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Ranks of Crypto Users Swelled in 2018 Even as Bitcoin Tumbled (bloomberg.com)
It turns out that cryptocurrency enthusiasts were committed well beyond the HODL rallying call that urged them to hold on during this year's digital-asset market collapse. From a report: The number of verified users of cryptocurrencies almost doubled in the first three quarters of the year even as the market bellwether Bitcoin tumbled almost 80 percent, according to a study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Users climbed from 18 million to 35 million this year. The figures may provide a silver lining. If user numbers continue to increase even in a deep market downturn, that could signal that an eventual recovery could be coming -- a crucial finding at a time when some critics predict that the value of cryptocurrencies will go down to zero.
Bitcoin especially, will always have a base of users - because there is no alternative that offers the same features (well other than other digital currencies), not even cash (and cash is in theory less universal, though the dollar comes closest to working everywhere).
Sometimes I wonder if anti-Bitcoin propaganda and manipulation may not be some kind of U.S. intervention, to keep the value of the dollar propped up since it's used around most of the world as a supported currency.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sure, millions of GPU miners, mining alt-coins and selling them for bitcoins, and the wiser ones then exchanging the bitcoins for their local fiat currency. Don't think of the handful of "enthusiasts" who built mining rigs. Think of many with a decent GPU in their PC who decided to let it mine when they were not otherwise using their PC. These people generated much bitcoin "usage". It was profitable until very recently and these people are bloating the cited stats.
If so all that means is that rather than having speculators who buy on a rising market and then sell at a higher price to realise their gain (in proper money), those who were left holding the baby, as it were, have decided not to sell up and take a loss. Presumably they are hoping that at some point there will be an upturn and their loss might even turn into a profit.
But that pattern of behaviour is one of hope rather than reality. Simply holding onto a worthless asset doesn't mean you might make some money from it in the future. It just means the holders are in denial.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I think a lot of people feel that our economy has peaked, and that there is a downturn shortly down the road. (Which is backed up with the Interest rate inversion) During this time, people do rather erratic things, such as investing in a popping bubble thinking it had dropped as far as it went. Also with general fear and uncertainty they probably think Crypto Currency is a way to diversify their newly acquired wealth.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I wonder what is defined as a "user". Does it mean the holder of the account? I don't actually think it means USING the bitcoins to pay for something.
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If you're buying now, you already missed out.
There are more people than ever using Bitcoin as "banknotes and coins",
Is that a fact or a suspicion?
I kind of suspect using as money has gone out of favour because fewer places want to take it now- 6 months ago there were a lot more places that accepted bitcoin than there is now.
The number of wallets may have grown- but I would suspect that it is still almost exclusively an investment and [almost] no one is getting into bitcoin with the pure intention of using it as a currency.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The normal definition of "cryptographic algorithms" includes "cryptographic hash functions", which are used by cryptocurrencies.
The crypto prefix also makes sense in the "hidden/occult/mystery" sense.
I have no faith in any of them, but I think the term is well chosen.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Bitcoin absolutely does not excel at moving value from place to place. Transactions are slow and costly, and will get exponentially worse over time if usage were to increase. It also isn't particularly difficult to control, secure or private.
You're right that these are all things people imagine about Bitcoin, but none of them are true. Other cryptocurrencies do better at all these measures and still aren't particularly useful.
I find the whole thing bizarre/depressing.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Buying shit on the dark web, gambling, ransoms, and questionable investments seem to be Bitcoin's strong points.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
The number of users increased by a factor of 2, the number of cryptocurrencies increased by a factor of 20, and most of the "users" of cryptocurrencies use more than just 1, therefore they are all at least double-counted and they are fewer in number per cryptocurrency.
Obviously paid-for crypto-currency "articles" like this one have been coming at us all week; someone is paying a lot of money to temporarily raise the bids so that they can offload at a smaller loss than if they sold now.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
A little relaxation of the bullish trend; combined with introduction of futures and
probably traditional financial companies shorting the hell out of BTC.
What you need is statistics from major exchanges/BTC financial companies on...
quantities of other peoples' BTC being used to make loans for entities shorting BTC.
And how much "fake" / "paper" BTC is floating around that was created by short-sellers?
(e.g. Bitcoins where someone has deposited, and the exchange loaned them out to Short Sell, then
the buyer deposited to exchange and were loaned out again to Short Sell, resulting in fractional-reserve bitcoins,
and the same BTC being sold on the market multiple times resulting in multiple buyers all "Owning" the same small numbers of Bitcoins)
It may be more useful as a currency when the price is bumping around dollars mark - so still a way to fall!
If cryptocurrency behaved like goods, we would have an increased demand while supply remain flat by design. That should raise prices.