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There is a lot of data out there about BTC prices, but are there any simple charts which show how much is Bitcoin really used? Something like number of Bitcoin transactions per day/week, or daily amount of bitcoins transferred, from the beginning to present?
The data should be available in blockchain, but did anyone make pretty charts?
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Blockchain.info is an alternative to blockexplorer that has additional statistics regarding market prices, mining costs and bitcoins in general. There is some information there about transactions that might interest you.
Here is a chart with data from last year:
A chart with Bitcoin Days Destroyed is also available at the website. This might be a better way to represent Bitcoin's usage. See this question and the wiki for more information about Bitcoin Days Destroyed.
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The macroeconomic concept of 'velocity' is relevant in this context. However, Because it is not possible to be certain which portion of a Bitcoin transaction is 'spend', and which part is 'change' back to the spender, the traditional definition of velocity is difficult to apply.
An alternate means of measuring 'velocity' or use in the Bitcoin economy is something called 'Bitcoin Days Destroyed'. It is explained at the wiki here. A more recent chart is available here. It is also summarized in the last column of the alternate block explorer.
Im unable to find a clear description on what days destroys actually shows. I understand how it is derived, but I dont understand the use value of what is being measured. – osmosis – 2011-09-15T00:03:54.840
osmosis: it is simply a way to "weight" the importance of a transaction - making the assumption that a transaction involving coins that have not been used for awhile is more likely a "real" transaction than coins that were moved just yesterday. It is a very imperfect measurement, but adds different perspective to pure usage statistics, which are very noisy. See also: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/845/what-are-bitcoin-days-destroyed
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1Though the problem is those transaction counts can be manipulated -- such as a single user sending back and forth between two wallets, or they could be simply transactions to and from exchanges and not reflect whatsoever any increase or decrease indicating whether Bitcoin is gaining or losing traction.
But at least that data point is better than having no data. – Stephen Gornick – 2011-09-12T20:32:57.523
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Stephen Gornick, that's a good point. @Domchi might be also interested in Bitcoins Days Destroyed. It tries to provide a more accurate measure of bitcoin's volume.
– nmat – 2011-09-12T20:38:00.820