What do you think will happen in the next 4 Months??!??

[k9quaint]

I think the calender will say September, October, November, and December. Tailor your Bitcoin plans accordingly.

[Tittiez]

Online wallets (it's only really blockchain.info) cannot alone compensate for the decline, and nobody was able to tell me if electrum clients would show up or not or what their numbers are. There isn't 'something else' than that. Plus the decline started to manifest before those 2 came up.

Why is it so hard to accept that bitcoin is loosing excess userbase?

Multibit wouldn't because it doesn't host the entire blockchain, I don't know about electrum. Cold wallets/Paper Wallets/Online Wallets/Smaller Clients are all becoming very popular, and most all of those things don't count for full nodes. Bitcoin isn't loosing its userbase, just look at the forums as an example:



A steady rise in threads, posts, etc, and a steady amount of users coming in every month. Plus the forums aren't everyone, there plenty of non members that use bitcoin.

[ElectricMucus]

The number of signups will always be positve and you cannot account for the outflow of users. Added to that there are unknown numbers of sockpuppets, bot accounts and so on. I can't see that as useful.

I find it interesting that some of you die-hard fanatics cannot even account for the possibility of a shrinking userbase with growing involvement of the people left.
Nobody has suggested that this trend must continue but it will only change when the fundamentals are there.

[Serge]

ElectricMucus, there can't be shrinking user base when we have constant exposure in the media (see Press subforum), the screenshot above is missing thread views which is also hints at increasing interest. More people talk or mention bitcoins elsewhere too besides online media and news blogs

You are basing your reasoning on a single graph of decreasing nodes. I'm not sure how it's calculated, I know previously node count was done through IRC where all nodes by default found each other, recent client updates have "noirc" flag set to default. then on top of that there are some router settings which prevent bitcoin client's good network connectivity (i forgot what is it) - i'm pretty sure those things are not enabled by default and most users would not bother with them, these nodes may not be seen in that graph too. then there are users who don't constantly run bitcoin client. Wide use of light clients which may not be see as nodes.

[FreeMoney]

ElectricMucus, there can't be shrinking user base when we have constant exposure in the media (see Press subforum), the screenshot above is missing thread views which is also hints at increasing interest. More people talk or mention bitcoins elsewhere too besides online media and news blogs

You are basing your reasoning on a single graph of decreasing nodes. I'm not sure how it's calculated, I know previously node count was done through IRC where all nodes by default found each other, recent client updates have "noirc" flag set to default. then on top of that there are some router settings which prevent bitcoin client's good network connectivity (i forgot what is it) - i'm pretty sure those things are not enabled by default and most users would not bother with them, these nodes may not be seen in that graph too. then there are users who don't constantly run bitcoin client. Wide use of light clients which may not be see as nodes.

Yeah, and on top of all that there are more and more fine ways to use bitcoins without being a node yourself. Electrum, blockchain.info etc. Some people just use Gox and Seals. Plus even with the download speed improvements it gradually becomes slower to get started with the standard software.

[molecular]

I don't understand why I read everwhere that the userbase grows. Where do you get it from?

If I look at http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/ it looks like the user base is still declining. Or do I read this wrong?

I'm pretty sure that is the number of full nodes running, as the blockchain grows more and more people are using online wallets or something else

Online wallets (it's only really blockchain.info) cannot alone compensate for the decline, and nobody was able to tell me if electrum clients would show up or not or what their numbers are. There isn't 'something else' than that. Plus the decline started to manifest before those 2 came up.

Why is it so hard to accept that bitcoin is loosing excess userbase?

Electrum clients don't show up. Popular android client bitcoinspinner doesn't show up. Exchange "wallets" don't show up. Paper wallets, brainwallet, casascius "wallets" don't show up.

Hell, even I dont continuously run a node these days. I'm still a member of the userbase however, entertaining at least 4 wallets that all don't show up in above graph.

I highly doubt bitcoin is loosing userbase.

[minorman]

I don't understand why I read everwhere that the userbase grows. Where do you get it from?

If I look at http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/ it looks like the user base is still declining. Or do I read this wrong?

I'm pretty sure that is the number of full nodes running, as the blockchain grows more and more people are using online wallets or something else

Online wallets (it's only really blockchain.info) cannot alone compensate for the decline, and nobody was able to tell me if electrum clients would show up or not or what their numbers are. There isn't 'something else' than that. Plus the decline started to manifest before those 2 came up.

Why is it so hard to accept that bitcoin is loosing excess userbase?

Electrum clients don't show up. Popular android client bitcoinspinner doesn't show up. Exchange "wallets" don't show up. Paper wallets, brainwallet, casascius "wallets" don't show up.

Hell, even I dont continuously run a node these days. I'm still a member of the userbase however, entertaining at least 4 wallets that all don't show up in above graph.

I highly doubt bitcoin is loosing userbase.

not to mention that many run the client through a vpn. As a matter of principle I run all my internet traffic through a vpn - and I'm not even a nerd. Multiple users would count as one IP (that of the vpn).
As for bitcoin losing users. I don't know of any intelligent person who has been properly introduced to bitcoin who hasn't been seduced by the sheer genius of the system and become "hooked". I'm sure that many less imaginative minds quickly go back to watching tv (or whatever else), but bright people are simply drawn in by the awesomeness of Bitcoin.