unfinishe



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Full MemberActivity: 126Merit: 100 Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 21, 2012, 06:37:46 PM #1



So, these are just some basic compilations of the answers I received for each question. If anybody has more experience analyzing this sort of data, I'm working on putting together an Excel file listing each of the individual responses in case you want to run anything more in-depth.



I'll just initially post the results for you all to see while I work on adding some commentary.



(This table might be a bit hard to read... Sorry..)



***************************************************************** Question 1: What country do you live in? Answer # %

United States 72 38.9%

United Kingdom 18 9.7%

Canada 14 7.6%

Germany 8 4.3%

Australia 7 3.8%

Netherlands 5 2.7%

Norway 5 2.7%

Belgium 4 2.2%

Finland 4 2.2%

France 4 2.2%

Poland 4 2.2%

Other (European) 28 15.1%

Other 12 6.5%

Question 2: How old are you? Answer # %

Under 18 12 6.5%

18 - 24 51 27.6%

25 - 30 56 30.3%

31 - 40 46 24.9%

41 - 50 13 7.0%

51 - 60 5 2.7%

Over 60 2 1.1%

Question 3: What is your gender? Answer # %

Male 171 92.4%

Female 9 4.9%

N/A 5 2.7%

Question 4 What is the highest level of education (or its equivalent) that you have completed? Answer # %

Some secondary education (High School) 22 11.9%

Completed secondary education 16 8.6%

Some higher education (College, Vocational training, etc) 54 29.2%

Completed 2-Year Degree 10 5.4%

Completed 4-Year Degree 48 25.9%

Graduate level study (Masters, Ph.D., M.D., J.D.) 35 18.9%

Question 5 If employed, what would best describe the field you work in? Answer # %

Internet and Computer Technology 72 38.9%

Student 50 27.0%

Not employed 12 6.5%

Services 12 6.5%

Government 9 4.9%

Construction 5 2.7%

Finance, Insurance and Real Estate 5 2.7%

Retail and Wholesale Trade 5 2.7%

Manufacturing 2 1.1%

Transportation 2 1.1%

Agriculture, Energy and Mining 1 0.5%

Health Care 1 0.5%

Other 9 4.9%

Question 6: What term would best describe your political views? Answer # %

Very Conservative 4 2.2%

Conservative 11 5.9%

Centrist 9 4.9%

Liberal 35 18.9%

Very Liberal 16 8.6%

Libertarian 67 36.2%

Apolitical 17 9.2%

None of the above 26 14.1%

Question 7: How did you first hear about Bitcoin? Answer # %

Online media (Blog, podcast, Wikipedia, etc.) 116 62.7%

Word-of-mouth (Direct, social media, etc.) 44 23.8%

Internet search 15 8.1%

Mainstream media (Newspaper, magazine, television, etc.) 7 3.8%

Other 3 1.6%

Question 8: Approximately how long ago did you first hear about Bitcoin? Answer # %

In the past month 5 2.7%

1 - 3 months ago 5 2.7%

3 - 6 months ago 6 3.2%

6 - 12 months ago 37 20.0%

1 - 2 years ago 112 60.5%

2 - 3 years ago 16 8.6%

Over 3 years ago 4 2.2%

Question 9: How do you use Bitcoin? (check all that apply) Answer # %

Buying goods or services online 106 57.3%

* Internet Services (VPN, server hosting, etc.) 46 24.9%

* Technical or creative work (programming, web design, etc) 29 15.7%

* Entertainment (Music, games, etc.) 39 21.1%

* Clothing, Artwork, Other Crafts 19 10.3%

* Electronics or computer hardware 35 18.9%

Direct (face-to-face) trade 32 17.3%

Gambling 64 34.6%

Lending or Borrowing 34 18.4%

Donating to non-profit organizations 68 36.8%

Using as a store of value (comparable to gold) 141 76.2%

Other (Speculation, Investment) 8 4.3%

Other 18 9.7%

Question 10: How have you obtained most of your Bitcoins? (check all that apply) Answer # %

Purchasing in exchanges 129 69.7%

Mining 92 49.7%

Selling goods 23 12.4%

Providing services 24 13.0%

Other (Gifts, donations, promotions, etc) 8 4.3%

Other 7 3.8%

Question 11: Why do you use Bitcoins? (check all that apply) Answer # %

Convenience 104 56.2%

Low transaction costs 107 57.8%

Ease of international transfer 96 51.9%

Potential for anonymity 110 59.5%

Ideological or political reasons 131 70.8%

Opportunity for profit 135 73.0%

Other (Fun, curiousity, excitement, etc.) 9 4.9%

Other 10 5.4%

Question 12: In your opinion, what are the greatest problems with Bitcoin? (check all that apply) Answer # %

Security (Website hacks, etc.) 74 40.0%

Scalability (Growing block-chain size, etc.) 76 41.1%

Speculation 30 16.2%

Slow transaction times 44 23.8%

Difficulty of exchange with other currencies 73 39.5%

Difficulty of use for non-technical users 114 61.6%

Negative outside perception 84 45.4%

Other 17 9.2%

Question 13: Overall, would you consider yourself to be optimistic about the future of Bitcoin? Answer # % Optimistic 156 84.3%

Neutral 26 14.1%

Pessimistic 3 1.6%

Question 14: And finally, would you be willing to participate in another survey sometime in the future? Answer # %

Definitely 92 49.7%

Maybe 84 45.4%

Probably not 9 4.9%

Bonus Information How many responders accepted the 0.02 BTC gift? Payment Accepted # %

Yes 145 78.4%

No 40 21.6%

Before I present these initial compiled results, I would like to thank everybody who participated and made this little project of mine a big success! Also, I would like to thank those who donated for their generosity.So, these are just some basic compilations of the answers I received for each question. If anybody has more experience analyzing this sort of data, I'm working on putting together an Excel file listing each of the individual responses in case you want to run anything more in-depth.I'll just initially post the results for you all to see while I work on adding some commentary.(This table might be a bit hard to read... Sorry..)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88927.0 Check out the results from my Bitcoin Survey Project!

unfinishe



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Full MemberActivity: 126Merit: 100 Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 21, 2012, 07:37:02 PM #3 Quote from: austonst on June 21, 2012, 06:54:39 PM Nice results. Pretty predictable for the most part, though 92% male? I know there's no girls on the Internet, but I'd think we'd get more than that simply out of troll responses.



You really think someone would do that? Just go on the Internet and tell lies?



Anyway, if I had to venture a guess, Bitcoin users seem to have more technical backgrounds, libertarian leanings, and, given the nature of Bitcoin, more willingness to try and adopt something new and unstable, and those all might be contributing factors... You really think someone would do that? Just go on the Internet and tell lies?Anyway, if I had to venture a guess, Bitcoin users seem to have more technical backgrounds, libertarian leanings, and, given the nature of Bitcoin, more willingness to try and adopt something new and unstable, and those all might be contributing factors...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88927.0 Check out the results from my Bitcoin Survey Project!

SgtSpike



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LegendaryActivity: 1372Merit: 1001 Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 22, 2012, 12:46:08 AM #9 Wow, 18.9% with graduate degrees! That's significantly higher than the national average (around 10%). I suppose it is to be expected, given the technical nature of Bitcoin and complexity of using it (for now), but still, it surprises me.



It's a bit disheartening to see the lack of people who have recently heard about Bitcoin. The vast majority heard about it more than 1 year ago. Does that mean that Bitcoin growth is slowing?

niko



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There is more to Bitcoin than bitcoins.







Hero MemberActivity: 756Merit: 500There is more to Bitcoin than bitcoins. Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 22, 2012, 03:26:30 AM #10 Any chance you could tell the percent of responses that came from this forum vs. Reddit? I know that at some point you dropped google authentication, so at least based on PM codes you sent out...? They're there , in their room.

Your mining rig is on fire, yet you're very calm.

unfinishe



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Full MemberActivity: 126Merit: 100 Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 22, 2012, 05:10:06 AM #13 So, I'm not exactly sure how to tabulate the raw responses in Excel in a useful way because of the "check all that apply" questions, but I'll keep thinking about that.



Anyway, in the meantime, I ran some code to see if there were any substantial correlations between choices, but for the most part the distributions were fairly uniform. The only pairings that stood out were "no duh" revelations, such as the fact that 18-24 year olds were more likely to be students, libertarians were more likely to cite "Political or ideological reasons", and people who used Bitcoins to buy goods and services were more likely to like Bitcoin's "Convenience".



As for the idea of a cold-call survey, one idea that was thrown around in my original Research thread was to make a focus group specifically to find out how people react to Bitcoin when they first hear about it and see if there's any way to improve it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88927.0 Check out the results from my Bitcoin Survey Project!

unfinishe



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Full MemberActivity: 126Merit: 100 Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 22, 2012, 01:53:39 PM #15 Quote from: scribe on June 22, 2012, 08:51:53 AM Interesting (and good) to see that "Difficulty of use for non-technical users" is the biggest hurdle people see. Definitely lots to be done here.



That, in particular, is why I'm liking more and more the idea of next looking outside the community to figure out just what we can do about the usability barrier.



Quote Are you planning to repeat the survey in e.g. 6 months? Would be really good to know how things change.



I suppose that wouldn't be a bad idea, although the answers might not change much if we mostly get responses from Bitcoin veterans (1-2 years experience) again.



Also, I might not be able to afford the "two cents" pun if the price quadruples again... That, in particular, is why I'm liking more and more the idea of next looking outside the community to figure out just what we can do about the usability barrier.I suppose that wouldn't be a bad idea, although the answers might not change much if we mostly get responses from Bitcoin veterans (1-2 years experience) again.Also, I might not be able to afford the "two cents" pun if the price quadruples again...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88927.0 Check out the results from my Bitcoin Survey Project!

unfinishe



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Full MemberActivity: 126Merit: 100 Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 24, 2012, 05:29:38 AM #16 I hate to both double-post and revive a slow thread, but I've been thinking about the implications and wanted to see what you all think.



I once thought that the technical aspect, both of using Bitcoin and of understanding it, was the biggest obstacle for Bitcoin. But perhaps it is actually the fact that Bitcoin just might not be all that useful to the everyday person, and the ideological appeal that Bitcoin has for many of us (myself included) can only go so far.



I don't know whether this will make any sense, but perhaps what Bitcoin needs is actually more difficulty exchanging it with other currencies. Right now, it seems that a lot of people exchange the Bitcoins they get for their currency of choice (or hold onto them and then sell), rather than spend them directly, simply because other currencies are more useful to buy with. All the great things about Bitcoin might not make up for the fact that it's just not widely used. You can't go to the grocery store or pay your rent with Bitcoin. But, if it were really difficult to exchange, then perhaps it would start making more sense to spend directly, and consequentially more potential Bitcoin users could recieve their first coins by providing services rather than having to buy them for hard-earned cash.



On the other hand, I never took economics, so this might just be a bunch of baloney... I probably shouldn't post when I'm tired...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88927.0 Check out the results from my Bitcoin Survey Project!

Foxpup



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Vile Vixen







LegendaryActivity: 3052Merit: 2020Vile Vixen Re: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results June 24, 2012, 01:11:05 PM #17 Quote from: unfinishe on June 24, 2012, 05:29:38 AM I don't know whether this will make any sense, but perhaps what Bitcoin needs is actually more difficulty exchanging it with other currencies. Right now, it seems that a lot of people exchange the Bitcoins they get for their currency of choice (or hold onto them and then sell), rather than spend them directly, simply because other currencies are more useful to buy with. All the great things about Bitcoin might not make up for the fact that it's just not widely used. You can't go to the grocery store or pay your rent with Bitcoin. But, if it were really difficult to exchange, then perhaps it would start making more sense to spend directly, and consequentially more potential Bitcoin users could recieve their first coins by providing services rather than having to buy them for hard-earned cash.



Actually, currency exchange is something that Bitcoin is (or, rather, will be once it is more widely accepted) really useful for. No need to take credit cards or foreign cash when travelling: just take bitcoins and exchange it for the local currency at your destination. No need to worry about theft or identity fraud or exorbitant fees or capital controls; just use Bitcoin and all the problems currently associated with currency exchange disappear. Remittance is also a prime candidate for Bitcoin use. In fact, if all Bitcoin was good for was currency exchange, that would still make it pretty darn useful in my book.



Of course, if you're worried that it'll be too easy, then fear not. I'm sure governments are going to do everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible. Actually, currency exchange is something that Bitcoin is (or, rather, will be once it is more widely accepted) really useful for. No need to take credit cards or foreign cash when travelling: just take bitcoins and exchange it for the local currency at your destination. No need to worry about theft or identity fraud or exorbitant fees or capital controls; just use Bitcoin and all the problems currently associated with currency exchange disappear. Remittance is also a prime candidate for Bitcoin use. In fact, if all Bitcoin was good for was currency exchange, that would still make it pretty darn useful in my book.Of course, if you're worried that it'll be too easy, then fear not. I'm sure governments are going to do everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible.

I am not on the scammers' paradise known as Telegram! Do not believe anyone claiming to be me off-forum without a signed message from the above address! Accept no excuses and make no exceptions! Will pretend to do unspeakable things (while actually eating a taco) for bitcoins: 1K6d1EviQKX3SVKjPYmJGyWBb1avbmCFM4