Bitcoin Survey: Call for Participants

[sehdal]

Hello all,

My apologies if this topic thread is not strongly relevant to the technical aspects of Bitcoin and its development however I would like to get a broader range of participants in a survey I am conducting and this appears to be the most posted topic on the Forum.

I am a researcher at the University of Manchester in the UK and I have a long standing interest in Bitcoin, as well as owning some of the currency. There remains lots of further research to be undertaken into Bitcoin from different angles and I have a particular interest in the political challenge to the existing money system that is posed by the emergence of alternative virtual currencies.

Just to give some background to my research, I have read a large number of sceptical pieces about Bitcoin from economists in a range of blogs and newspaper articles, but there has been very little work I have seen that examines those that own Bitcoin and their reasons and motivations. It strikes me that this is a major gap in the literature since we can only understand Bitcoin's future as a currency and an asset by understanding the motivations of the community around Bitcoin. For these reasons I would like to undertake a survey of members of the Bitcoin Forum with as broad a range of participants as possible, I am aiming for roughly between fifty and a hundred initially. So whether you are a small or large scale investor, whether you have been holding Bitcoin for a short or long period of time I would be really interested in your views on the currency.

Full anonymity will be ensured and your membership name and details will be kept confidential, unless you explicitly request that your user name be disclosed. Any articles or pieces coming from this research will be made publicly available and will be posted on the Bitcoin forum for further discussion. Because I would ideally like to have as broad a range of participants as possible, please share this message where possible with members of the Bitcoin Forum who you think would be willing to participate.

If you are interested in participating please message me via the forum and I will send you 8 simple and open-ended questions for you to answer in your own time, the questions will be focused on your views about the currency and your reasons for investing in Bitcoin.

Your participation would be much appreciated and I hope this research will serve to correct some of the widely held misunderstandings about Bitcoin.

Thank you.

[BCB]

Credentials please.

[sehdal]

I am struggling to know exactly what you mean by credentials. I'm a lecturer in Manchester Business School with an interest in political economy and Bitcoin. I completed my PhD at the University of Essex a couple of years ago, so I'm in the early stages of my academic career.... I suppose it tends to be younger academics that are interested in Bitcoin, perhaps because they are less tied to orthodox assumptions about what money is.

If you would like to know about my previous work I can send you this further information via email but its not really relevant to this research project.

Still your participation would be much appreciated

[BCB]

A link to your CV or bio at Manchester Business School
A link to your linked in account

your participants may choose to be anonymous.  You should not be if you expect participants to freely share info with you.

[sehdal]

Ok I have just started working at Manchester actually. So there is no detail on my profile yet


http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/people/profiles/SDallyn

I don't use linked in but I am on academia.edu, you have to sign in for this but I prefer it because it means that I can upload any papers so they are free to access for anyone that might be interested:


https://independent.academia.edu/SamDallyn

That should give you a strong flavour of my previous work which was actually more in the area of political theory. I don't particularly want to bore everyone with a copy of my cv - which details my previous teaching experience and funding awards - but if anyone who is considering whether to participate in the survey would like to read my cv (it runs to about 7 pages) I can send it to them via the Bitcoin Forum email.

[BCB]

I'd be glad to participate.  I have a HUGE problem with the amount of information about Bitcoin, its uses and the community in general and would encourage everyone to help in setting the record straight.

Here is a recent example of a one sided, misinformed hatched job entitled: Bitcoin: The dark side of cryptocurrency
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9428367


Here is a rather simple but terrific example of unbiased analysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT26y_l-jtI

(notice the AGE difference between the two commentators)


And the middle guy on this panel is OFF the radar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIFoSYZIUGw