Bitcoin has finally reached 1 billion transactions since its launch 15 years ago

Emerging protocols such as Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes have breathed new life and activity into the world's first blockchain, the Bitcoin network. These innovative technologies expand the functionality of the Bitcoin network, enabling it to support a wider variety of transactions and applications, thereby attracting more users and developers to participate in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Processing over 1 billion transactions is a landmark achievement for the Bitcoin network, reflecting its remarkable progress as the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. This data, provided by Clark Moody’s Bitcoin Dashboard, marks a new level of transaction processing power that Bitcoin has reached since its launch in 2009.

The transaction was reportedly mined into block 842,241 at 9:34 pm UTC on May 5. This means that since Bitcoin was launched on January 3, 2009, after 15 years, 4 months and 4 days of operation, the cumulative transaction volume processed has exceeded 1 billion. Considering that the Bitcoin network has been around for a long time (approximately 5603 days), this means that on average 178,475 transactions occur every day. This achievement began with the Bitcoin network’s genesis block mined by its founder, who goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The arrival of this point in time is not only a milestone in the development of the Bitcoin network, but also a testament to the technological evolution, user growth and market acceptance that Bitcoin has experienced since its launch. When Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin network in 2009, he may not have foreseen the volume of transactions it would create, but the achievement underscores Bitcoin's status as the world's most valuable cryptocurrency.

Furthermore, this achievement of the Bitcoin network is also an affirmation of the long-term efforts of the entire cryptocurrency community and all its supporters. It not only demonstrates the practicality and reliability of Bitcoin as a digital currency, but also indicates that Bitcoin may play a more important role in the future financial technology field.

The daily transaction volume of Bitcoin has surged recently

There is no doubt that the Bitcoin network reaching the milestone of 1 billion transactions is a strong testament to Bitcoin’s current status. In particular, the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs has brought more liquidity and visibility to the Bitcoin market, attracting more institutional and retail investors to participate. This increased participation and interest has led to bullish sentiment towards Bitcoin, with investors generally expecting its price to rise. This bullish sentiment has had a positive impact on both Bitcoin’s price and trading volume over the past year.

Additionally, tokens like Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes have been bringing more activity and participation to the world’s first blockchain, the Bitcoin network. These innovative technological developments not only enrich the application scenarios of the Bitcoin network, but also attract the attention of more users and developers.

Not to mention, the fourth halving event experienced by the Bitcoin network on April 20 also attracted great attention and discussion. This event has an important impact on Bitcoin’s supply dynamics and often triggers market speculation and expectations about Bitcoin’s future price.

The combined effect of the above-mentioned circumstances has driven the growth of daily transaction volume on the Bitcoin network. On April 23, just three days after the halving, Bitcoin processed a record 926,000 transactions.

Why did it take so long?

Although Bitcoin, as the oldest cryptocurrency network, has always been the leader in the cryptocurrency field, it took quite a long time to reach the milestone of 1 billion transactions. This shows that while Bitcoin has played an important role in driving development and innovation throughout the cryptocurrency industry, it faces several challenges and limitations when it comes to transaction processing volume.

For comparison, we can look at Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin’s biggest competitor, which already far surpasses Bitcoin in the number of transactions it processes. Although Ethereum was launched more than six years after Bitcoin, it has processed nearly 2.4 billion transactions, according to data provided by Etherscan. .

From all indications, Bitcoin has had a much longer journey to reach the 1 billion transaction milestone. However, it’s worth noting that Bitcoin’s transaction count does not include transactions made on its layer 2 Lightning Network.

According to data provided by Bitcoin-only exchange River, the Lightning Network processed nearly 6.6 million transactions in August 2023 alone. This monthly figure suggests that the Lightning Network may have processed hundreds of millions of transactions since its launch about six years ago.

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