The results are in..

Time to dive into some data and see if we can find any interesting correlations.

--> Raw data <--



General Stats

Total Responses: 104

Responses Used: 103

Highest education:

30.1% Bachelor's degree

21.4% Some college

17.5% Master's degree

10.7% Highschool graduate

6.8% Trade/technical/vocational

5.8% Associate's degree

3.9% Doctorate degree

3.9% Some K-12 or equivalent, no diploma

Age:





30-34: 20.4% | 25-29: 14.6% | 35-39: 13.6% | 40-50: 11.7% | 23-24: 9.7%



As expected, lots of early & mid 20s, early 30s. I realize now that the ranges I used were very poor for this question, and the representation of data looks bad.

Country of residence:







Surprisingly to me, only about half of the responses came from the US. Crypto really is a global phenomenon.





With a little over 100 responses, we can only accurately draw conclusions with a margin of error around ±10% since the sample size is over 100,000+.





General Understanding of Cryptocurrency Concepts





Average 3.45 | Median: 4 | Mode: 4 | Std. Dev.: 1.152

5-6 of the lowest responses were majority ETH holders with 1 more being majority BCC.



From my experience, I'd say these scores are skewed upward by about .5 points. Cryptography is offered as an junior / senior level math course at most universities, and it is that level of understanding that should've gotten a full 5/5 response. I think that most people in crypto do have a decent understanding of cryptography and what hashing algos are, but definitely not how/why they work.





Average 1: 3.83 | Median: 4 | Mode: 4 | Std. Dev.: 1.070

Average 2: 4.09 | Median: 4 | Mode: 5 | Std. Dev.: 0.961



Similar results with these questions. Most people believe they have a solid grasp of the fundamental technology behind cryptocurrency.





Average: 3.70 | Median: 4 | Mode: 5 | Std. Dev.: 1.282



Nearly 38% of people were not confident about how wallets work. This, in my opinion, is a very unfortunate situation. Part of it is probably because of the way wallets are described and how differently they can work. I plan on addressing this in a future post.





Average: 2.77 | Median: 3 | Mode: 2 | Std. Dev.: 1.323



Consensus algorithms are not a simple subject. They're also not very necessary to understand if you just want to buy/trade crypto, so I don't find it surprising that most people do not have a great understanding of them. Still, I find consensus algos to be one of the most fascinating parts about cryptocurrency.

Security Concepts





Average: 4.08 | Median: 5 | Mode: 5 | Std. Dev.: 1.258



This is another very high score, and for good reason. Something to note though, most people who disagreed with this statement and gave scores of 1-2 are also people who scored the next question highly in the 4-5 range. Frankly, I don't think you can say that you are both aware of the security risks and don't think security is a major issue, especially because security in cryptocurrency covers much more than just owning coins.





Average: 4.07 | Median: 4 | Mode: 4 | Std. Dev.: 0.889









Significantly higher hardware wallet usage than I was expecting. If these numbers hold up, and ~37% of people are really using hardware wallets, then we are in pretty good shape security-wise. Still, the majority are using software wallets (online) or exchanges to store their crypto. This result means that it's still very possible that a large-scale breach, similar to the original DAO hack, could happen.





Average: 3.84 | Median: 4 | Mode: 4 | Std. Dev.: 0.767



It's good that people generally feel like their crypto is safe. Given the above results about how people are storing their crypto, I'm happy to see that the super safe 5 rating is still only 16.7%. Security is a journey, not a destination.

Bitcoin and Ethereum





Average: 4.21 | Median: 5 | Mode: 5 | Std. Dev.: 0.978



Encouraging results here as most people say they do understand how Bitcoin and Ethereum differ. This result is important going forward to the next questions.





Coexist: 80.4% | ETH>BTC: 8.8% | BTC>ETH: 5.9% | Other > ETH or BTC: 2.0%



Overwhelming support on the opinion that BTC and ETH can coexist with both coins being useful in their own right. Unsurprisingly to me, the next most popular opinion is that ETH is making BTC obsolete.





BTC: 51.0% | ETH: 41.2% | BCC: 2.9% | None: 2.0%



I posted this survey to steemit and the ethtrader, ethereum, ethereumnoobies, btc, bitcoin, and cryptocurrency subreddits. There were similar amounts of upvotes on both sides, so I expected about a 50-50 split. It looks like alt coins are taking a bite out of the ETH holders money, which makes a lot of sense. The timing of this survey was at the early stages of BCC, so I expect that number is much larger now.



What is your favorite "alt coin" besides BTC or ETH?



LTC 16 GNT 2 XMR 8 DASH 2 BCH 7 ICN 2 XRP 6 CORE 1 NEO 5 STEEM 1 DOGE 5 BAT 1 OMG 3 SONM 1 EOS 2 LBC 1 MIOTA 2 OMNI 1 FCT 2 VTC 1 ARK 1 QTUM 1 DGB 1 BTS 1 DICE 1

Lots of Litecoin, Monero, and Bitcoin Cash supporters. I'm happy to see Dogecoin up there too. Again, this survey was done before 0x had hit, and I expect OMG is higher now due to its recent news. I was originally surprised by the low turnout on great projects like BAT, SONM, and NEM, but I'm guessing there are few people who actually hold these coins/tokens.

ICOs, Alt Coins, and Trading





3-5: 3.9% | > 5: 3.9%



Looks like ICOs are still something for the minority. Skepticism, being new to crypto, legality, and the overall complexity associated with them helps explain this.







Although most people have never participated in an ICO, many have owned coins other than BTC or ETH.







For those investing in alt coins, about half are in it for the long run. Many people are expecting the pump & dump and are just looking to ride that initial wave. The fact that people are doing this makes it a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, ~44% of people are investing in projects they support and want to see do well.

The other reasons people provided included: better privacy, long term holding (not better than ETH or BTC), "Hodl", and to access a service (Steem).







Over 30 other exchanges were submitted, but were used by 0-1% of people. Looking at how many people own coins other than ETH or BTC, and taking into account how few have participated in ICOs, it would seem that exchanges are at the center of cryptocurrency. As decentralized exchanges and projects like 0x gain popularity, I'm hopeful that this centralized entity is moved more to the sideline.

This post is over a week late from when I planned it, and for that I am truly sorry. I plan on doing similar surveys periodically so I can compare how things evolve throughout the crypto ecosystem.