Bitcoin & Ethereum Network Statistics

“Money is a consensus hallucination, a bubble that never pops.”
– Naval Ravikant

Dear reader, One of the fundamental features of Bitcoin, like many cryptocurrencies, is that it is fully transparent. This means that anyone who knows a wallet address, or public key, can view the current balance of that wallet, and all transactions that have ever gone through that wallet, even though the owner of the wallet is anonymous.

Each wallet has both a public and a private key. The public key allows for anyone to send money to that address, but only the holder of the private key can control that wallet, and make transfers out. In short, the public key of a wallet is like a bank account number: it does not need to be secure, and can be public information. Anyone who knows the bank account number can wire money in, but they cannot control the bank account. The difference between cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and regular bank accounts is that anyone who knows the public key (account number) can see into the wallet and all the transactions it has ever conducted.

Here, for example, you can view the Top 100 Richest Bitcoin Addresses.

And here you can view the top Ethereum Addresses.

Bitcoin Blockchain Network Statistics

Another fundamental feature of many cryptocurrencies is that they allow for transactions to be performed with trustless verification. This mechanisms requires that multiple nodes within a blockchain network verify the same transaction. While allowing for such trustless and decentralised verification to be performed, it requires more computing resources than required for centralised verification and databases.

Here you can view current network statistics for the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

Some interesting facts will pop out at you: for example, that the transaction cost for Bitcoin varies wildly, depending on how busy the network is. This can make it untenable for small transaction amounts. Many new cryptocurrencies have been formed in an attempt to solve some of these structural issues.

It should be further noted that the pricing at any given moment for converting USD to Bitcoin on varies widely between different exchanges.

Yours Sincerely,
Henry Chong