# Bitcoin Days Destroyed

Source: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Days_Destroyed

## Summary

Bitcoin Days Destroyed is a metric intended to measure Bitcoin's transaction volume, calculated by multiplying the number of bitcoins in a transaction by the number of days since those coins were last spent. The article gives an example: 100 BTC received a week ago and then spent yields 700 bitcoin days destroyed, even if the coins are split across several addresses and the total transaction volume is much larger. It also notes that a bounty was awarded for a script to compute the metric for transactions in a block, and that the Abe block chain browser computes the statistic in real time.

## Article

Bitcoin Days Destroyed is a measure of the transaction volume of Bitcoin. [1] A bounty for a script to compute the Bitcoin Days Destroyed by the transactions in a block has been awarded. [2] Abe is a block chain browser that computes this statistic in real-time.

Calculation

Bitcoin days destroyed for any given transaction are calculated by taking the number of Bitcoins in a transaction and multiplying it by the number of days it has been since those coins were last spent.

Example

If someone has 100BTC that they received a week ago and they spend it then 700 bitcoin days have been destroyed. If they take those 100BTC and send them to several addresses and then spend them then although the total transaction volume could be arbitrarily large the number of bitcoindays destroyed is still 700.

Graph of Percentage of Bitcoin Days Destroyed

Percentage of Bitcoin Days destroyed vs block number, as of June 17th, 2011.

See Also

Abe Alternate Block Explorer

References

↑ ByteCoin's Proposal to use Bitcoin Days Destroyed as a measure of transaction volume

↑ Bounty Award to develop a script to compute the BitcoinDays Destroyed by the transactions in a block.