Re: Anywhere I can get old historical data on the number of nodes?
in the old days everybody HAS TO run a full node, so it is logical that there were thousands of them! just keep that in mind. of course today everybody runs a lite client.
I don't think that's entirely true. While the mainstream bitcoin client that's know known as bitcoin core was and still is the most trusted wallet, alternatives existed even from the early days. Not everyone that wanted to use bitcoin needed to run a full node even in the old days.
It also depends on what is meant by "old days". For example, I first got into Bitcoin back in mid-2011 and back then, there were no lightweight wallet options that I was aware of. I remember trying to sync the blockchain over my crappy college Internet and giving up because it took too long. Perhaps if there were lightweight wallets back then, I would have paid more attention to Bitcoin and its future potential.
Both Electrum and MultiBit are the most popular lightweight wallets for PC right now and both were released in late 2011. Same with Blockchain.info which is currently the most popular online wallet. That one was released in August 2011. Mycelium's mobile wallet was released in late 2013.