Bitcoin Forum

The securities regulator in Canada's Ontario province raised concerns in a report that public knowledge of cryptocurrency appears to be lacking despite a growing interest in the nascent technology among local residents.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published a survey result on Thursday that sampled over 2,500 Ontario residents aged over 18 in March regarding their awareness and knowledge of cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings.

The survey found that five percent of Ontarians currently hold cryptocurrency assets such as bitcoin and ethereum. While the percentage appears to be relatively small, the OSC said the figure still translates to over 500,000 residents in the province – a number that is "sufficient to concern the OSC as a securities regulatory authority."

Among the surveyed cryptocurrency holders, nearly half of them bought the assets because of their enthusiasm for the technology while 42 percent did so for speculation with a purpose to make profits by selling at a higher price.

Adding to the OSC's concerns is a result that shows while the public are largely aware of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, yet most of them do not understand basics of the technology.

For instance, the survey shows that over 80 percent of all respondents indicated they have heard of bitcoin. But as the OSC presented six statements about bitcoin to ask respondents to verify their correctness, about 30 percent can answer four or more of the questions correctly. And, only three percent got all the questions right.

Meanwhile, for respondents who currently hold cryptocurrency assets, the survey said around 15 percent of them answered the six questions correctly.

In addition, the survey reported that 1.5 percent of the respondents said they participated in an initial coin offering, meaning over 170,000 Ontarians bought cryptocurrency assets through a token sale before.

In fact, the report said around 10 percent of the respondents expressed they had been solicited by a token offering scheme. However, the OSC raised concerns that a majority of the respondents who had heard of cryptocurrency before taking the survey (67 percent) do not know who regulates ICOs and 18 percent of them believed ICOs are not regulated.

The survey is the OSC's latest work to gauge public knowledge of the cryptocurrency industry as the regulator is beefing up efforts to monitor token sale activities that target at Ontarian residents.

It also comes just a month after the regulator has joined the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) to start working with counterparts in the U.S. to scrutinize ICOs projects.

https://www.coindesk.com/regulator-survey-5-ontario-public-hold-crypto-assets/