1 CommentThe preliminary results generated by a new international Bitcoin survey have revealed, among other things, that one in four Bitcoiners have been defrauded by cryptocurrency exchanges.
The survey, promoted by the website BitcoinsInIreland.com, intends to poll more than one thousand Bitcoin users over the next two months in order to find out how people are using cryptocurrency across the world. For now, the site has shared the preliminary results provided by around 150 respondents over the last month.
“The survey has so far received responses from 51 countries across the world, plus a couple of unknowns that were submitted via proxies. The majority of those responding got into Bitcoin in 2013 and 2014,” the first interim report reveals.
Most respondents are United States-based men (89%) between 20 and 40 years old. And although the percentage of female users is only 11%, this is actually good news because it means the Bitcoin community has more female Bitcoiners than ever.
More than 51% of respondents are actively using BTC (27% said they’ve used Bitcoin in the week prior tothe survey and 22% had made a transaction that day) and 80% recognized they have been promoting Bitcoin among family, friends and co-workers.
Regarding digital wallets, these are the results:
- 99% of respondents said they a wallet
- 30% are using a desktop wallet, 26% use a mobile wallet, paper wallets came in third at 15%, followed by the Bitcoin Core at 13%
- 72% said they have tried several Bitcoin wallets, and found one they’re happy with
- 11% said they hadn’t found a wallet they’re happy with yet
- 16% of the users polled confirmed they have lost access to a wallet, “although most people responded that this was either in the early days, when Bitcoin was worth nothing, or if more recently, it was a nominal amount”
And what about exchanges? “80% of respondents said they were registered with an exchange, and 25% of respondents use it to buy Bitcoin for themselves to spend. 26% of respondents said that they had lost some Bitcoins due to an exchange being ‘hacked’, closing down, or their exchange account being compromised.” This means one in four Bitcoin users lost some BTC at some point lost due to problems with cryptocurrency exchanges.
On Bitcoin faucets, 89% of respondents knew what one was, with 32% responding they used them a few times, and 20% saying they regularly use them.
The Bitcoiners taking the survey also replied to questions about Bitcoin-related gambling. 51% of respondents replied that they have used a Bitcoin gambling site. The interim report also reveals that dice roll sites are clearly the most popular, according to 38% of the cryptocurrency users.
Regarding Bitcoin mining, 37% of the Bitcoiners said they were miners (62% started mining during 2013 and 2014).
When asked on how often they have purchased mining hardware, 31% responded once, and it’s not in use, and equally 31% answered several times, to give themselves more hashing power. Very few reported problems with hardware.
You can participate in this Bitcoin survey until May 31st 2015. If you participate during April, you will have the chance to win one of five 0.05 BTC prizes. The final results will be announced later in the summer.
Good article. The bottom line is that crypto currencies have their drawbacks, but the benefits in terms of privacy vastly out weigh any perceived negatives. Hey, everyone laughed and Hyundai and Kia 10 years ago and look where they are now. If you want to get familiar with Bitcoin and other cryptos, check this out: