A thesis about Bitcoin

[BCmale]

Hi everyone!

I am a 26 years old IT student from a Finnish University of Applied Sciences, HAAGA-HELIA. I'm writing a thesis about Bitcoin and now I need your help. My thesis tries to answer to question about how Bitcoin affects the user's life. That includes these sub-questions:

- Why does the user use Bitcoin?
- What does the user think about the basic functionality of Bitcoin?
- How does the user utilize Bitcoin?
- Does the user trust Bitcoin's security?

My thesis also tries on answer to question about economic utilization of Bitcoin:

- What kind of businesses have emerged around Bitcoin?
- In what ways is the Bitcoin utilized as a currency?
- Is it possible to use bitcoins beside fiat currencies or is Bitcoin more an introverted currency?

In order to get answer to these questions, I need you to answer to my quantitative questionnaire. To avoid multiple account etc. answers, I will only accept those forum users, who have created their account before I created mine, to participate.

You can participate by sending me a private message, giving me your e-mail address. After that I will check when you have joined the forum and will accept or deny your participation (most likely accept). When enough time has passed (a week or two), I will announce that entering the questionnaire is over. Then the URL to the questionnaire will be sent to you.

I was thinking of making an incentive, so it might be worthwile at least for somebody to answer my questionnaire. i was thinking a raffle. I only have two computers mining with combined 300 Mhash/s of computing power, so I can't spend that much coins for this. Would 2,5 BTC suffice (one winner)? I don't want to make this too profitable, as it would probably attract multi account answers. You can of course make some suggestions, if you wish. I will also be more than happy to answer your questions if you have some, whenever I have the time (I'm currently working 37,5 hrs/week). And of course, the more participants I can get, the better.

Answering to my questionnaire will take about 5-15 minutes.

Jesse Lindroos
HAAGA-HELIA

EDIT:

More volunteers, great! Just remember that i joined in this forum on 23th of October 2012, and will not accept participants who have joined after that.

This is a precaution to avoid possible multi-account users from answering. I know that it might seem paranoid (and maybe pointless for some) and will somewhat reduce the amount of participants but I feel it's a necessary thing. I apologize that I didn't include this comment in my post originally.

[Stephen Gornick]

My thesis tries to answer to question about how Bitcoin affects the user's life.

There are others that have studied this (or are studying it), including:

Research on the Bitcoin community
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85967.5

[MeSarah]

This sounds like an interesting project BCmale. I hope that you will release it publicly when you have completed this project. I'll be waiting and watching. Best of luck BCmale.

[knight22]

I'm volunteer to answer your questionnaire 

[marcus_of_augustus]

My thesis also tries on answer to question about economic utilization of Bitcoin:

- What kind of businesses have emerged around Bitcoin?
- In what ways is the Bitcoin utilized as a currency?
- Is it possible to use bitcoins beside fiat currencies or is Bitcoin more an introverted currency?

Some reading of your own, you know, like research, would answer these questions (not very much at all either).

[helloworld]

My thesis also tries on answer to question about economic utilization of Bitcoin:

- What kind of businesses have emerged around Bitcoin?
- In what ways is the Bitcoin utilized as a currency?
- Is it possible to use bitcoins beside fiat currencies or is Bitcoin more an introverted currency?

Some reading of your own, you know, like research, would answer these questions (not very much at all either).

Asking the right people the right questions is a legitimate method of research.

[BCmale]

My thesis tries to answer to question about how Bitcoin affects the user's life.

There are others that have studied this (or are studying it), including:

Research on the Bitcoin community
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85967.5

Thanks for the url. Yes, I can imagine that many people are studying Bitcoin. The reason why I wanted to do my thesis about Bitcoin, was that it is a relatively new project, and a very convincing/interesting one. Also, it was really hard to come up with a subject. After I familiarized myself with Bitcoin, I was almost certain that I would do a thesis about it, although the decision took too much time.

This sounds like an interesting project BCmale. I hope that you will release it publicly when you have completed this project. I'll be waiting and watching. Best of luck BCmale.

I plan to release it publicly. After I'm done, my thesis can be downloaded from http://www.theseus.fi. The downside is that it's written in Finnish, although it will include an abstract, which will be in English. Thanks for the support!

I'm volunteer to answer your questionnaire 

Great. There will be 15 questions.

My thesis also tries on answer to question about economic utilization of Bitcoin:

- What kind of businesses have emerged around Bitcoin?
- In what ways is the Bitcoin utilized as a currency?
- Is it possible to use bitcoins beside fiat currencies or is Bitcoin more an introverted currency?

Some reading of your own, you know, like research, would answer these questions (not very much at all either).

Asking the right people the right questions is a legitimate method of research.

Yes, I know that these questions can be answered by doing research on my own. But, when you're doing a scientificically qualified research, you need pure facts and qualitative and/or quantitative research methods. And preferably you will conduct this research by yourself. My thesis has the basic facts about Bitcoin in the theory part. My research part will include this questionnaire. I will keep my thesis relatively simple, in order to make it more comfortable to read for the most people.

[BCmale]

Some info about the questionnaire:

I've been already getting some PMs about people wanting to participate to my questionnaire. As I wrote, I will first gather as many people/PMs as possible before initiating it. So, don't worry if it takes some time for me to reply. Be patient.

[BCmale]

It's been shamefully long since my last post/update. My job kept me busy in the beginning of November. Then I had to repair my car, as it would have been very expensive, closer to 1k € to have it fixed (labour is very expensive in Finland). It took me over two weeks because I could only do it in the evenings and didn't always have enough time to get the needed spare parts, as I noticed that I should replace more parts when I disassembled my car. I even spent the whole Finnish Independence Day (6th of December) fixing my car.

But what I managed to do, was to finish the questionnaire also. I had the questions ready before I made this thread but the system I used to create the questionnaire was a little...tacky/clumsy. I also spent some time to refine and test the questionnaire. It was a slow process, so it took some time. But I think it's ready now.

Just one thing, one request:
PLEASE, I still need more volunteers! To answer my questionnaire. I can't finish my thesis otherwise. There are maximum of 20 questions + voluntary comments, depending on how you answer to them. I couldn't ask for a better christmas present than a lot of ppl doing my questionnaire! 

[greyhawk]

What about the anthropologic aspects? The cultish behaviour? Use of titles to confer power onto the wielder very much like the Hauka (see Rouche, Les Maîtres fous, 1954)? Parallels between the deification of Satoshi and the deification of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on the island of Tanna?

[psybits]

I'll volunteer and very happy to support your work!

Please let me know when the questionnare is released by PM and I'll complete it straight away.

[Rotsor]

I volunteer.

[John (John K.)]

I can do so, considering that I've some spare time on my hands lately. 

[BCmale]

What about the anthropologic aspects? The cultish behaviour? Use of titles to confer power onto the wielder very much like the Hauka (see Rouche, Les Maîtres fous, 1954)? Parallels between the deification of Satoshi and the deification of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on the island of Tanna?

Well...if you mean that does my thesis study those things you mentioned, then, no. It's a very basic study about Bitcoin. You know, I've been talking about Bitcoin with a lot of people. A lot of different kind of people. Also with lots graduated and beginning IT students (not just the ones from my schools). Most of them haven't even heard about Bitcoin. My study will be easy to read and it will also compare basic currency to Bitcoin. It will be helpful for Finnish people who have never heard about Bitcoin but who might be interested. And there are lots of them.

More volunteers, great! Just remember that i joined in this forum on 23th of October 2012, and will not accept participants who have joined after that. I think I'm gonna send the questionnaire to you before the end of this week. I'm hosting a party on friday, so I will release the questionnaire before or after that. I also have to do some Christmas shopping but I'll do my best to get this questionnaire done.

[BCmale]

Okay, I've sent my questionnaire to six people (EDIT: count that seven). It still wouldn't hurt to get some more volunteers. Answering my questionnaire will take about 5-15 minutes and you will have a chance of winning 2.5 BTC. It isn't that much, but it's potentially easy money for 1/4 hours of "work". I also PM'd couple of users to send me their email, so I can send them the link to my questionnaire. You can send me your email address via private message to participate. Please read through this topic before doing so. At least I recommend that.

[knight22]

Will you post the results?

[edd]

I'm willing to participate.

It's not in Finnish, is it?

[btctalk]

willing to help.

[Deafboy]

Ok. It's annoying that I have to sign up to answer the questions, but I'm starting to be curious about those questions if you cannot simply ask them publicly

[BCmale]

Will you post the results?

Well, I guess I could post the results here. I mean the results of the "multiple answer" -questions. If you have answered to voluntary comments, I will of course not publish them. I'm very serious about privacy, my own and everyone else's too.

I'm willing to participate.

It's not in Finnish, is it?

Thank you. You can participate by sending me your email address via PM.
No, it's not in Finnish.  It's in a very plain and simple form of English. 

willing to help.

Well, it seems that you have joined this forum after I have and because of my policy, I cannot let you participate. I'm sorry! =(

Ok. It's annoying that I have to sign up to answer the questions, but I'm starting to be curious about those questions if you cannot simply ask them publicly

Well, yes, you have to sign up. There is a reason for that. By using a system that automatically handles the statistical data, I can ensure that no humane mistakes happen. Of course I could just PM the questions to everyone and get the answers directly from them, but then I'd have to manually feed the data to a program called IBM SPSS, which our school lets us use to handle survey's/quantitative questionnaire's data. That would complicate things and IMHO add unnecessary human factor to this questionnaire. I'd rather have the computer do the work for me automatically, kind of a same way as the Bitcoin's P2P network handles the Bitcoin's security/difficulty.  That is why I use this Webropol webpage (which our school uses mostly), which automatically handles the data it gathers from the answerer. By using this "send me your email" I can see who's answered to my questionnaire and who's not. That way I can for example see, who I will include in the 2,5 BTC lottery =D. I will of course, after some period of time, send reminders to those who have volunteered and still haven't answered.
Thanks for being curious. You can send me your email (via PM preferably) to participate.

I can see that already 7 participants have answered to my questionnaire. Great! And thanks for answering!