How is “days destroyed” different from “amount of BTC” in existence? [duplicate]

Question

According to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Days_Destroyed , if I have 100 BTC for seven days and then spend them, that’s 700 days destroyed.

But if I didn't have them, someone else would have them. So how does the metric differ from the amount of BTC that exists?

uminatsu · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 02:51:05Z

0

Days destroyed are measured in BTC * days Amounts of BTC are measured in BTCs

The two concepts are as different as Power (Watts) vs Energy (Joules).

answered Mar 3 '14 at 2:51

uminatsu

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Understood. But one is linearly proportional to the other. So why do we need both? With power and energy, we’re usually dealing with a subset of the set of devices or of the supply, so the difference is meaningful. No doubt there’s some other detail I’m missing. – WGroleau Mar 3 '14 at 2:59
Not true. The UPPER BOUND of Days-destroyed is linearly proportional to the total amount of BTC in existence. But if no transactions occur, then Days-destroyed will not grow. – uminatsu Mar 3 '14 at 3:31
“no transactions occurring” is a hypothetical that will never happen. So days destroyed correlates to the amount not being spent? Wait, that still sounds like what I said before. I guess I still don’t get it. – WGroleau Mar 22 '14 at 15:47

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