The Great Race Is On: The Number Of Cryptocurrency Users Is Growing

While regulators around the world are trying to figure out how to control cryptocurrency, we are see explosive growth in terms of the number of users. This is a process that started a couple years ago yet is starting to take off.

This past year saw a lot of discussion surrounding the investigation of Central Banks Digital Currencies (CBDCs). It is something that caught the attention of the crypto community and sparked a race to see who could roll out the infrastructure first.

A big part of the outcome of this race is going to depend upon how many people from around the world embrace decentralized digital assets. Governments effectiveness decreases the more resistance they face. With growing numbers, it is likely that resistance is only going to expand.

A recent survey done by Independent Reserve in Australia revealed that 1 in 5 hold cryptocurrency. This might not be the most populous location on the planet but with a total population of over 25 million, that equates to roughly 5 million people.

It is no surprise that the younger age groups had a better understanding and high penetration rates than the older ones. This is likely the case across the global. With technology, this is often the case.

However, the awareness of cryptocurrency is impressive.

This is a radical departure from results we saw even a couple years ago.

We do see some growth among different age groups. What is interesting is the 65+ crowd had an increase over 2019.

owner.png

Contained in the report is this quote:

“Surprising fact: Assuming Bitcoin adoption rate continues its
present 2.2x per year “Moore’s Law” of growth (which it has
for 10 years so far), then 30% of the world population will own
Bitcoin in 4 years time.” - Willy Woo @Woonomic

Here is the full the report for those interested in reading it:

https://www.independentreserve.com/static/independent-reserve-cryptocurrency-index-irci-2020.pdf

Australia is not the only location that is experiencing crypto growth. An article came out mentioning how Africa saw some impressive numbers throughout 2020.

A report highlighted that Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya are a few of the top 10 countries to Google search about crypto in the world.

Chainalysis, a United States blockchain research company has highlighted that crypto transfers on a monthly basis from and to Africa so an increase of over 55% and peaked at $316 million earlier this year in June.

Source

Obviously the moves of Wall Street Institutions garnered a lot of the headlines. At the same time, we saw massive growth in the DeFi sector throughout the past year.

Both of these are telling a couple different stories.

The first is that speculation is going to be rampant for the next few years. These entities that are buying now, Bitcoin mostly, are doing so because they expect the price to be higher down the road. To them, it is an investment, just like any other asset class.

These institutions are accustomed to dealing with regulation. In fact, one view is that regulation, for the most part, actually protects them. It makes it more difficult for outside entities/newer technologies to penetrate. The reason is the cost associated with compliance. Companies with hundreds of millions of dollars can afford to adhere to what is taking place. Those without the resources tend to get buried.

DeFi is an interesting proposition since it is, for the most part, outside the realm of regulation. As things get more decentralized, the ability to reign things in by entities such as the SEC is going to get tougher.

Here is where we find the crypto Whales. These are not the Wall Street types but, most likely, early adopters. They are looking to grow their bags through returns. This is what fed the trough to the tune of near $15 billion over the past year.

Bitcoin gets a lot of the attention but Ethereum is still forging ahead. The latest Etherscan chart of wallets shows this.

ethwallets.png

There are now 130 million wallets on Ethereum. As we can see, it is adding over 100,000 per day. This equates to a 28% growth rate over the course of a year.

More Wallets. More users. More money.

That is the story of the past year in cryptocurrency.

At present, we see the established system trying to set up something they can control. The usual players are starting to enter with their big money. Regulation is forthcoming in an effort to get this thing under control. However, as these numbers show, the race on the other side, in the decentralized world, is moving ahead.

As more people get involved with cryptocurrency, especially ones that reward them for activities, the greater the impact will be. Network effect is a powerful mechanism that causes many things to go parabolic. In essence, it breaks down to a numbers game.

One side has money and, because of it, power; the other has the numbers in terms of people.

Which side will prevail is the major question?

Ultimately, it could come down to speed. Who is able to cross the Rubicon first?

Adding another few hundred million people will certainly make life more difficult for those who are trying to centralize all of this.


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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 37 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
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searching on Google Trends for the word Bitcoin, I discover that the number of searches comes from South African countries such as Nigeria and South Africa. Bitcoin is the hope for many populations to gain economic freedom and the wealth stolen by tyrannical governments over the last few centuries

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There are a lot of sout Africans on Hive also.
Tge are going for te h revolution and also earning from here as per capita income there is very low and cannot feed them. Here talents are rewarded

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That is exactly the role that we need to fill on Hive. Having some people start to gravitate here for what is being offered and as a means to a new financial network.

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Those countries where the economy is a disaster and hunger happens on a daily bases are in front of the list as people have no other choice. It's a possibility for them and many are using it to survive.

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In my mind, that is the ideal target market for cryptocurrency. The promise is a new financial system, part of that is putting income in people's hands.

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Reality proves you right. Everyone with a smartphone and internet connection can participate and earn.

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(Edited)

Let us pray that governments are completely ineffective at regulating crypto. It would serve them right! And I love being an outlier--I am 57, but I have younger friends like @jongolsen to keep me young for my age. I'm also a former actuarial assistant/programmer, so I don't fear technology (except in the hands of bureaucrats.)

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I fear anything in the hands of the politicians and bureaucrats.

It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds. It is the techies versus the "elite"; decentralization versus centralization.

We know that open source software can spread like wildfire which gives a big advantage to the development community.

Much of the DeFi craze came from the fact that many of the apps were open sourced and just ended up being forked.

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It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds. It is the techies versus the "elite"; decentralization versus centralization.

Oh yeah! Techies vs The Elite vs some sort of underground bugs with long nails too.

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Let us pray that governments are completely ineffective at regulating crypto.

They are trying for sure as it would be a great source for them but as you say, let's hope. Tracking earnings is not so easy though.

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Wow, the growth rate in ETH wallets is fantastic. I hope we can have such growth rate on Leofinance next year. Then will explode the price of LEO.

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Leofinance had a much bigger growth rate in 2020 than the Ethereum wallets.

The 28% APY is nothing compared to Leofinance in 2020. It was up, in terms of users, over 500%.

We will see how much of a duplication can be done in 2021.

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Especially now with the huge pump on BTC and the SEC going for Ripple, the whole world checked at least once the cryptos. Add to that the quarantine, in which many people lost their jobs or simply stayed at home and scrolled a little bit more on the internet and there you have it! 2021 will be a very interesting year for cryptos and crypto-adoption!

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Are we seeing the first signs that retail is buying again bitcoin now? We are in the middle of the holidays and not a lot of institutions may be active in the markets, but we do see this nice price increase. Are people buying Bitcoin for the Fiat they got on Christmas and driving this growth? It feels like 2013 and 2017 but are the masses really coming?

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Good question. The trouble is the number of retail buyers required to match the institutions is a large number.

It could be that the institutions are on the sidelines although I wouldnt be surprised if they are buying daily. They play markets at all hours of the day so buying BTC would fit into that.

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And this year 2021 the adoption rate of crypt coins is going to increase by 30 or 40% as more people come in, driven by the great devaluation of the currency and the economic blow of the pandemic, so this next year will be historic for crypt.

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If there are 100 million people in crypto, that would be an addition of 30M-40M people in crypto.

I am not sure the 100M is accurate but who knows.

Personally I think we need 200 million new people in crypto in 2021 whatever the present number is.

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I have noticed this over the last 6 months especially in South Africa. Maybe it is everyone at home looking for alternative investment as keeping money in the bank is just not worth it anymore. I believe within 5 years everyone will have some sort of crypto even if they understand it or not as things like frequent flyer miles will be tokenized.

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I those of us involved in crypto do our jobs, we are not going to require 5 years.

Instead we will see things happen a lot quicker.

Gaming and some other avenues are rapid ways to entice people into this world.

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I do believe you are right and there will be drastic changes next year that will propel timelines forward.

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As more people get involved with cryptocurrency, especially ones that reward them for activities, the greater the impact will be. Network effect is a powerful mechanism that causes many things to go parabolic. In essence, it breaks down to a numbers game.

The ones that reward for activities just like hive and leofinance, will always keep growing In number and imagine when the Micro-blogging on leofinance kicks off.

That alone will be the link for most crypto newbie into the crypto world as it's easier to access and use compared with other cryptocurrency like bitcoin and etherium .

Picture all Facebook and Twitter users on Hive, you'll see that the battle is almost won, we all just just have to keep making effort to get more users on board

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Picture all Facebook and Twitter users on Hive,...

I will take 1% of both those platforms on Hive.

That would be an incredible number.

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It is indeed an incredible number and I am positive that it will surely workout that way with time.

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I know when I chat with my friends about my new addiction most know about Bitcoin. A few have heard about Eth, but that is about as deep as their knowledge goes.

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That is normal. Bitcoin is still the big banana.

Ethereum is going to make noise in different circles. The DApps will end up being better known than Ethereum over time.

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An insightful article. The growing number of users and increased adoption of cryto versus the government regulation will be an interesting tug of war to witness. Centralized governments are powerful for sure. There are many who believe in government regulations and who also believe that crypto space should be regulated to make it more stable. So, it will be the battle of ideologies.

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The key will be technology. Will we have the tools to usurp their regulations?

I think with the way the development is going, people are figuring out work arounds.

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I guess. The more definitive answer lies in the fact that how the development in technology will force/guide the regulators to come up with regulations that do not violate the sovereignty of the system.

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Adding another few hundred million people will certainly make life more difficult for those who are trying to centralize all of this.

Now I don't know if I'm not saying something stupid, but I think that the virtual currency that FB will implement will require training and information for users and so a huge number of people will become familiar with cryptocurrencies, then become curious to find out about other currencies ...

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The Diem project could certainly introduce billions to the idea of cryptocurrency.

The education then will be to teach people about the difference between centralized and decentralized.

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The Ethereum unique address chart looks impressive and I hope our Leofinance chart would look the same, especially next year.
The different age groups chart also looks interesting and shows who's interested and ready to invest. It's kind of what I've expected honestly. let's see how it's going to change in the next couple of years. Will 55-64, 65+ age groups be more open in the future?

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Well dont forget, the age groups will change as time goes by so the 55-64 group will be those in their late 4os/early 50s in a few years.

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That's true but not in one or two years. I's like to see how a year or two can change people's perception.

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I believe the people will prevail in the end. So long as the companies that facilitate the trading don't sell out our information. I remember a line from an interview with Snowden and I may have it incorrect, but essentially, I don't fear if Amazon, Google or etc has my information but I fear the government since it can combine everything together.

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That is true.

It is one of the reasons why the industry needs to push into digital identities and the securing of data.

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It delights me to see growth in adoption and especially in Africa where it should really give people options over their money. 2021 is going to see more growth in adoption.

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It is a great place to start the process of growth.

Hopefully tens of millions find their way into crypto in a short period of time.

This will only help the entire process.

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those boomers are gonna wonder where all that fiat went LOL

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I think there are a lot of people in the younger generation who would probably own cryptocurrency if it were easier to get their hands on. I know my worker would like to purchase some, but with no credit card his barriers to entry are pretty high. Additionally, other younger people who might want to purchase probably run into issues with their parents who don't understand the concept trying to talk them out of it. I love the idea of the ATM style crypto kiosks they have over in Europe and other places.

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Or the easiest way is to get involved with platforms where one gets rewarded in crypto and then it can be swapped into whatever is desires.

The swapping is much easier once one is already in crypto. It is using fiat that makes life difficult.

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That is a good point. Wouldn't it be so totally game changing if Tik Tok started paying out in Hive or something like that. We would see people coming into the fold in droves. I think next time my worker mentions it to me I will probably offer to have him just give me the cash and I will make the transfer to him. I should have enough to cover the amount he would be willing to pay me.

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There are some creative ways to get people involved. Perhaps acting as an intermediary would be helpful, at least to teach him more.

It all helps move things forward.

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Very crucial stats there. I wish one could could have it based on geographical location. It's crucial to see that the "young and pushy" age range is really up with Crypto. 25 to 34 is the happening age and we'll hopefully see some wonderful creations with crypto in the next decade.

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As long as people use BTC as a kind of "digital gold" and only use cryptos for speculating, I don't see a real acceptance for cryptos and them be more included in daily life.

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I can't believe how foolish the baby-boomers yet are. Or is this just in down-under? Only Ausies?

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I have a feeling we are past the "tipping point" here... that is, the point where trying to control this gives way to trying to infiltrate it, instead.

Let's say the IRS allows you to pay your taxes with crypto... then they suddenly have a wallet address associated with you. Big corporations and banks might try to compete instead... offering pseudo-decentralized tokens that the majority of the world won't know (or won't care) to be any different from true decentralized tokens. Corporate cryptos might even be used in place of loyalty programs; you can "earn" — let's say — "Apple Coin" by purchasing Apple products, and so on.

I'm not sure — in the VERY long run — that this will be all that different from the Internet (which at one time was about "freedom and independence" of information) which has largely been incorporated into the old fashioned SOP of the business world.

Linux and Ubunty do NOT run the world; MS Windoze and Google Chrome DO.

Not trying to rain on the parade, just playing Devil's Advocate.

=^..^=

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Wow those are massive figures - 100k new ETH wallets a day!

And Willy Woo's theory that 30% of the world will own bitcoin in 4 years. That's around the next halving, which may dwarf this one yet again. $1 million bitcoin perhaps?

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Interesting and good news, thanks for sharing @taskmaster4450

Blockchain is a beautiful peaceful revolution to the rampant and oppressive centralization

More crypto users = more liberty

A report highlighted that Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya are a few of the top 10 countries to Google search about crypto in the world.

Cryptos are also a tool of freedom for poor people and that's another thing I really like.

A nice post full of interesting considerations that I read with pleasure

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(Edited)

Now this is one race I'm excited about, rather than the rat race! Technology in the right hands has the power to change the world for good so fingers crossed this all goes the "right way"! Imagine if they made a movie about this - Marvel adventures "Crypto Man/Woman" in a fight against evil with one of the most intense races in history!

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It's sure we must live with BTC whole life
. Every new commer at the digital plat form. LEO is the best alternative of Btc

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