The Bitcoin network has now processed 500 million transactions since it first went live on January 3, 2009.

According to data site Satoshi—named after the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin—there have now been 500.0165 million transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

The Bitcoin network had only seen 250 million transactions by 2017. Image: Satoshi.

Satoshi, which only started tracking the number of transactions from late 2017, shows that there has been an increase in the number of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain per year. In 2017, it crossed 250 million transactions, before rising to 500 million today. At this rate, Bitcoin could cross 1,000 million in under two years.

Casa CTO Jameson Lopp said, "Today, as of block 00000000000000000001145bf2e7cb7f04df55feaf3b55d9f6511522bbbf333f at height 616064, Bitcoin surpassed 500 million transactions confirmed on the blockchain."

The pseudonymous Twitter user known as Hodlonaut—famous for his legal wranglings with Craig Wright and for starting the Bitcoin Lightning torch—tweeted that Bitcoin just keeps on going. "Bitcoin isn't talking about this. Or about how revolutionary and unprecedented its traits of censorship resistance and immutability are. Bitcoin just is. And does. One block at a time," he said.



Now, on to the next 500 million.