<p>Due to the nature of Bitcoin there is no precise answer to this question. However, this site displays some statistics on the number of nodes in the network over time: <a href="http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/">http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-08T09:51:07.837Z
2011-09-08T09:51:07.837Z
Jan
<p>Check out my answer to this question about geo data.
In fact, I would recommend creating one question about "How can you get statistics about Bitcoin users / clients" instead of asking about every different slicing of the data.</p>

<p><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/696/is-there-data-on-the-geographic-distribution-of-bitcoin-users/749#749">Is there data on the geographic distribution of bitcoin users?</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin</a> just crossed 10,000 users a few days ago (Sep 2012), to help you get some estimate.</p>

<p><a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats</a> - Bitcointalk currently has 64,175 users.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-08T10:13:57.000Z
2012-09-16T02:30:06.687Z
2017-04-13T12:47:34.187Z
ripper234
<p>The challenge is to merge different addresses that all correspond to the same user. Since bitcoin isn't quite as anonymous as it's cracked up to be, this isn't totally impossible to do.</p>

<p>One way to do it is to merge all addresses that contribute inputs to a single transaction. That's based on an assumption, but it's pretty reasonable one.</p>

<p>Another way: connect your computer to all other Bitcoin nodes. Whenever you see a transaction broadcast that you haven't seen before, log it and the IP it's coming from. Since you're connected to all nodes, that is the sender's IP (unless they're anonymizing with Tor or some such).</p>

<p>These approaches are used in a couple of papers:<br>
<a href="http://anonymity-in-bitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/07/bitcoin-is-not-anonymous.html" rel="nofollow">http://anonymity-in-bitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/07/bitcoin-is-not-anonymous.html</a><br>
<a href="http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf</a>  </p>

<p>The estimates from those papers aren't totally current, but you could extrapolate. Ron and Shamir (2012) count 3,730,218 addresses and 2,460,814 "entities" (conservative estimate of users). So multiply current addresses by about 1.5 for a ballpark estimate. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-30T03:57:40.057Z
2013-05-30T04:05:27.420Z
2013-05-30T04:05:27.420Z
katriel
<p>Impossible to answer accurately, but I suppose one could come up with educated guesses and ballpark figures from the number of nodes on the network, or number of users on popular wallet services.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-08T01:18:03.023Z
because any answer to this question will be out of date as soon as it's answered, it's a classic example of a question only relevant to a "specific moment in time." I suggest you edit it to be something more universal, like "How can you tell how many users Bitcoin has?" and a moderator will reopen it.
Joel Spolsky
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-08T05:06:24.107Z
@Jeol - so why close preemtevly when you can just suggest edits or even edit.
ripper234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-08T09:52:58.780Z
I suppose the total number of receiving addresses is an upper bound for the user number (not a very tight one, though).
Thilo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-16T02:32:29.197Z
Updated with user count of r/bitcoin and Bitcointalk
ripper234
<user-base>
How can you tell how many users Bitcoin has?
Thilo
# How can you tell how many users Bitcoin has?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-09-08)

Impossible to answer accurately, but I suppose one could come up with educated guesses and ballpark figures from the number of nodes on the network, or number of users on popular wallet services.

**Tags:** user-base

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: because any answer to this question will be out of date as soon as it's answered, it's a classic example of a question only relevant to a "specific moment in time." I suggest you edit it to be something more universal, like "How can you tell how many users Bitcoin has?" and a moderator will reopen it.  
> **username_2**: @Jeol - so why close preemtevly when you can just suggest edits or even edit.  
> **username_0**: I suppose the total number of receiving addresses is an upper bound for the user number (not a very tight one, though).  
> **username_2**: Updated with user count of r/bitcoin and Bitcointalk  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2011-09-08. Score: 5

Due to the nature of Bitcoin there is no precise answer to this question. However, this site displays some statistics on the number of nodes in the network over time: <http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/>


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### Answer by username_2 on 2011-09-08. Score: 2

Check out my answer to this question about geo data.
In fact, I would recommend creating one question about "How can you get statistics about Bitcoin users / clients" instead of asking about every different slicing of the data.

[Is there data on the geographic distribution of bitcoin users?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/696/is-there-data-on-the-geographic-distribution-of-bitcoin-users/749#749)

<http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin> just crossed 10,000 users a few days ago (Sep 2012), to help you get some estimate.

<https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats> - Bitcointalk currently has 64,175 users.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2013-05-30. Score: 0

The challenge is to merge different addresses that all correspond to the same user. Since bitcoin isn't quite as anonymous as it's cracked up to be, this isn't totally impossible to do.

One way to do it is to merge all addresses that contribute inputs to a single transaction. That's based on an assumption, but it's pretty reasonable one.

Another way: connect your computer to all other Bitcoin nodes. Whenever you see a transaction broadcast that you haven't seen before, log it and the IP it's coming from. Since you're connected to all nodes, that is the sender's IP (unless they're anonymizing with Tor or some such).

These approaches are used in a couple of papers:  
<http://anonymity-in-bitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/07/bitcoin-is-not-anonymous.html>  
<http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf>

The estimates from those papers aren't totally current, but you could extrapolate. Ron and Shamir (2012) count 3,730,218 addresses and 2,460,814 "entities" (conservative estimate of users). So multiply current addresses by about 1.5 for a ballpark estimate.


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