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% |
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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. |
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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.
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. |
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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... |
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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. |
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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... 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.
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. 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. 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. |
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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...
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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. 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...  |
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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.
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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... |
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Very nice questions, responses, and survey size! I'm impressed! This will help me market Bitcoin a lot better!
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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... |
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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%
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Alright, so I've closed the survey now. Expect the results soon!
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That said, maybe you should take your survey on the next bitcoin conference where people know it is anonymous.
That would actually be rather interesting, but someone else would have to run it because I'm just too darn broke to travel to a conference any time soon.  (Update: 175 responses now. I was hoping for about 200, so I'm pretty happy, especially since this was honestly a pretty amateurish operation. If there aren't many more responses by tomorrow, I'll call it good and release the results!) |
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Ok, so I've implemented the token idea. If you want to take the survey, but haven't because you didn't want to authenticate through Google, just PM me and I'll send you a link. I really do want as many people as possible to be able to take it.
(P.S. 150 responses!)
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So, a lot of people have taken it so far, but I've gotten a lot of feedback, especially on the Reddit post, not liking the authentication procedure. I don't want to exclude people from the survey, so I'm thinking about modifying the app so you can access the survey with a one-time token from me.
Once I do this, then I suppose you can PM me and, as long as you're not a new account, I'll give you a token (should I still offer the Bitcents, though?) Does this sound like a reasonable solution?
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by the way, i didn't do the survey because of google... just letting you know, i'd happily do one without such a restriction.
If I knew a better way to deter spam, I would use it instead.  Side note: We've passed the 100 responses mark! |
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It's good you ask the participants to forward the link, but have you advertized on other forums?
I have posted a link on the Bitcoin subreddit (I have a semi-active account there), but not anywhere else. Though I'd like more people to take it, I'd rather not spam on sites that I don't actually participate on. |
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