#BitcoinSurvey First Interim Report

[jammers]

Hi all,

As promised at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=987941.0;all, today I have sat down to prepare an interim report on the #BitcoinSurvey. Donations to help advertise the survey (particularly to try and get more ladies to participate), are gladly accepted at 1LQhPptJ4FTLHydvf6jN1xNQus8FTe8mcy

This is also published at http://bitcoinsinireland.com/bitcoinsurvey-first-interim-report/ which features some images.

Last week, as promised, we distributed our first 0.25 bitcoin to five of the nearly 150 respondants who filled in the survey in March. The proof of payment for this is at https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/tx/978d631ccdd56e8b664fc2c0d48bcfc9316c8000dbcc316302a0a10f0b593bf3

I have also deposited the 0.25 bitcoin to cover the April respondents today which you can see sitting at https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/1LUD7xavJo1um3toduKCpKu1tcKM4RmgPD

As we enter the second month of the survey, which hopes to have 1000 respondents by the end of May, this article gives a short summary of some interesting findings so far. This is a summary at this time, so not to prejudice future responses.

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 age profile of responses shows that the respondants are generally in their twenties, thirties or fourties, and heavily male (despite several ad campaigns promoting the survey at females via Facebook and Twitter), with 89% of respondants being male.

Over 51% of respondents are actively using bitcoin with 27% of respondents saying they’ve used bitcoin in the week prior to them doing the survey, and 22% saying that they had made a transaction that day. Respondents are also actively recruiting people into bitcoin, with 80% responding saying that they have gotten friends, family or a company to use bitcoin. 28% also reported that they had gotten several friends to use bitcoin.

On wallets, 99% of respondents said they had one, with 30% saying they are using a desktop wallet, and 26% using a mobile wallet. Paper wallets came in third at 15%, followed by the Bitcoin Core at 13%. 72% responded saying that they have tried several bitcoin wallets, and found one they’re happy with, with just 11% saying they hadn’t found one they’re happy with yet. 16% 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.

On 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.

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.

On bitcoin gambling, 51% of respondents replied that they have used a bitcoin gambling site, with dice roll sites clearly the most popular with 38% using them.

On bitcoin mining, 37% identified themselves as bitcoin miners, with 62% commencing 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.

The #BitcoinSurvey is ongoing, and runs up until May 31st 2015. Survey participants in April have a chance of getting one of five 0.05 bitcoin prizes. The link is http://ads.bitcoinsinireland.com/click/0I7UVYDRUI?btcirl=btctalk-0804 if you don't mind us seeing that you came from bitcointalk, and http://bitcoinsinireland.polldaddy.com/s/bitcoins-in-ireland-worldwide-survey-2015 if you want to go directly or are using adblock.
 

[1714145598]

1714145598

[1714145598]

1714145598

[1714145598]

1714145598

[Lauda]

Interesting survey findings. I can't believe how many people are using faucets regularly. They are a waste of time and more money can be gained by doing something else.
I'm also surprised the the low number of Bitcoin Core users. I fall into that rare category.

I remember some student that was running some survey or something for her phd. It's been almost a year I think since that has happened. Did we ever receive any results here?

[jammers]

I'll wait and see what the final results are in June,  but there's hopefully some interesting reading there for people, and hopefully I'll get some more people doing the survey this month!

[pawel7777]

Interesting survey findings. I can't believe how many people are using faucets regularly.

This is probably due to the construction of the question and choice options. You have:

Have you ever used a bitcoin faucet
...
-yes, a few times
-yes, regularly
...

Note the past form of the question. I reckon many had used faucets on regular basis (in the past) until they realised it's a waste of time. But that doesn't mean that anyone who picked 'yes, regularly' is still a faucet user.

[jammers]

I wasn't looking at seeing if they're currently using them, just if they have used them in the past. I found them an entry point into the wide range of good (and shady) stuff in bitcoin, and it seems that I'm not alone!

[jammers]

I've sent out a press release on this, and the report has gotten picked up in a few places. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1019595.msg11041480#msg11041480 for the full details!

It's helping bring more people in already and remember respondents in April have five 0.05btc prizes. I've received localisations of the survey in German and Spanish from friends here in Dublin, but I was wondering if anyone could help proof read them? pm me if you can help!

[bryant.coleman]

Interesting results.... The gender divide is on the expected lines (89% vs 11%)... I was expecting around 90% vs 10%.... One of the most worrying findings was that more than half of the respondents have used their coins to gamble. IMO, people don't value their coins very much right now. That is why they are wasting them on bets and gambling.

[twister]

Interesting results.... The gender divide is on the expected lines (89% vs 11%)... I was expecting around 90% vs 10%.... One of the most worrying findings was that more than half of the respondents have used their coins to gamble. IMO, people don't value their coins very much right now. That is why they are wasting them on bets and gambling.

I don't think that it's that they don't value their coins but they don't have much to do with them. They can't Invest/Trade in exchanges as not everyone is an expert in trading and there is a slight chance that the exchange might run away, taking away all their coins.

Lending is not safe, as most of the borrowers don't have valid collateral and without it there is no guarantee that they'd get their coins back with interest. They don't have enough coins and/or don't have the skills to set-up a bitcoin based business/site.

And they don't want to just keep their coins in a cold storage as they want to earn something from them and in the end they do what seems the easiest option and doesn't require too much skills, they Gamble. Whether they succeed or not is another matter. But I don't think anyone just likes to throw away their coins.

[bryant.coleman]

I don't think that it's that they don't value their coins but they don't have much to do with them. They can't Invest/Trade in exchanges as not everyone is an expert in trading and there is a slight chance that the exchange might run away, taking away all their coins.

That is sad. I have been collecting Bitcoins ever since 2012. Still, I haven't gambled away my coins even once. However, I agree that right now it is very difficult to spend our coins in a meaningful way.

[kpitti]

I don't think that it's that they don't value their coins but they don't have much to do with them. They can't Invest/Trade in exchanges as not everyone is an expert in trading and there is a slight chance that the exchange might run away, taking away all their coins.

That is sad. I have been collecting Bitcoins ever since 2012. Still, I haven't gambled away my coins even once. However, I agree that right now it is very difficult to spend our coins in a meaningful way.

Exactly what I think. Most of the people holds their bitcoins and waiting for price goes to moon. Once a time some of them try to spend it and they see gambling as good opportunity to increase amount they hold. Unless there is a good reason for buy something ordinary then is just waiting/playing/loosing time.

[SirChiko]

Interesting survey findings. I can't believe how many people are using faucets regularly.

This is probably due to the construction of the question and choice options. You have:

Have you ever used a bitcoin faucet
...
-yes, a few times
-yes, regularly
...

Note the past form of the question. I reckon many had used faucets on regular basis (in the past) until they realised it's a waste of time. But that doesn't mean that anyone who picked 'yes, regularly' is still a faucet user.

From what i've heard big percentage of faucet users are also gamblers.
I've heard multiple stories abou people sending their faucet gainings into dice sites and try to multiply it.

[pawel7777]

From what i've heard big percentage of faucet users are also gamblers.
I've heard multiple stories abou people sending their faucet gainings into dice sites and try to multiply it.

Well, it's probably the only way to get any decent amount out of it.

Most of faucet users likely do visit gambling sites as many of those sites have their own faucet (also promos, giveaways, tip-bots etc). But I don't think any gambler (who wager at least $1 worth or more) would bother to use any faucets.

[SirChiko]

From what i've heard big percentage of faucet users are also gamblers.
I've heard multiple stories abou people sending their faucet gainings into dice sites and try to multiply it.

Well, it's probably the only way to get any decent amount out of it.

Most of faucet users likely do visit gambling sites as many of those sites have their own faucet (also promos, giveaways, tip-bots etc). But I don't think any gambler (who wager at least $1 worth or more) would bother to use any faucets.

Actually you may manage to get 1$ from it if you are  bit lucky quite easily.
I did it myself once from 10k satoshis to 0.008 btc.

[unamis76]

Ah, was looking forward to this! Thanks for publishing the results. The numbers look promising, but I'd like to point out a negative point: the users saying they lost coins on an exchange is really big in my opinion... Mentalities are changing and I hope this number reduces a lot, but the harm is there...

I'm glad there are exchanges adopting many security features like Multisig!

Looking forward to the next report.

[Amph]

150 samples is a bit too small, to consider those % very important, but i like how there is still 37% of miners in the game(this mean that despite all mining is still one of the main form of investment after gambling), but i like to have a differentiation here between cloud mining and physical mining, it would be appreciated for the next survey

[jammers]

Which is why I'm targeting 1,000 responses to get a decent sample size.

The Spanish version will hopefully bring a good few in when it goes live shortly, and German too. I'd be doing a bit more advertising (have done some on reddit, twitter and google so far, and especially towards female bitcoin users), but the donation address hasn't gotten a satoshi, so just have to wait to get paid for some non-bitcoin work I've done recently, so I can do a second push. Will probably be late April/early though, and the survey runs to 31st May.

I've also updated information in the original thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=987941.msg10762189#msg10762189

[johnyj]

I hope this survey can include a question for average holding time of coins (From days to years), this statistic can help to estimate the average daily coin supply on market

[jammers]

it's a pilot study, so I didn't go into that much detail for that particular question. I'd never have enough people to respond to get that info, and I doubt most people would know, or want to tell!

[EternalWingsofGod]

Interesting survey findings. I can't believe how many people are using faucets regularly. They are a waste of time and more money can be gained by doing something else.
I'm also surprised the the low number of Bitcoin Core users. I fall into that rare category.

I remember some student that was running some survey or something for her phd. It's been almost a year I think since that has happened. Did we ever receive any results here?

Well with the faucets they likely include game ones like Yabtcl where people might just generate numbers for fun on their lotto simulator or Primedice if people level that up.
The specification of which faucet was not asked to my knowledge.
As for Bitcoin Core Users they are decreasing in number and nodes simply because they are signifcant memory horders with around 20 GB dedicated space for Core to run required, shifting people to the lightweight clients.
(Sadly no news on ultimate blockchain compression yet to make it more attactive)

As for that student and his PHD survey, I forgot his username but that is an interesting question, he might have but I missed it so someone would need to correct me on that.

[kpitti]

This is interesting, I was participating and I like your work and results. There is couple of things which I found interesting. Like how many people is using faucets, then daily using of Bitcoin.
As you continue with survey I will look for final results. Good work.