Bitcoin Forum

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..)

*****************************************************************
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%

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...

With the survey I did, it was mostly male as well. Also a lot of Americans again.

I also think the percentage of female libertarians is pretty low. Females like sharing a lot  ::)

According to the Pew Research Center, there are twice as many male libertarians than female.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/section-3-demographics-and-news-sources/

Very nice questions, responses, and survey size! I'm impressed! This will help me market Bitcoin a lot better!

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?

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...? 

Well, I only got requests for codes from about 10 people, 3 here and 7 on Reddit, so that's not much to extrapolate with...

I'd say it means most people that frequent these forms are mostly died hard fans that have been here for 1 year +

would be really cool is if someone would do a cold call survey

438 - 257 - 1495
ring.. ring...
repeat! Endlessly  :D

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.

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.

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

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... :D

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...

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. ;)

why you list no china?
Question 1:      
What country do you live in?

I think china is a big market of bitcoin!

Could be, but this survey likely suffers from selection bias.

Oh, it definitely does. There's not an easy way to get around it, unfortunately...


That's true. I guess I hadn't considered that. However, that's still only going to be useful for a relatively small percentage of people. Not to say it wouldn't be significant, but Bitcoin would still a long way from being adopted as a true currency.


That's for sure. Bizzarely, I think that the more they clamp down on it, the more it will grow. Kind of like the Streisand effect.

Seems like I formulated that a bit harshly. That was unintentional, I was just explaining to the previous user why the number of Chinese Bitcoin users could be under-represented in the survey.

Practically every survey that can be done suffers from direct or indirect selection bias unfortunately, it is merely the degree which is manageable. Out of curiosity: How did you select the participants?

I didn't really select the participants. I simply posted on the forums here and on the Bitcoin subreddit. To deter spam, I used Google authentication (like the Bitcoin Faucet).

I didn't expect it to be a perfect representation of Bitcoin users. At best, it was just going to be a glimpse into a few of the more active English speaking forum members and Redditors.

That wouldn't be too hard to set up, but I'm not sure the community would donate enough to make enough calls for it to have an impact.  However, I suppose the callers would at least be brought in.

Unfortunately, I think that the number of Bitcoin users is too small to be able to get a decent sample out of the general population without making millions of calls...

That's not the point.  The point is to spread awareness and instill a sense of loss caused by not already knowing about bitcoin.  In fact millions of calls would be ideal.

May I suggest a survey be done on the larger population using this platform?

http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/how

Ok, that makes more sense. Although we may need to refine Bitcoin's image before we do that. I imagine that the first thing anyone curious would do is search on Google  Bitcoin, and find themselves intimidated by the technical language on bitcoin.org and the Wiki, or turned off by the media's coverage of Silk Road, or any number of things. We only get one chance to make a first impression.

 
That might not be such a bad idea. It would take a bit of funding, and very carefully designed questions, but I think that could be interesting for research and perhaps even as an outreach tool.

I think you should have asked the "Are you Satoshi Nakamoto?" question. You might have gotten lucky and found him.

I think that if I had asked that, I would have had dozens of people all saying "I am Satoshi!", kind of like with Spartacus.

We are all Satoshi Nakamoto.

Strange that there are nearly as many people who answered N/A for gender as females.

Wow I find it extremely expensive. The OP's survey had 14 questions. To get statistically relevant results we would have to spend 2100$.

As I understand their advertisement, they ask the same user the full survey but over visiting several sites? As one question costs 10ct, I wonder if you can conclude the survey after "do you know bitcoin?" as knowing that 99% don't know bitcoin will make the rest 1% answers kind of statistically irrelevant. (I assume you can create subquestions. Everything else would be stupid.)

Edit:

Assuming less than 1/5 of the general population qualifies to answer these bitcoin questions, this would make the survey 5 times more expensive.

Of course this is biased, most BTC users use it to buy drugs off Silk Road and I doubt the majority don't hold Ph
Ds. Anyway this is probably a good selection of the people interested in Bitcoin itself

Umm... can you show any supporting evidence that most BTC users are Silk Road users?  I'd believe there are a significant percentage, but I really doubt MOST are.  Maybe 20%, although I'd bet less.

I don't think anybody has, but at least where I live I would bet it applies. I used to sell Bitcoin and after a blog emerged about buying drugs online my sales increased sixfold. Also I otherwise knew about some of the customers that they were going to use the BTC on SR. The whole Silk Road thing is huge, I've overheard at least a dozen back of the bus conversations about Silk Road but only one on Bitcoin. Here's how it is in Finland and I don't believe it is an exception. I might be wrong, of course.

(edited to replace a few more dots that were supposed to be spaces. It just might be impossible to write a message on this phone. Looking forward to thought recognition technology [though it seems to be already too easy to post messages on the Internet])

I wish I could filter the the data to isolate those who didn't accept the 0.02 btc,

(for personal reasons) ;)

Hmm, I'm not quite sure what those reasons might be (sounds suspicious), but I'll do it anyway:

Be forewarned. Boringly, most of the percentages are pretty much unchanged.

Responses that did not accept payment: 40

Choice	#	%	Nonpaid % - Total %
Question 1
****************************************************
Australia	3	7.5%	+3.72%
Austria	1	2.5%	+0.88%
Brazil	2	5.0%	+3.92%
Canada	5	12.5%	+4.93%
Costa Rica	1	2.5%	+1.96%
Denmark	1	2.5%	+1.42%
Germany	3	7.5%	+3.18%
Netherlands	1	2.5%	-0.2%
Norway	2	5.0%	+2.3%
Poland	1	2.5%	+0.34%
South Africa	1	2.5%	+1.96%
Spain	1	2.5%	+0.88%
Sweden	1	2.5%	+1.42%
United Kingdom	1	2.5%	-7.23%
United States	16	40.0%	+1.08%
Question 2
Under 18	0	0.0%	-6.49%
18 - 24	13	32.5%	+4.93%
25 - 30	9	22.5%	-7.77%
31 - 40	14	35.0%	+10.14%
41 - 50	3	7.5%	+0.47%
51 - 60	1	2.5%	-0.2%
Over 60	0	0.0%	-1.08%
Question 3
Male	40	100.0%	+7.57%
Female	0	0.0%	-4.86%
N/A	0	0.0%	-2.7%
Question 4
Some secondary education (High School)	2	5.0%	-6.89%
Completed secondary education	3	7.5%	-1.15%
Some higher education (College, Vocational training, etc)	12	30.0%	+0.81%
Completed 2-Year Degree	1	2.5%	-2.91%
Completed 4-Year Degree	17	42.5%	+16.55%
Graduate level study (Masters, Ph.D., M.D., J.D.)	5	12.5%	-6.42%
Question 5
Student	9	22.5%	-4.53%
Not employed	2	5.0%	-1.49%
Agriculture, Energy and Mining	0	0.0%	-0.54%
Construction	1	2.5%	-0.2%
Finance, Insurance and Real Estate	2	5.0%	+2.3%
Government	0	0.0%	-4.86%
Health Care	0	0.0%	-0.54%
Internet and Computer Technology	18	45.0%	+6.08%
Manufacturing	0	0.0%	-1.08%
Retail and Wholesale Trade	0	0.0%	-2.7%
Services	4	10.0%	+3.51%
Transportation	0	0.0%	-1.08%
Other	0	0.0%	+0.0%
Question 6
Very Conservative	0	0.0%	-2.16%
Conservative	1	2.5%	-3.45%
Centrist	2	5.0%	+0.14%
Liberal	6	15.0%	-3.92%
Very Liberal	4	10.0%	+1.35%
Libertarian	18	45.0%	+8.78%
Apolitical	5	12.5%	+3.31%
None of the above	4	10.0%	-4.05%
Question 7
Mainstream media (Newspaper, magazine, television, etc.)	1	2.5%	-1.28%
Online media (Blog, podcast, Wikipedia, etc.)	25	62.5%	+8.45%
Word-of-mouth (Direct, social media, etc.)	8	20.0%	-3.24%
Internet search	2	5.0%	-3.11%
Other	0	0.0%	+0.0%
Question 8
In the past month	0	0.0%	-2.7%
1 - 3 months ago	0	0.0%	-2.7%
3 - 6 months ago	2	5.0%	+1.76%
6 - 12 months ago	7	17.5%	-2.5%
1 - 2 years ago	27	67.5%	+6.96%
2 - 3 years ago	4	10.0%	+1.35%
Over 3 years ago	0	0.0%	-2.16%
Question 9
Buying goods or services online	21	52.5%	-4.8%
- Internet Services (VPN, server hosting, etc.)	11	27.5%	+2.64%
- Technical or creative work (programming, web design, etc)	6	15.0%	-0.68%
- Entertainment (Music, games, etc.)	11	27.5%	+6.42%
- Clothing, Artwork. Other Crafts	5	12.5%	+2.23%
- Electronics or computer hardware	8	20.0%	+1.08%
Direct (face-to-face) trade	8	20.0%	+2.7%
Gambling	15	37.5%	+2.91%
Lending or Borrowing	7	17.5%	-0.88%
Donating to non-profit organizations	14	35.0%	-1.76%
Using as a store of value (comparable to gold)	30	75.0%	-1.22%
Other	3	7.5%	-6.55%
Question 10
Purchasing in exchanges	26	65.0%	-4.73%
Mining	20	50.0%	+0.27%
Selling goods	5	12.5%	+0.07%
Providing services	3	7.5%	-5.47%
Other	0	0.0%	-8.11%
Question 11
Convenience	23	57.5%	+1.28%
Low transaction costs	29	72.5%	+14.66%
Ease of international transfer	22	55.0%	+3.11%
Potential for anonymity	27	67.5%	+8.04%
Ideological or political reasons	31	77.5%	+6.69%
Opportunity for profit	31	77.5%	+4.53%
Other	6	15.0%	+4.73%
Question 12
Security (Website hacks, etc.)	18	45.0%	+5.0%
Scalability (Growing block-chain size, etc.)	15	37.5%	-3.58%
Speculation	7	17.5%	+1.28%
Slow transaction times	8	20.0%	-3.78%
Difficulty of exchange with other currencies	19	47.5%	+8.04%
Difficulty of use for non-technical users	26	65.0%	+3.38%
Negative outside perception	16	40.0%	-5.41%
Other	4	10.0%	+0.81%
Question 13
Optimistic	35	87.5%	+3.18%
Neutral	4	10.0%	-4.05%
Pessimistic	1	2.5%	+0.88%
Question 14
Definitely	15	37.5%	-12.23%
Maybe	21	52.5%	+7.09%
Probably not	4	10.0%	+5.14%

Yeah, relative to men very few women are visionaries.

Have you ever heard of a women's opinion being a leading indicator for anything?


:D

Well, I don't want to disparage women or anything, and there are certainly exceptions, but women just tend to be more risk-averse. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though. On one hand, you miss out on being part of the cutting-edge, but on the other, you don't get hit when the bubbles pop.

Hint for your next run: Use surveygizmo.com!

Its a great, functional, easy to use, FREE! and comprehensive tool to create and analyse surveys (sounds like advertisement, I know). I used it myself when I was doing a survey during internship (I study media science and had creating and undertaking surveys also on my curriculum.) It is especially better then the freqently invoked surveymonkey!

Hey unfinishe,

Can you post the raw data (maybe on pastebin or something). I mean answers from each user, i.e.

User 1
united states
25-30 yrs old
male
etc...



This would be better for analysis. Especially in the case of people who have "some graduate degree" education, I'd like to see what proportion of "students" reported completing a 4 yr degree, and for the "check all that apply" questions see the correlations between different responses.

Also I see some misinterpretation of the results here. Chart porn forthcoming.

hmm maybe thats too much info to just spread online. I'm not sure if anyone will have a problem with it.

He had irregular time intervals for question 8:
http://i47.tinypic.com/15ppxxt.png

Now it looks more like google trends.