The Bitcoin-focused subreddit /r/Bitcoin reached 400,000 subscribers on the 9th of November this year.
The subreddit /r/Bitcoin marked the occasion of reaching their 400,00th subscriber by posting a gif animation of their Reddit wide advert featuring a blue hatted wizard, one hand raised containing what could be a fireball, and the other holding a staff with a Bitcoin at the top. The ad, done in the crude style associated with MSpaint proclaims Bitcoin as magic internet money, both mocking the general public lack of understanding of Bitcoin wizardry as much as the communities collective astonishment that the coin which started as the preserve of the math nerd has now achieved a $100 billion market capitalization. The ad asks only one thing – “Join us”. The Reddit thread celebrating the subscriber milestone has comments praising the community:
Redditor randomizerdude posted:
This community has been really helpful and kind. Thanks to this community I have learnt a lot of things, I also learned about how to properly secure my private keys and my bitcoins.
To other’s using it as an occasion to discuss how Bitcoin may be moving away from being “magic internet money” and becoming, what many are seeing, as the new gold.
Another Redditor, inkhaton, commented:
But it’s not money anymore. It’s a store of value, remember?
Other Cryptocurrency Subreddits and Forums
To put their 400,000 subscribers in perspective it is worth looking at the subscribers to other cryptocurrency subreddits and related forums. For example, the spin-off the Bitcoin subreddit,/r/btc, has 78,586 subscribers, /r/cryptocurrency has 167,375, /r/litecoin has 68,898, /r/ethereum has 145,579 and /r/dogecoin has 81,655 subscribers. The figures provide a relative picture of the popularity of the coins when it comes to social aggregation sites.
The main source of cryptocurrency-related news has long been Bitcointalk.org which has slowly evolved over the years, its genesis being Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s early posting on a SourceForge forum before transferring to what is now Bitcointalk. According to the Bitcointalk forum statistics page, they have 1.2 million users.
The statistics provide a picture of a consolidated Bitcoin user base, outside of people purely seeking to invest, with users united by the latest Bitcoin news, price, and technology discussion.
What are your opinions on the state of Bitcoin’s online community? How has it evolved? Will Bitcoin’s growing success and recognition change it, do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, /r/Bitcoin