren't selling enough, and artificially propped up prices to $50"?

[Mats8500]

Everytime there is a stability in the market, or a small downtrend on a short period, these questions come back. Is it loosing popularity? Was it just a bubble? Is the bubble dead and so on.

My advice : look at the big picture. As everyone mentionned here, more people know about it. Businesses are accepting it more widely. Soon might go in NASDAQ.

It will explode again. Or keep rising eventually. Just stop looking at the charts every minute.

[Meuh6879]

middle of the world is in VACANCY ... Damned, go to bed and ask this at september !

[AliceWonder]

It's gaining in popularity but not at previous rates, which makes sense.

Just saw a report that 35% of Americans have collection agencies coming after them. A large sector the population simply can't currently afford to put money in an exchange and buy it, and those who can afford to have largely heard about it already - so if they aren't using it now it is because they have reservations.

World is bigger than US but I think that's the issue.

As it becomes easier to obtain without needing to open accounts at an exchange or buy at a huge markup from local sellers in comic book shops, adoption will start to grow faster again.

Need to be able to buy it at places like Staples or BestBuy.

Too many people are focused on getting vendors to accept it, not enough focus exists on making it accessible.

[LiteCoinGuy]

bitcoin is dead. price goes down. damn! ill switch to jerkcoin!

[DannyHamilton]

but bagholders aren't selling enough, and artificially propped up prices

How can you tell the difference between a proper price, and an "artificially propped up price"?

Isn't the price always determined by the market based entirely how much the "bagholders" are willing to sell their "bags" for?

If the "bagholders" decide to sell at $50, wouldn't that mean that the "price is too high for bitcoin, and it needs to come back down to 5-10 and then it'll sell more, but bagholders aren't selling enough, and artificially propped up prices to $50"?

willy bot was used on mtgox to prop up prices of bitcoin to $1000

and the market still hasn't come back down to reality yet.

more time and its settling downwards

bagholding hoarding scum

That isn't an answer.

How can you determine what the "real price" is?  How can you tell the difference between a proper price and an "artificially propped up price"?

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[TheNewAnon135246]

It's also a great sign that Dell is accepting bitcoins. Let's hope more companies will follow their example.

[DannyHamilton]

bitcoin went from $30 to $260 last spring, and then settled in around $100-125 or so for months....
There is no good reason at all for bitcoin to go up from there, except
Willy bot was used on mtgox, and artificial price manipulations.
but once gox was destroyed, then the manipulators are not there anymore,
so the price has to come down

bitcoin went from $0.06 to $32 in spring of 2011, and then settled in around $4-$6 or so  for months...

There is no good reason at all for bitcoin to go up from there, except
manipulators engaged in artificial price manipulations.

Now the manipulators are not there anymore, so the price has to come down.


Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

[Beliathon]

Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

You sure about that? The pattern seems easily recognizable to me.



FYI I dumped my life savings in the middle between the two red boxes. No regrets.

[Kprawn]

Bitcoin drop a few percentage and everyone goes bonkers. 

Be patient the market will rectify itself ...... When bitcoins goes up again.... people scream BUBBLE!

And when it goes up and down... They cry volatility. 

The impact of Dell's adoption will not be felt immediately anyways, it only helps to improve awareness in the beginning.   

[leex1528]

I see that the price should go down to be where it was the past.

Makes sense. No one wants to buy high priced bitcoin.

Get it through your heads.

It will probably go down, who knows.  But the bottom line is we are talking about popularity and not the value of the coin. 

[Lauda]

Everyone is just looking at the current price and then making conclusions. This is wrong.
The price does not show if bitcoin is popular or not, nor is the adoption growing or not.

[t3xasdolly]

Everyone is just looking at the current price and then making conclusions. This is wrong.
The price does not show if bitcoin is popular or not, nor is the adoption growing or not.

Not everyone. The most positive thing more and more places accepting Bitcoin. The number of transactions does not increase much though.

This is why I think the Bitcoin popularity grows, but very slowly last half year

[Lauda]

Everyone is just looking at the current price and then making conclusions. This is wrong.
The price does not show if bitcoin is popular or not, nor is the adoption growing or not.

Not everyone. The most positive thing more and more places accepting Bitcoin. The number of transactions does not increase much though.

This is why I think the Bitcoin adoption grows, but very slowly last half year

Well I meant everyone as those people who are spreading such things. Obviously people who responded to this topic, including you and me do not think like this.

[dande1]

Every day there are more and more websites that start accepting bitcoins, though unfortunately they don't attend to be that popular and so trustworthy. I'm not really sure about this.

[x8008]

what about all the government crap? remember the good days you could withdraw bitcoins into fiat pretty much with no ID required on literally any exchange.. now it's just fucking controlled by big brother

[DannyHamilton]

what about all the government crap? remember the good days you could withdraw bitcoins into fiat pretty much with no ID required on literally any exchange.. now it's just fucking controlled by big brother

That's a fiat problem, not a bitcoin problem.

If anything it's a good reason to use bitcoin more and fiat less.

[Habeler876]

Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

You sure about that? The pattern seems easily recognizable to me.



FYI I dumped my life savings in the middle between the two red boxes. No regrets.

Keep extrapolating, especially on such a miniscule data set, and you will get hit pretty hard when your expectations fail. Just saying.

[DannyHamilton]

Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

You sure about that? The pattern seems easily recognizable to me.

http://xkcd.com/605/




Or, if you prefer:

http://xkcd.com/1007/

[Matze]

Bitcoin is just like any other commodity it goes up and down.

[nwfella]

thoughts?

If you define popularity as being how well known a person or thing is then I would have to say 'hell no'.  Bitcoin grows in popularity by the day.  Even negative news will getcha known by many.

[gogxmagog]

"losing" not "loosing", please.

[x8008]

"losing" not "loosing", please.

*high five*

[tss]

my thought is i should be making threads like this to increase my rank on bitcointalk and then reply to everyone about everything regarding anything.  just like this post

[right wing authoritarian]

my thought is i should be making threads like this to increase my rank on bitcointalk and then reply to everyone about everything regarding anything.  just like this post

That would be extremely cynical and annoying, who would do such a thing.

By the way Loosing is a much better spelling of losing and should be adopted.

Also if by popularity the OP means number of unique addresses then bitcoin is becoming more popular, if the OP is talking about demand for bitcoin at a particular price then bitcoin is less popular. However the price of bitcoin really reflects an asset allocation decision where individual investors are deciding if the asset is over or undervalued, so it does not really tell us anything about popularity.

Damn I should have posted three separate messages then I would be a full member.

[oceans]

From what I have seen bitcoin is definitely not losing popularity. It may seem like that with prices drop and increasing all the time but that is something that will happen, it's not going to lose popularity over that and definitely not any time soon.

[beaknuke]

"losing" not "loosing", please.

*high five*

I am always fighting a loost case and struggle with spelling loosing

[semidead]

From what I have seen bitcoin is definitely not losing popularity. It may seem like that with prices drop and increasing all the time but that is something that will happen, it's not going to lose popularity over that and definitely not any time soon.

I feel like bitcoin keeps getting more media attention with time. So you're right.

[sandykho47]

I think Bitcoin  gain more popularity 
NOT losing it's popularity

Bitcoin price down, doesn't mean Bitcoin lose popularity
And when Bitcoin price went up, Bitcoin pupularity will rise 

[Brooker]

I think Bitcoin  gain more popularity 
NOT losing it's popularity

Bitcoin price down, doesn't mean Bitcoin lose popularity
And when Bitcoin price went up, Bitcoin pupularity will rise 

Agree with the first part, but not really the second. Bitcoin is getting more and more popular, but it's merchant adoption we need will get even more people noticing it and that will then push the price up.

[Este Nuno]

It's growing faster than the internet was in 1995; faster than twitter; faster than facebook.

Price != adoption

Not saying you're wrong, but what are you basing this observation on?

[ensurance982]

thoughts?

Well is it? I don't see the volume across the exchanges going down. The number of wallets isn't going down or stagnating. Merchants aren't pulling back. Everyone's just freaking out due to the nonexistant bubble. And traders with leveraged longs are starting to panic.

[Qsquegg]

thoughts?

Well is it? I don't see the volume across the exchanges going down. The number of wallets isn't going down or stagnating. Merchants aren't pulling back. Everyone's just freaking out due to the nonexistant bubble. And traders with leveraged longs are starting to panic.

Yeah quite, no ones getting out en masse - and panic is good if anything, means people are at least still interested(!) and there's no reason to realistically expect a disastrous collapse blah blah.. if anyone suspects a loss of interest it's down to psychology - after a while, we all lose perspective of how significant something actually is i guess. BTC health definitely fine.

[ensurance982]

thoughts?

Well is it? I don't see the volume across the exchanges going down. The number of wallets isn't going down or stagnating. Merchants aren't pulling back. Everyone's just freaking out due to the nonexistant bubble. And traders with leveraged longs are starting to panic.

Yeah quite, no ones getting out en masse - and panic is good if anything, means people are at least still interested(!) and there's no reason to realistically expect a disastrous collapse blah blah.. if anyone suspects a loss of interest it's down to psychology - after a while, we all lose perspective of how significant something actually is i guess. BTC health definitely fine.

I guess it's still summer and we haven't reached full capitulation yet on this upswing. Who knows what's going to happen. You have to decide if you want to be on the boat or not, I guess

[Malin Keshar]

The fall in the price is because of uncertainty about regularizations.


If they bother to regularize bitcoin, is because it is getting popular

[Harley997]

My thoughts is that bitcoin has been gaining popularity even though we haven't had any 'crazy' news recently except Dell accepting BTC but more and more people hear about it each day, by word of mouth, TV, news papers, other companies accepting BTC etc

[taylortyler]

Nope...only gaining in popularity.

[ensurance982]

The fall in the price is because of uncertainty about regularizations.


If they bother to regularize bitcoin, is because it is getting popular

I think people don't quite know or can't decide whethet regulating bitcoin is a good idea or a bad one. Many claim that it should remain 'free' and 'uncontrolled', but I believe a lot of companies wouldn't want to get involved in Bitcoin if there are no regulations and legal guidelines on how to do accounting, taxes, etc.

[taylortyler]

The fall in the price is because of uncertainty about regularizations.


If they bother to regularize bitcoin, is because it is getting popular

I think people don't quite know or can't decide whethet regulating bitcoin is a good idea or a bad one. Many claim that it should remain 'free' and 'uncontrolled', but I believe a lot of companies wouldn't want to get involved in Bitcoin if there are no regulations and legal guidelines on how to do accounting, taxes, etc.

Sure some regulations are necessary, but not complete regulatory overhauls like that of Bit License. Bitcoin Foundation Canada recently put out a good .pdf describing how Bitcoin is pretty much already regulated under current laws, and argued that only minor adjustments would need to be made to preexisting laws.

[howardb]

I actually think to some extent it is losing popularity, the reason being is that the takeup of Merchants is doing asymetrically well compared to new consumers starting to use bitcoin, this fact alone is depressing prices (since merchants convert straight back to fiat).

Having said that, if you lift your head to the horizon, the massive influx of venture capital is bound to pay big dividends in usability and usage a year or more down the road.

[galbros]

No, not at all.  The only thing that has really changed is the price, making bitcoin much more serious and the rise of ASICS.  Both of these work against new people coming into the bitcoin ecosystem.  The high price of bitcoin makes it hard to get your first bitcent to goof around with and encourages scammers.  The rise of ASICs means you can't just fire up your PC, wait awhile, and have a decent amount of satoshi.

The only good news is that places like Coinbase, as flawed as it is, makes it easy for people to buy bitcoin, but then the high price works against this as well.

So not losing but I do think it is harder on new users coming in.

Oh, one more thing, the ever growing blockchain means it takes a few days to synch the blockchain to use the base client.

[romneymoney]

loosing or lowsening  (ˈluːsɪŋ, -zɪŋ, ˈlɔɪ-, ˈluːsɪŋ, -zɪŋ, ˈlɔɪ-)
 
— n
   dialect  ( Yorkshire ) a celebration of one's 21st birthday


Bitcoin was born in 2009 so it won't be having it's 21st birthday until 2030

FFS learn the difference between lose and loose you illiterates

[bigasic]

Its obvious that the govt. hates bitcoin. Im pretty sure that they are discouraging banking institutions from dealing with bitcoin. In fact, there is a group that the govt formed just to investigate the banks that do deal with bitcoin. Im sure that this doesn't help too much.

[Arroyo]

Nooo! It's a disruptive currency!!! I'm fairly new to it, as well!

[Traffic4u]

What is bitcoin? I did not know.
Who are you? I did not know.
Oh you're right, bitcoin losing its popularity.

[howardb]

Oh, one more thing, the ever growing blockchain means it takes a few days to synch the blockchain to use the base client.

The blockchain size issue was effectively solved with the release of multibit wallet, it now synchronises in seconds and only downloads a fraction of the blockchain. See Mike Hearns recent post in discussion.

[DjPxH]

Oh, one more thing, the ever growing blockchain means it takes a few days to synch the blockchain to use the base client.

The blockchain size issue was effectively solved with the release of multibit wallet, it now synchronises in seconds and only downloads a fraction of the blockchain. See Mike Hearns recent post in discussion.

No. Well, it is solved for the end user, okay. But the blockchain itself has still the same size. And it may be prudent to have incremental versions of the blockchain. With certain time slices or -states so to say!

[howardb]

Oh, one more thing, the ever growing blockchain means it takes a few days to synch the blockchain to use the base client.

The blockchain size issue was effectively solved with the release of multibit wallet, it now synchronises in seconds and only downloads a fraction of the blockchain. See Mike Hearns recent post in discussion.

No. Well, it is solved for the end user, okay. But the blockchain itself has still the same size. And it may be prudent to have incremental versions of the blockchain. With certain time slices or -states so to say!

Agreed, the blockchain as currently implemented is not scaleable enough, some mechanism to agree the current balance of every address at a given point in time and disregard old block chain needs to be thought about/incorporated, since we only need to know current balances not past balances to transact.

[KonstantinosM]

The title is FUDdy.

No.

Why?

More online retailers accepting it every month.

It also seems like a lot more people know about it now.

I went to a local bitcoin meetup. Yes, a local one.



The title is a statement with a question mark. It's manipulative and should be re-worded.

[counter]

Yeah another thread with no point but to cause some sort of panic.  If anything Bitcoin is gaining integrity everyday.  It's laughable for such a claim to be made.  It's like people are really waiting for anything that can be viewed as negative(even with out reason).  To convince others Bitcoin is doomed it's amusing I must admit.  It's like when the stock market slows down and I say is this the end of Wall Street, lol.

I really hope people are getting hip to this nonsense because it's beyond old.  Bitcoin has value for the reason it always has and nothing has changed if you ask me.

[Elwar]

If you mean that Bitcoin is loosing its popularity in the way that pants are loose with plenty of room to expand then I would say that Bitcoin is loose with plenty of room for growth of more popularity.

[ph111]

Nope !

[cbeast]

Bitcoin is certainly losing popularity with central banks.

[redwraith]

thoughts?

Fucking learn how to spell "losing" and maybe someone will take your post seriously. Or not:

[NuclearNarwhal]

And where did you get this information?

[fran2k]

Usual though one have when not surfing all time highs.

[gtraah]

Guys,

We need to remember that BTC at the moment is in the inflation stage so the pressure of the daily minted coins is too much for the small user-base at the moment, there are too many sell orders happening from the miners to pay off there mining investments, this is why I recon the price is like this, I would actually be surprised if BTC booms this year, but I will not SELL !

 In my amateur opinion we will keep seeing this until one of these 2 things happen

 1 - User-base increases by quite a bit!

 2 - Reward halves & Difficulty rises reducing the coins being minted, by this time it may smooth out the amount of coins coming out which reduces sell orders & hopefully buy orders start to overpower.

[AdamSmith]

It is gaining popularity with the group that matter (loaded with cash).

Pointless to advertise it to kids and 3rd world. Should target wall street and people that matter.

[leex1528]

It is gaining popularity with the group that matter (loaded with cash).

Pointless to advertise it to kids and 3rd world. Should target wall street and people that matter.

Why do you think its pointless to advertise it to kids and 3rd world?  What if the 3rd world country has a computer...(usually they do) and you can get everyone to use it to collect faucets, sig payments...imagine if they could raise .2BTC or something...that would do that wonders!

I think kids would really enjoy it too...


As far as popular goes, why do you think it only is gaining popular with the people loaded with cash?  I think a lot of us aren't loaded and we are all here...

[LiteCoinGuy]

no.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=718863.0

[x8008]

are bitcoins days limited?

[BitcoinMillionaire]

Bitcoin is only just starting its engines, man! There's still so much room left for growth! I suggest everyone just invest some money, and if they just keep it in a cold wallet, they may be BitcoinMillionaires some day! Haha!

[beetcoin]

people expect bitcoin to grow exponentially, so when it grows at a decent pace, they start to panic and think that it is dying. also, people who are looking to get rich quick look at the price only, and ignore everything else.

[Meuh6879]

loose what ? https://bitcoinaverage.com/charts#EUR-averages-all
It raise ... every MONTHS now.

[beetcoin]

loose what ? https://bitcoinaverage.com/charts#EUR-averages-all
It raise ... every MONTHS now.

that graph looks wrong to me, or at least the euro has weakened sigfnicantly this past year. how could bitcoin have been 425 euros in november last year? was 1 euro worth 3 times what the dollar was?

[twiifm]

Its losing its novelty.   Such a pain to use

[Razick]

bitcoin is not losing popularity. and this is the 3rd FUD topic trying to push this falacy onto the community.

but i guess the OP just wants a price crash to buy in cheap.. without realising that waiting for a $1-$500 bitcoin and not buying in now, will simply mean they will regret it when it gets to $1000 and they didnt make the 80%+ profit in just a few months.

alot of people complained in march about the low price and saying it was gonna fall.. they missed the $450 boat and when it got to $650 they whinged they missed out on the 50%

I have seen posts like this since I started following Bitcoin. It's just sad to insult someone and assume their motives are crooked just because they might know less about, or think differently about Bitcoin.

Now to answer the OP's question I think Bitcoin is growing quickly. When I first talked about Bitcoin to my friends just a year and a half ago, they gave me funny looks. Now they nod knowingly and surprise me with how much they know. I sold Bitcoin to a friend of mine just a few days ago.

We've gotten a ton of media attention, and in a few short months, we've had Dish Network, Dell and Expedia begin accepting Bitcoin, along with hundreds if not thousands of smaller merchants. I've been a bear for much of Bitcoin's history (I felt it was overpriced), but I've never been more bullish: The price is only half of its peak, and we're in a much better position now then we were: The exchange infrastructure is much stronger (losing MtGox and Bitfloor hurt, I lost all of my Bitcoins, but it needed to happen) now, and we're seeing a lot of growth in acceptance and services. That's not to mention that when I first bought Bitcoin in early 2013 many of us weren't even sure it was legal.

I have a few concerns long term, but the next couple years should be great for Bitcoin.

[TaunSew]

It's all the merchants.  As soon as the merchants get their hand on BTC - they fire sell at the minimum prices to get $Fiat to pay their taxes, overhead and employee salaries.

Bitcoin will only continue to go down when more merchants adopt it and the BTC whales dump their coins for goods and services.

[davida]

My advice.... Don't trust the opinion of anyone who can't spell 'losing'.

[DavidHume]

Getting too expensive for small time players to own bitcoin.

[Possum577]

Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

You sure about that? The pattern seems easily recognizable to me.



FYI I dumped my life savings in the middle between the two red boxes. No regrets.

That IS a sexy chart! I would date that chart...

But, remember that past performance is not indicative of future results. Sounds like you, personally, are doing quite well with it...

[devphp]

It's not losing popularity, but it's not gaining it fast enough for the price to reflect it.

There are two scenarios I envisage for the near future.

Optimistic: price stays around $550-650 for the next 2 months and then starts slow gradual rise to the previous ATH ($1000-1200) and will reach it by summer 2015.

Pessimistic: price goes to $400-450 where it finds strong support, and then starts slower gradual rise to the previous ATH ($1000-1200) and will reach it by the end of 2015.

Could be somewhere in between these two scenarios.

[keithers]

Popularity can be guaged by the rate at which merchants are choosing to accept BTC as a payment option. This is because they are being asked by their customers, or they realize that it means more profits to them.

[notbatman]

ok, we're on page #2 before anybody noticed the spelling was off and the comment that the price of bitcoin is too high and people can't afford it? lol

You've been trolled!

[bitkilo]

I don't think bitcoin is losing popularity at all. In the last 18 months alone lots of big companies have started excepting bitcoin, VC's are putting in lots of money and the Winklevoss twins haven't even launched there EFT yet, many big things are still to come and along with them will come more people.

[x8008]

it might not be losing its popularity but it has become harder and harder to deal with bitcoin and the government

[TheChosenOne]

Probably just less speculation and more real use?

[Nerazzura]

It is a technical problem of much greater intensity than we have known in the past. The market may be aware that there is a problem specific to the forms of currency, "said Sebastian Galy, a currency strategist at Societe Generale based in New York, USA.

The existence of Bitcoin has attracted attention in a country's central bank, Bank Indonesia is no exception. Director of the Department of Communications Bank Indonesia said Peter Jacobs, Bitcoin and other virtual currency is not the currency or legal tender in Indonesia.

"The public are encouraged to beware of Bitcoin and other virtual currency.

[wordman267645]

I don't think so..Dell is just starting to accept bitcoin, that is a good sign, and if more and more companies will follow dell then there's still a chance to rising up for bitcoin and will be in the mainstream.

[giveBTCpls]

There was never legit Popularity. Popularity = Justin Bieber tier of awareness. When people know what Bitcoin is to the level people know who Obama is, then, then maybe we are talking about real popularity. Until then, we still at baby stages. Enjoy and dont forget to buy your cheap ass BTC before it hits 6 figures.

[tinof]

Popularity has little correlation with market usage.

Microsoft and Bill Gates are very unpopular yet Windows still dominate the market after more than a decade.

[bornil267645]

yes it is.

[CreamyPie]

No, bitcoin is rising in popularity and value...and spreading like wildfire.

[zolace]

No, bitcoin is rising in popularity and value...and spreading like wildfire.

Actually early of 2013 is when noticed bitcoin and had learned about it, at that time, it struck me as a gold fever, and there were many others who got strucked by it also, I can say 2013 was when bitcoin had shine brightest and now that is calming down, companies are interested in it

[qwerty555]

Rather than guessing or using "gut feeling" we may wish to look at data

2 pieces of data give a fairly good indication of what is really happening with bitcoin

a) Number of transaction on a daily/ monthly basis as if there is truly more activity then the growth in number of transactions should show up. ( excluding glitches of panic selling ..Mt gox..and whale buying) and if plotted on a graph it will show a positive or negative growth curve

that data is found here ((click "show data" in blue at bottom)  and a quick look suggests a 20-25% year on year growth (monthly 1.8% average)  Anyone is welcome to make the graph although there is probably already one out there somewhere.


http://www.quandl.com/BCHAIN/NTRAN-Bitcoin-Number-of-Transactions

b) The $ volume again tells us if there is more activity or less and when read with the above gives a very good indication of the direction longer term.
The current $50 Million daily average compared to August 2013 approx $20Million daily average is 150% increase ( or 12% / month average)

http://www.quandl.com/BCHAIN/ETRVU-Bitcoin-Estimated-Transaction-Volume-USD

When looking at the curve there are bubbles and crashes but the trend which is upward is quite obvious.

In conclusion both transaction volume and dollar volume are on an upward trend and based on other metrics like VC capital volumes/ merchant adoption increase/wallet increase/new start ups/media coverage etc  that is likely to continue ..albeit still in a roller-coaster fashion.

and if you want to dig deeper ..here is a link to (one of many) posts with lots of technical data in Economics section

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=441336.msg8398112#msg8398112

[itsAj]

No, bitcoin is rising in popularity and value...and spreading like wildfire.

Actually early of 2013 is when noticed bitcoin and had learned about it, at that time, it struck me as a gold fever, and there were many others who got strucked by it also, I can say 2013 was when bitcoin had shine brightest and now that is calming down, companies are interested in it

I agree that bitcoin had expanded greatly in early 2013 (likely around the april bubble). I think many more people started to understand it's benefits and features at that point. I think it continued to grow as the price continued to go up until November. I think that gox failing and SR2 getting "hacked" likely caused some people to become weary of bitcoin, however I think the long term trend is that people are increasingly using bitcoin in greater numbers.

[botany]

Bitcoin now features regularly in mainstream media articles.
More and more people are now 'discovering' bitcoin.

[bitllionaire]

I don't think it is losing its popularity,just it is highly related to price because of the interest of the people in quick earnings in bubbles

[botany]

I don't think it is losing its popularity,just it is highly related to price because of the interest of the people in quick earnings in bubbles

That would be if popularity is measured in number of google searches. 
But I think if you measure the number of people holding bitcoins, it should be increasing slowly.

[BADecker]

Bitcoin is not losing its popularity. Sure, some people are dropping it, and others are embracing it for the first time. The thing that is happening is, the economy is spiking a bit in some ways. To average people, some of the economy looks good. Many of them have enough money to fill their tummy, and sit around and watch DVDs (not enough to save any) so they buy a little extra. The shelves in stores are reasonably well stocked. Money seems okayish, so why be overly interested in Bitcoin?

Well, the economy is NOT good. This might be the proverbial calm before the storm, the real storm, where things all crash, where people will kick themselves later for not preparing with Bitcoin now.

Wars are escalating. And while wars are good for the economy, even though they are not good for the people who fight them, it is the wars that the bankers are making and using to stimulate the economy, and take the eyes of the people off the fact of the money slavery the bankers have them in. THE THING THAT IS DIFFERENT THIS TIME IS, THE PEOPLE HAVE COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION. It is not only the elite. The people are finding out what is going on.

Will this make the people smarter? No! They won't get smart until the disaster hits home. And then it is much later than it should be for them.

The people need to wake up and see that it is the bankers and the fiat money that are wrecking the economy and their lives. Those who are awake, will be preparing with Bitcoin and in other ways. Bitcoin popularity is not really dying. It simply is not expanding as rapidly as it did, percentage-wise. It's growing, and it will grow faster in the future as the money system finally crumbles completely.

Don't get tricked into thinking Bitcoin is dying. Keep your eyes open and realize that it is the economy that is leveling off a little. Grow Bitcoin while you have the chance.

[digitalindustry]

Trying to use the past to predict the future of a volatile commodity like bitcoin is an exercise in futility.

You sure about that? The pattern seems easily recognizable to me.



FYI I dumped my life savings in the middle between the two red boxes. No regrets.

This chart would be relevant if the economics model started at a unit cap number and slowly declined.

however it starts at 1 and slowly increases, true the "halving" can increase potential monopoly, but it still relies on "new capital"

[Hasher99]

Bitcoin is ever growing, since its release till date. Newer and newer people are getting familiar with BTC and businesses are talking of BTC now...is that sufficient?

[wasserman99]

No, bitcoin is rising in popularity and value...and spreading like wildfire.

Actually early of 2013 is when noticed bitcoin and had learned about it, at that time, it struck me as a gold fever, and there were many others who got strucked by it also, I can say 2013 was when bitcoin had shine brightest and now that is calming down, companies are interested in it

I don't think we are still in a gold rush type environment but we are certainly in a situation in which many companies are very much interested in it. I think most companies are trying to set themselves up so they bitcoin does not need to increase in value for them to profit, but rather they need to have a lot of bitcoin denominated sales for them to profit.

[qwerty555]

example of what will b coming to bitcoin

http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/pages/2012-12-06-01.aspx

airline passenger number projected at 3.6billion in 2016

guesstimate...half are international = 1,8 billion

guesstimate..average journeys per person per year = 5 so number of individuals traveling  350 million


5 % of those 350 million ..17.5 milion realize (eventually) that it is cheaper and easier to spend money abroad using Xapo ( or similar which will surely come) and therefore need some bitoin and lets say that the average bitcoin loaded per card is 1 = 17.5 million coins needed just for this single market and there are hundreds of markets/uses


and that is the potential of biitcoin

another

https://www.clsa.com/about-clsa/media-centre/2014-media-releases/outbound-chinese-tourists-to-double-by-2020-propelling-global-growth-in-travel-related-sectors.php

Chinese have currency control of $50k / year..they prefer not to use that up on expenses traveling abroad if they can avoid it.
currently 100million a year  ... 5 % would like a Xapo ( eventually as they are using ANX at the moment)  if 5% get a xapo type card ( and they will load that with a lot more than 1 bitcoin due to their penchant for gambling big time in Macao) how many bitcoin are needed for that market?

and the list goes on..and on..and on...

there is a lot more to come for bitcoin but it takes time to organize and market! Imagine Xapo is less than 1 month old.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=736643.msg8325044#msg8325044

[misterbowls]

Part of the problem is that bitcoin has lost a lot of speculative popularity but as far as adoption #s it has grown.

Then you have other up and coming currencies that actually improve on bitcoin signficantly.  Bitcoin pays 10% to the miners who don't even improve the software.  So it has no chance for innovation and things needed to grow. 

[amylisa]

in my current knowledge, bitcoin not losing it's popularity right now (at least for my country)
there are many newcomer and the old one still struggle in the bitcoin's field, especially when stellar and captcoin came to existance, it was like a bomb

many bitcoin thread in my hyip country's forum, and individual who sell their stuff for BTC start to increasing, I think they just want as many BTC so they can sell it when BTC rate increase because of the insane of difficulty increase

[Chompa]

Typical trollthread in which the OP wishes to induce reactions from bitcoin fans. Reverse tactics.

[Puppet]

Bitcoin price dropping and gaining popularity are not mutually exclusive. I think both are happening and they are linked.

Nowadays you can actually spend your bitcoins in so many places, people who have a sizable stash have more incentive to actually use them. I know I do. I can now pay my home delivery pizza with bitcoin, my phone bill, my computer gear, my e-cigs, my 3D printer supplies, .. I could only dream of that a few years ago. So I do it. Of course all the places where I spend my coins, they use coinbase or bitpay and they get paid out in euro/dollar, so all my bitcoin purchases end up being bitcoin sales depressing the price, since IM not replenishing my stash. Im sure many (large) BTC holders are doing the same thing.

[Lauda]

Bitcoin price dropping and gaining popularity are not mutually exclusive. I think both are happening and they are linked.

Nowadays you can actually spend your bitcoins in so many places, people who have a sizable stash have more incentive to actually use them. I know I do. I can now pay my home delivery pizza with bitcoin, my phone bill, my computer gear, my e-cigs, my 3D printer supplies, .. I could only dream of that a few years ago. So I do it. Of course all the places where I spend my coins, they use coinbase or bitpay and they get paid out in euro/dollar, so all my bitcoin purchases end up being bitcoin sales depressing the price, since IM not replenishing my stash. Im sure many (large) BTC holders are doing the same thing.

Indeed, even at the last rally ($1.2k) there wasn't that many places to spend it at than there are now.
The problem is that we need more merchants that keep the coins, even a % like Overclockers will do for now. I'm more worried about adoption that the current price. We might see a rally before 2015, we might not. That's not even that important right now.

[Talukdar001]

I think the main reason is lot of Altcoin is out there and also the difficulty level of BTC mining.

[DDuckworth]

I sure as hell hope not, considering I just launched a business based around it...

[l3sny]

The next thing triggering price move is the deepening of the financial crisis. I think SHTF around late September to mid October.
And this time BTC will go really really high!

[Jamie_Boulder]

Not a chance, it'll fade when it's a symbol of everyday life and nobody finds stuff like "Dell accept bitcoins!" amazing, just like the internet.

[itsAj]

Bitcoin price dropping and gaining popularity are not mutually exclusive. I think both are happening and they are linked.

Nowadays you can actually spend your bitcoins in so many places, people who have a sizable stash have more incentive to actually use them. I know I do. I can now pay my home delivery pizza with bitcoin, my phone bill, my computer gear, my e-cigs, my 3D printer supplies, .. I could only dream of that a few years ago. So I do it. Of course all the places where I spend my coins, they use coinbase or bitpay and they get paid out in euro/dollar, so all my bitcoin purchases end up being bitcoin sales depressing the price, since IM not replenishing my stash. Im sure many (large) BTC holders are doing the same thing.

Indeed, even at the last rally ($1.2k) there wasn't that many places to spend it at than there are now.
The problem is that we need more merchants that keep the coins, even a % like Overclockers will do for now. I'm more worried about adoption that the current price. We might see a rally before 2015, we might not. That's not even that important right now.

I don't think we need so much merchants that will keep/hoard their coins. This is really nothing different then individuals holding their coins. What needs to happen is for more businesses to pay other businesses in bitcoin. This really is what overstock is doing with the bitcoin they are holding (or at least some of it). There have been reports that overstock is going to be paying their employees' bonuses in BTC, and I would say this is certainly a step in the right direction.

[bitkilo]

We need more take away and home delivery food places to start accecpting btc.
I wanted food for btc last night and not 1 place in my area delivers.

[onezerobit]

We need more take away and home delivery food places to start accecpting btc.
I wanted food for btc last night and not 1 place in my area delivers.

Why not start a little small with the Tips with the delivery guys, or the waiters....if they start accepting BTC, you are one step closer to get food delivered with BTC....interesting?

[Bitware]

thoughts?

One year ago, BTC price was $113 USD and today, BTC price was $506 USD... a 348% increase.

One year ago, BTC volume was 0.012k and today BTC volume was 0.051k... a 325% increase.

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD#rg60zczsg2013-08-25zeg2013-08-25ztgSzm1g10zm2g25zv

[Coinshot]

Popularity is higher than ever. Bitcoin is just at the start and will explode soon.

[Lauda]

You look at the rich list on blockchain.info, it's easy to realise how bitcoin is in the hands of a few people, positive aspect if you want to manipulate it, negative if you want massime adoption: can you imagine a coin you will be lucky to own one in your life? With 21 million and billions of people, it's mathematically impossibile every one will own 1 bitcoin in the near future. The risk people will switch to a more liquid coin.

This is nonsense as well. This is why there is 1 'satoshi'. Your argument is invalid. (Even so, let's worry about this after we actually HAVE 21 million people using bitcoin)
Everyone can have plenty of them.  

[Valerian77]

Not a chance, it'll fade when it's a symbol of everyday life and nobody finds stuff like "Dell accept bitcoins!" amazing, just like the internet.

Very unlikely. Probably it will be more popular than ever when it is accepted as a medium of value storage like gold. Currently the overall situation and very negative press and events prevent this. But if more regulation comes and legalisation is clear it will come.

[pythonista]

People have just had enough of Bitcoin's 10%/year inflation, which was fine when there was lots of new money coming into the system, but its not OK now.

These days people want to receive dividends for holding crypto, for example BitSharesX has got the right economic model. It destroys transaction fees giving holders implicit dividends.

[FuckItWhatever]

We need eBay. It's eBay or death.

[l3sny]

We may reach the level mining will not be productive anymore like in 2011. e-bay would change everything no doubt but it will take a bit of time.

[Lauda]

We may reach the level mining will not be productive anymore like in 2011. e-bay would change everything no doubt but it will take a bit of time.

I think due to the competition between Ebay, Amazon and their likes, we just need 1 of them to accept it first.
If Ebay/Amazon took the first step, I'm sure that the other one would follow. Everything would change if they both accepted it.

[trader001]

We may reach the level mining will not be productive anymore like in 2011. e-bay would change everything no doubt but it will take a bit of time.

I think due to the competition between Ebay, Amazon and their likes, we just need 1 of them to accept it first.
If Ebay/Amazon took the first step, I'm sure that the other one would follow. Everything would change if they both accepted it.

Overstock is Amazon direct competitor. That has little influence on Amazon decision to join bitcoin payment network.

Think all the big giants are looking at their own balance sheet rather than what their competitors are doing.

Remember, Overstock is desperate and are making a gamble on regulation uncertainty.

[itsAj]

You look at the rich list on blockchain.info, it's easy to realise how bitcoin is in the hands of a few people, positive aspect if you want to manipulate it, negative if you want massime adoption: can you imagine a coin you will be lucky to own one in your life? With 21 million and billions of people, it's mathematically impossibile every one will own 1 bitcoin in the near future. The risk people will switch to a more liquid coin.

This is nonsense as well. This is why there is 1 'satoshi'. Your argument is invalid. (Even so, let's worry about this after we actually HAVE 21 million people using bitcoin)
Everyone can have plenty of them. 

I agree, this argument really makes little sense. His argument is akin to saying that fiat is bad because the $100 bill is too scarce so that everyone would not be able to have one of them. The fact that there are other, lower denominations of fiat bills makes it so many people can own fiat, but just in a lower quantity. Since bitcoin is divisible by up to 8 digits, to say that you need to own at least 1 BTC in order to own BTC does not make any sense.   

[grandFX]

bitcoin is not losing popularity. and this is the 3rd FUD topic trying to push this falacy onto the community.

but i guess the OP just wants a price crash to buy in cheap.. without realising that waiting for a $1-$500 bitcoin and not buying in now, will simply mean they will regret it when it gets to $1000 and they didnt make the 80%+ profit in just a few months.

alot of people complained in march about the low price and saying it was gonna fall.. they missed the $450 boat and when it got to $650 they whinged they missed out on the 50%

yes, I aggree with u. bitcoin is not losing popularity
and I hope bitcoin up again to $1000/btc.
nice share.

[cameltoe]

No way! Look at me, I just joined a bitcoin forum lol

[qwerty555]

No way! Look at me, I just joined a bitcoin forum lol

   currently there are 345k members on this forum..and whilst they are not all active the increase in membership on a monthly basis is a metric that can indicate popularity.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=mlist

Can admin tell us how many members a year ago or numbers at the 1st of every month..that graph will assist in answering the OP's question .

[Este Nuno]

People have just had enough of Bitcoin's 10%/year inflation, which was fine when there was lots of new money coming into the system, but its not OK now.

These days people want to receive dividends for holding crypto, for example BitSharesX has got the right economic model. It destroys transaction fees giving holders implicit dividends.

Tbh, I'm surprised more people don't complain about Bitcoin inflation. I think it's really been made clear in the past year how difficult it is to sustain a price with so many BTC being mined.

[cameltoe]

People have just had enough of Bitcoin's 10%/year inflation, which was fine when there was lots of new money coming into the system, but its not OK now.

These days people want to receive dividends for holding crypto, for example BitSharesX has got the right economic model. It destroys transaction fees giving holders implicit dividends.

Tbh, I'm surprised more people don't complain about Bitcoin inflation. I think it's really been made clear in the past year how difficult it is to sustain a price with so many BTC being mined.

Why don't you look beyond the price of BTC and more on the infrastructure that is rapidly being developed. It's like we're building a BTC rocket and we are barely working on the launchpad module. Once completed though.....TO THE MOON!!!!

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

I think a few years ago bitcointalk was the barometer of all things Bitcoin with no exception.

Bitcoin is now out of the box, those who think they can still manipulate Bitcoin through a forum thread are living in 2010.

As Bitcoin gains popularity the majority of people won't run to bitcointalk, Reddit or bitcoinwisdom every five minutes they'll just get on with life and simply spend or save Bitcoin.

[Hobbes2]

From what I have seen bitcoin is definitely not losing popularity. It may seem like that with prices drop and increasing all the time but that is something that will happen, it's not going to lose popularity over that and definitely not any time soon.

[101111]

There's less of the frenzied, manic trader/speculator talk of late last year, but that's not a bad thing imho.

[QuestionAuthority]

I think a few years ago bitcointalk was the barometer of all things Bitcoin with no exception.

Bitcoin is now out of the box, those who think they can still manipulate Bitcoin through a forum thread are living in 2010.

As Bitcoin gains popularity the majority of people won't run to bitcointalk, Reddit or bitcoinwisdom every five minutes they'll just get on with life and simply spend or save Bitcoin.

This is spot on. Bitcoin is past the new fad/trendy/edgy stage. Now it's just another payment method in herd of payment methods. There won't be another Gawker article about "the Silk Road money" that brings masses of people to this forum to learn about this new thing. At this point people will either understand the utility of crypto currency and use it or they won't based on its merits instead of hype. I brought up Bitcoin to a guy at a conference I was just at that started using Bitcoin but didn't know about this forum. He uses Coinbase to buy coin. There are too many users that don't know about this polluted sewer or Reddit to manipulate Bitcoin that way.

[grandFX]

bitcoin is dead. price goes down. damn! ill switch to jerkcoin!

yes, bitcoin price down. I hope price bitcoin up again
and keep survive this bitcoin.

[l3sny]

Super bubble in 2015 will bring the price of bitcoin to ~$40,000.

It is possible... but then it will drop to $1,500-2,500 and stay at this level till late 2017

[Lauda]

Super bubble in 2015 will bring the price of bitcoin to ~$40,000.

It is possible... but then it will drop to $1,500-2,500 and stay at this level till late 2017

Actually it depends on the bubble itself. The last bubble was $1200 and we've stayed mostly at around 40% of the initial price.
I don't think, that if it goes that far up that we will see it crash so low.
Even if it did, we would see the price start recovering in 2016 after the halving.

[l3sny]

yea, its is much more practical to guess what will be the next post bubble bottom

I bet something in the region of $2,300 

[devphp]

No super bubbles in Bitcoin any more, only gradual growth once this multi-month slump is over. On the order of 50-100% yearly, which is not too shabby if you ask anyone.

[Minerjoe]

Bitcoin losing its popularity? Not true.
You people need to have some patience, this is not a HYIP scheme, this is not a gold mine. You cant get rich in 3 months.
Buy, better to say invest and wait for a couple of years. Acceptance of this revolutionary technology s going to take time. IMO, the key is stock market. Once Wall Street gets the opportunity to trade BTC, once large investment funds get a grip of it, it s going to skyrocket. At this point I think it is inevitable, just takes time. 

[promojo]

thoughts?

I don't think so but I feel LTC is starting to lose popularity.. It doesn't seem to trend on climbs and dips like BTC.

[promojo]

We need eBay. It's eBay or death.

I don't know if that is going to happen because eBay=PayPal... That would take away profits directly from their hand.

[azguard]

Bitcoin losing its popularity? Not true.
You people need to have some patience, this is not a HYIP scheme, this is not a gold mine. You cant get rich in 3 months.
Buy, better to say invest and wait for a couple of years. Acceptance of this revolutionary technology s going to take time. IMO, the key is stock market. Once Wall Street gets the opportunity to trade BTC, once large investment funds get a grip of it, it s going to skyrocket. At this point I think it is inevitable, just takes time. 

Yea u can get rich in 3 months also you can loose in that 3 months.

For wall street they are in this since the beginning only they don't intervene. Why? Who knows.

Big companies are in this ass well but what is the influence that is another question on the mater.

Maybe time will tell

[catlinhappy]

I completely disagree with statement.I think its rather the reverse because its fame is growing wide daily.

[whysosweet]

The popularity and adoption of bitcoins is steadily increasing every year, this downtrend doesn't mean that there are less people using btc.

[BIT-Sharon]

Everyone is just looking at the current price and then making conclusions. This is wrong.
The price does not show if bitcoin is popular or not, nor is the adoption growing or not.

Not everyone. The most positive thing more and more places accepting Bitcoin. The number of transactions does not increase much though.

This is why I think the Bitcoin adoption grows, but very slowly last half year

Well I meant everyone as those people who are spreading such things. Obviously people who responded to this topic, including you and me do not think like this.

I think there is difference between popular and hot. After one thing is accepted by the market, it seems that the hottest period is passing, however, it comes to the stable period. It is better on my opinion.

[catena5260]

Any numbers to support your statement(transactions, users created in forum, etc...)?

Can't see bitcoin losing popularity, only losing hype

[melisande]

Any numbers to support your statement(transactions, users created in forum, etc...)?

Can't see bitcoin losing popularity, only losing hype

Exactly ,i think the issue here is not on its popularity but its ability to stand firm following the present circumstances Btc is encountering.

[Mars not Moon]

Did this thought came out of no-where? Bitcoin is not loosing its popularity or value..can you link me to any such wrong articles?

[l3sny]

based on citi report:
http://www.coindesk.com/citi-miners-merchants-keeping-bitcoin-prices-check/

[itsAj]

based on citi report:
http://www.coindesk.com/citi-miners-merchants-keeping-bitcoin-prices-check/

This article is actually arguing that bitcoin's rising popularity is making the price go down (or go up less). It cites the citi report that says that since most large retail establishments are selling their bitcoin as they receive it the supply of bitcoin on the market is larger then it otherwise would be.

[Fabrizio89]

based on citi report:
http://www.coindesk.com/citi-miners-merchants-keeping-bitcoin-prices-check/

All good points but kinda obvious for whoever is following bitcoin closely. There's a good chance that there's a big manipulation going on and that it is stenghtened by this unloading of old coins thanks to this new wave of merchants, some of them even offer huge deals once cannot just lose like the recent one from newegg.

[Bitcoins101]

It seems like bitcoin's popularity ebbs and flows depending on its value. Generally speaking, it seems like the popularity isn't really connected to the price - growth does not necessarily occur when the price increases. However, the feelings of the people in the community seems to depend upon the price.

Use and merchant adoption is what really matters.

[mustang77]

Its gaining populaity, slowly.

[rz20]

Everyday we are seeing new entrepeneurs, new big companies and more people using bitcoin. And you are telling us it is losing popularity? Just look two year back and see the changes that has happenned. You almost couldn't buy anything 2 years back and now you can buy from a tv to a flight.

[l3sny]

yep, that's correct. and bitcoin users will be always preferring bitcoin over fiat so the existing user base is also supporting it apart from the new people.

[Talukdar001]

I think one of the main reason of losing popularity is high difficulty level of mining.

[l3sny]

And how did you come to this conclusion?

[counter]

Not a chance Bitcoin has lost it's popularity because nothing has changed for that to happen.  Maybe it is that Bitcoin isn't as "trendy" as it was but that is not very significant if you ask me.  What I mean is Bitcoin is at a point where people want to try it because they have heard about it many times but they don't know much about it. 

I think it's in a fad phase, which I think is good for the long term of the coin.  I think the MTGOX was a blessing and a curse for Bitcoin and gave many people a chance to hop on the train but that is besides the point.  This is more just a period of stagnation as far as the price is concerned.  Adoption however is better then ever so I'm not worried until I see a reason to be.