The idea is nice, but this thing is a complete nonsense. The required information to create such a map is simply not available.

Some are wondering about the lack of activity in certain regions: There is trading activity in these areas.

Disclaimer: Former exchange operator

> The required information to create such a map is simply not available.

All the major cryptocurrency exchanges have open APIs that offer access to completed USD/BTC exchanges- Of course there's gaps in the information, why would anyone expect otherwise?

What gogeek means is that this site pretends to show what countries Bitcoin buyers are located, but we simply don't know that. For example if GDAX's API shows a BTC purchase in USD, this site will show the buyer as being in the USA, in reality the buyer could be in any of the numerous countries where the exchange operates (https://support.gdax.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2425188...)

I don't think that is the premise of this, though - it's not showing where the purchasers are located, but what currency is being traded.

Let's assume the exchanges provide honest information. Does a trade mean that money has flown into Bitcoin? No. A day trader for example sells and buys his Bitcoins several time a day. We cannot conclude from these trades that a multiple of his Bitcoins has flown into Bitcoin as fiat money.

Nothing happening in the Eurozone? or Japan?

It seems that (for obvious reasons!) the bulk of the action is happening in US and China. However, I am also surprised that currently transaction volume in currencies of Brazil or Russia exceeds those in Euro or Yen...

The bubble is strong here in Brazil. I've recently had lots of nontechnical acquaintances talking about bitcoin these last months.

People also talk a lot about amazon, Facebook, and google. Doesn't make it a bubble.

JOE KENNEDY, a famous rich guy in his day, exited the stock market in timely fashion after a shoeshine boy gave him some stock tips. He figured that when the shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too popular for its own good, a theory also advanced by Bernard Baruch, another vested interest who described the scene before the big Crash:

"Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the day's financial news as he worked with rag and polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled the street in front of my office now gave me tips and, I suppose, spent the money I and others gave him in the market. My cook had a brokerage account and followed the ticker closely. Her paper profits were quickly blown away in the gale of 1929."

> amazon, Facebook, and google. Doesn't make it a bubble

Yeah. Well.

Funny thing about "bubbles", they're usually reliably identified only after-the-fact...

So far I have never heard my non-technical acquaintances talk about making payments with bitcoin. I have only heard them talk about investing in bitcoin, which sounds very bubbly.

It's almost midnight in Europe...

It's 2 am in Russia, but still...

It is also pretty late here in Europe, perhaps there's more going on during the daytime

im starting to think bitcoin should probably be illegal. its perfect for criminals, with very little value for anyone else. its also potentially catastrophically destabilizing for states. you are welcome to change my mind, but know that im not ignorant of it and have been "using" it since 2012.

You would probably like the Economist Kenneth Rogoff and his book "The Curse of Cash": http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10798.html

It argues that cash, precious metals, and alternative currencies should be done away with and that we should all become dependent on digital bank accounts controlled and monitored by the government- That way, if a bureaucrat is confused by any transaction you are doing they are free to just freeze all your funds at a moment's notice.

Hope you enjoy living in that world!

> The world is drowning in cash—and it's making us poorer and less safe.

> So what is all that cash being used for? The answer is simple: a large part is feeding tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, the drug trade, human trafficking, and the rest of a massive global underground economy.

Don't expect me to be automatically convinced that tax evasion and corruption are making me poorer and less safe. Tax evasion makes everyone except the government richer and corruption makes it possible to buy freedom (such as in countries with drafting).

States may profit from trade restrictions individually, but if everyone restricts trade of whatever he wants, world is just driven into Nash equilibrium, where everyone is poorer than without restrictions. Corruption makes it possible to bypass these restrictions by bribing the customs. So corruption also makes us richer.

>Tax evasion makes everyone except the government richer

Oh, really? The alternative to modern taxation is not no taxation, but rather massive taxation where it's hard to evade (for example customs) of the kind we had in the middle ages. While we can come up with arguments for and against this, there is a strong positive correlation between tax evasion and poverty, which means that the burden of proof lies on you.

>So corruption also makes us richer

So, would you say that the music industry's lobbying in Washington makes the US richer? Corruption is the mechanism by which established players stack the deck against newcomers, avoid environmental and health regulation and so on and so forth.

Listen, governments make the world go round. Countries with bad governments become poor. Countries with good governments become rich.

show me an example of a great place to live that has no government

i live in the current world, which is fine, but i see wannacry and cryptolocker leveraging btc and it makes me want btc to go away

Bitcoin is new technology. It's a thing that exists now. Making it illegal will simply push it to countries where it's not illegal. History shows that's an excellent way for countries to become less relevant. It's like making alcohol illegal.

The way to beat bitcoin, if you're a state, is to control it. For example the US government confiscated from DPR something like 7% of all BTC that will ever exist. China's mining facilities happen to control a large portion of the network's hashing power. The NSA has undoubtedly studied ways to DDoS the network. Etc.

making things illegal has mixed results. alcohol was a failure, im glad rocket launchers are illegal though. im also glad murder is illegal.

im starting to think cash should probably be illegal. its perfect for criminals, with very little value for anyone else. its also potentially catastrophically destabilizing for states. you are welcome to change my mind, but know that im not ignorant of it and have been "using" it since 2012.

good try. what about cryptolocker? i also find cash useful.

I'm no Bitcoin fanatic, but you could say the same for cash.

There are people who want to prohibit cash, control the Internet, forbid guns. There are countries which do just that.

If you make bitcoin illegal, criminals will use it no matter what or just find a way to get anonymous bank account if it happens to be cheaper. Making some technology that criminals use illegal (think guns, knifes, cash, computer networks, snail mail) does not stop criminals from using it and does not stop criminals from committing crimes even if they stop using this technology.

im pretty glad hand grenades are illegal