Want to know how big bitcoin is? We at FintekNews have just written a piece challenging a WSJ article that bitcoin is not living up to its hype. Poppycock. The growth is just getting stronger and stronger and here is a comprehensive cryptocurrency study by the University of Cambridge which is eye opening. Both in sheer numbers BUT also the bigger global potential. Thank you Cambridge U.
(Bill Taylor, CEO)
Recently Bitcoin.com reported on the release of a comprehensive cryptocurrency study by the University of Cambridge. One area discussed in this report is the number of users of cryptocurrencies and wallets. This article explores how the study derives the number of active Bitcoin users and holders.
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Total Number of Cryptocurrency Wallets
Twenty-six wallet providers participated in the survey, including Airbitz, Armory, Bitgo, Blockchain, Coinbase, Greenaddress, Ledger, Jaxx, Mycelium, Samourai, and Xapo. The study defines a wallet provider as “any volunteer project or company that provides a standalone wallet that anyone can use.”
First, the total number of wallets is estimated using data collected from study participants, in addition to “the number of software downloads of major wallet providers and Bitcoin’s reference implementation.” The estimate represents all cryptocurrency wallets, not just Bitcoin.
While citing “a potentially infinite number of wallets could be created from a single software download,” the study uses a conservative assumption that one software download equals one wallet created. Some numbers are unavailable and therefore omitted such as the number of downloads for some open-source wallets, resulting in a “lower bound” estimate.
Overall, the report’s authors wrote:
It is estimated that the total number of wallets has increased more than 4x from 8.2 million in 2013 to nearly 35 million in 2016...
The number of active wallets is thus estimated to have increased from between 0.6 million and 2.6 million in 2013 to currently between 5.8 million and 11.5 million in 2017..."Source:
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