According to publicly available data, there are now over 10 million bitcoin wallets. Perhaps the most informative statistic of all is the transaction volume: the number of transactions has also grown impressively, from roughly 80,000 a day to more than 200,000 without showing any signs of slowing.
Bitcoin transactions (all time)
Michael Jackson (@overdrev) wrote in Coindesk on January 1st, 2016 that it is his firm belief that the bitcoin blockchain will play a fundamental role as the backbone of the digital value transfer. The blockchain is the only production-deployed solution that’s been running reliability for years now. Open protocols win out in the long run, and the independence and trust provided by motivated miners can’t be reproduced by the ‘private blockchains’.
Yet, the challenge in 2016 will be captured by the companies that can successfully obfuscate the complexity of bitcoin and bring frictionless value transfer to the next 100 million daily users. That may seem like a lot, but it’s only as many as Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Kazaa and so many others have achieved. It has to be our next goal for bitcoin adoption, and we won’t get there through obscure niche products.
Source: Coindesk.com
