How many addresses do you think the average bitcoin user has?

[Mobius]

The average bitcoin user in my opinion could have about 50 addresses.
This takes into account the smart ones, with hundreds or thousands, and the newbie users with only 1 address.

There are many non-newbies who use addresses multiple times and for extended periods even though it might not be good practice to do so. For example, donation addresses, vanity addresses, sig payment addresses, etc.

When these types of addresses are used the coins are often transferred to another address that has never been used before, and will only be used once. I think the average user that has been using bitcoin for several years will have used several hundred if not thousand addresses.

[HarmonLi]

as the title states, whats the average number of wallet addresses per bitcoin user? With the ability to trace transactions and link people together based on publically posted keys, I know many people (including myself) have generated unique addresses for nearly all transactions just to be safe. My guess is somewhere around 40-50 addresses at this point in time.. what are your guy's thoughts?

I believe they have about 150. Every service you use gives you another new address. They tend to accumulate pretty quickly. Also, all the wallets in existence generate so many new addresses. If you're using change-addresses (as you should!) you'll most likely have even more than that!!!

[keithers]

I would say the more casual user has between 3-4 addresses that they use (not including the ones that Coinbase auto-creates for you, etc).

I think more seasoned/power users and the ones with heavy holdings are using many more addresses obviously.   It's kind of a catch 22, because you want to keep your BTC spread out amongst several addresses so that if you somehow have a problem with one address, it isn't your entire holding.   However, the more addresses you have, the higher the likelihood that you could actually have a problem with one of them

[Mobius]

as the title states, whats the average number of wallet addresses per bitcoin user? With the ability to trace transactions and link people together based on publically posted keys, I know many people (including myself) have generated unique addresses for nearly all transactions just to be safe. My guess is somewhere around 40-50 addresses at this point in time.. what are your guy's thoughts?

I believe they have about 150. Every service you use gives you another new address. They tend to accumulate pretty quickly. Also, all the wallets in existence generate so many new addresses. If you're using change-addresses (as you should!) you'll most likely have even more than that!!!

All this depends on usage of bitcoin. If you were to buy bitcoin once on an exchange, send the coins to a wallet on your computer, then send the coins to your "cold wallet" then you would only have 2 addresses. On the other hand if you were to buy bitcoin several times via face to face trades, and spend your bitcoin on items multiples times per day then you could potentially have several hundred (if not thousand) addresses.

[oceans]

I don't believe you can ever really predict how many addresses the "average" bitcoin user has as many of them have been around for quite some years now and probably have quite a few addresses.

[gelar24]

I only have 12 but that is often used just 2 addresses.
Another address in need when the giveaway by using many different accounts and address haha 

[arieq]

I have 150 addresses to use in my daily transactions. I think anyone with loads of bitcoins would be smart and should have multi addresses for them not just all in one so people won't know where are all coins

[BTCXE]

I know many people (including myself) have generated unique addresses for nearly all transactions just to be safe.

It's a travesty that creating unique addresses for each incoming transaction is considered special, instead of just assumed to be the right way to do things.

A handful of wallet developers have done an incalculable amount of harm to Bitcoin by pushing the address reuse paradigm, the ones at blockchain.info being at the very top of the list.

Could someone pelase explain why creating a new address for each inc. transaction considered best practice ?

[feryjhie]

i just have around 30 address but i usually use just 4/5 addy

[1Referee]

I have probably around 20 to 40 addresses.

I use 5 for cold wallets, and 2 for buying stuff with Bitcoin, and 1 for my Bitcointalk profile.

Rest of the wallets are not in use at this point, they contain less than 0.01BTC.

[odolvlobo]

With the adoption of HD wallets, the question could eventually make as much sense as "How many phone calls does the average person have?"

On the other hand, online multi-sig wallets may become very popular and that would take us back to the one-address-per-person mindset.

[DiabolusLoki]

With the adoption of HD wallets, the question could eventually make as much sense as "How many phone calls does the average person have?"

On the other hand, online multi-sig wallets may become very popular and that would take us back to the one-address-per-person mindset.

What is a HD wallet?

Addresses cant be linked to one user as many wallets control several hundred addresses which aren't, in turn, linked to each other.

[BitcoinAddicts]

when it comes to individuals then i think it will be around 2-3 address max
online sites like casino,dice,exchange and other generates a lot of address, a big % of total address belongs to them

[hungergamespro132]

when it comes to individuals then i think it will be around 2-3 address max
online sites like casino,dice,exchange and other generates a lot of address, a big % of total address belongs to them

rly i have like 15 and use 10 of them for different sites/different campaigns to have more privacy so you cant tell that ordinary people use only 2 or 3

[odolvlobo]

With the adoption of HD wallets, the question could eventually make as much sense as "How many phone calls does the average person have?"
On the other hand, online multi-sig wallets may become very popular and that would take us back to the one-address-per-person mindset.

What is a HD wallet?

when it comes to individuals then i think it will be around 2-3 address max
online sites like casino,dice,exchange and other generates a lot of address, a big % of total address belongs to them

when it comes to individuals then i think it will be around 2-3 address max
online sites like casino,dice,exchange and other generates a lot of address, a big % of total address belongs to them

rly i have like 15 and use 10 of them for different sites/different campaigns to have more privacy so you cant tell that ordinary people use only 2 or 3

Anyone that can count the number of addresses they have:

uses out-of-date wallet software
Please switch to a wallet that gives you a new address for every transaction.

uses blockchain.info
I like blockchain.info because of its ubiquity, but I wish they would stop promoting one-address-per-wallet.

keeps their bitcoins in an account on a website
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Addresses cant be linked to one user as many wallets control several hundred addresses which aren't, in turn, linked to each other.

Yes, they can. That is why Bitcoin is not anonymous.

[philiveyjr]

I just have 5 to 6.!! but Im kinda new to transactions.! so I am guessing 100 to 200 on an average!

[screwUdriver]

Anyone that can count the number of addresses they have:

-snip-
uses blockchain.info
I like blockchain.info because of its ubiquity, but I wish they would stop promoting one-address-per-wallet.

Blockchain.info creates one address when you create a wallet and allows you to create more. It has an option to create a new address every time you send a transaction, however it is not selected by default (and I believe they make you select it for every transaction you make). The reasoning behind this probably has to do with the fact that they have a 400 address limit as to how big wallets can be and if they created a new address for every transaction they would need to increase this limit as many people would be pushing up against it

[coinmaster222]

been with blockchain 14 months just got one address why would you need more

[Possum577]

You should create a poll from this question so we can all see what the summary if responses is, rather then having to read through every post.

Good question!

I have about 5.

[blg425]

Hard to say, i've got about 25. For some reason though unable to add new ones on official client for Android both phone and tablet...