[2018-01-24] Survey: 60% of Americans Have Heard of Bitcoin, 5% Own

[ivanpoldark]

Global Blockchain Business Council and Survey Monkey teamed for an appraisal of American attitudes toward the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin. Awareness of the decentralized currency is way up, but those who actually own the digital asset remains relatively low.

Americans More Bitcoin Aware, But Remain on Sidelines

During the second week of this year, 5,761 adults were polled about their attitudes toward bitcoin. Survey Monkey, one of the partners, selects “from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the Survey Monkey platform each day,” their methodology website tab explains. “Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 2 percentage points.”

The last time such a large survey was conducted, back in 2013 by the firm On Device in preparation for a London conference, bitcoin awareness by americans languished at 25%. True enough, the first decentralized virtual currency was only about four years old, but there seemed at the time to have been sufficient press coverage warranting greater familiarity.

By 2018, not quite a decade into its tenure, bitcoin awareness has jumped by more than twice that number according to Survey Monkey and Global Blockchain Business Council. And though brand acknowledgement is growing, actual participation seems somewhat low. Nearly six in ten respondents revealed they’d at heard of bitcoin, up some 33 points from 2013’s measure (the two surveys are not linked). More than 5,000 people participated in the current questionnaire.

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/survey-60-of-americans-have-heard-of-bitcoin-5-own/

[bitcoinisbest]

This is quite a huge difference considering the advanced country where people have the bets of facility like Internet, gadgets etc . But still only 5% do invest out of 60% of aware citizens means either they are not convinced with this concept or think like its a bubble which can burst due to volatile market.

In our country where their is not proper infrastructure or people do not get the proper internet facility etc could be understood but any idea what are the other reasons that people do not invest in this cypto currency in US?

[Kronos21]

This is quite a huge difference considering the advanced country where people have the bets of facility like Internet, gadgets etc . But still only 5% do invest out of 60% of aware citizens means either they are not convinced with this concept or think like its a bubble which can burst due to volatile market.

In our country where their is not proper infrastructure or people do not get the proper internet facility etc could be understood but any idea what are the other reasons that people do not invest in this cypto currency in US?

Nothing surprising in this. America is a rich country. Residents are not looking for additional source of income. First and foremost, people in poor countries are forced to seek additional income. Cryptocurrency right fit. So I think that the survey in poor countries would show very different results.

[Kemarit]

There was one article before saying that Americans really do own bitcoins and most came from middle income families. So I wouldn't be surprised if more American would get themselves involved in bitcoin and cypto in 2018. And just like us, American buy bitcoin as investment platform or store of wealth. And the survey shows that they are very bullish about bitcoin as well.

Still, the survey did note almost 70 percent expect bitcoin to increase in value over the coming half of a decade. A little more than 10 percent believe it will die out.

Edit: Here's the article: (https://cointelegraph.com/news/american-investors-plan-to-hodl-bitcoin-until-price-hits-196000)

This is quite a huge difference considering the advanced country where people have the bets of facility like Internet, gadgets etc . But still only 5% do invest out of 60% of aware citizens means either they are not convinced with this concept or think like its a bubble which can burst due to volatile market.

In our country where their is not proper infrastructure or people do not get the proper internet facility etc could be understood but any idea what are the other reasons that people do not invest in this cypto currency in US?

Nothing surprising in this. America is a rich country. Residents are not looking for additional source of income. First and foremost, people in poor countries are forced to seek additional income. Cryptocurrency right fit. So I think that the survey in poor countries would show very different results.

Right. Survey in third world countries would be different. I'm assuming that result will shows that bitcoin for them would be more of like a currency, money that they can spend and even provide foods in the table.

[superjeyy]

There was one article before saying that Americans really do own bitcoins and most came from middle income families. So I wouldn't be surprised if more American would get themselves involved in bitcoin and cypto in 2018. And just like us, American buy bitcoin as investment platform or store of wealth. And the survey shows that they are very bullish about bitcoin as well.

Still, the survey did note almost 70 percent expect bitcoin to increase in value over the coming half of a decade. A little more than 10 percent believe it will die out.

Edit: Here's the article: (https://cointelegraph.com/news/american-investors-plan-to-hodl-bitcoin-until-price-hits-196000)

This is quite a huge difference considering the advanced country where people have the bets of facility like Internet, gadgets etc . But still only 5% do invest out of 60% of aware citizens means either they are not convinced with this concept or think like its a bubble which can burst due to volatile market.

In our country where their is not proper infrastructure or people do not get the proper internet facility etc could be understood but any idea what are the other reasons that people do not invest in this cypto currency in US?

Nothing surprising in this. America is a rich country. Residents are not looking for additional source of income. First and foremost, people in poor countries are forced to seek additional income. Cryptocurrency right fit. So I think that the survey in poor countries would show very different results.

Right. Survey in third world countries would be different. I'm assuming that result will shows that bitcoin for them would be more of like a currency, money that they can spend and even provide foods in the table.

I get your point, but the thing with third world countries is that we are not able to maximize the use of Bitcoins since there is no outlet to do so. We use our fiat mainly for everything as the usage of Bitcoin is not yet established here unless our transactions are made over the web whose server is abroad and offers payment through Bitcoin.  I also think that the results of the survey won't be any different because based on my observations, when you ask people here about cryptocurrency or Bitcoin, they have no idea what it is and how valuable it can be. The presence of the people from third world countries may be abundant in the forum, but what you don't know is that they are just a small portion of the totality of people who's actually involved and has knowledge about Bitcoin. Our survey would probably show lower numbers as compared to what was generated in your country. I think the structure of Bitcoin is still complex for people to fully understand which is why they would rather not have themselves involved or be knowledgeable about it.

[South Park]

This is quite a huge difference considering the advanced country where people have the bets of facility like Internet, gadgets etc . But still only 5% do invest out of 60% of aware citizens means either they are not convinced with this concept or think like its a bubble which can burst due to volatile market.

In our country where their is not proper infrastructure or people do not get the proper internet facility etc could be understood but any idea what are the other reasons that people do not invest in this cypto currency in US?

5 % is a really high number in my opinion, according the last data I saw the US has 325 million habitants, that means that there are 16 million bitcoin users or people that have used bitcoin before just in the US, that is huge, that means there are countries with a bigger adoption rate and there are other countries with a lower adoption rate, what we need to do is push adoption in those countries, but I do not know how to do that.

[MissionPhailed]

I think the mentioned percentages aren't too different from the current situation here in Western Europe. The giant rise of BTC and other crypto and subsequent exposure in the media caused a buying frenzy among the general public. Attempting to make a 'quick buck' was the main motivation. As the current market isn't so bullish anymore and Bitconnect has finally fallen (lots of folks 'invested' in that), a sizeable numbers of 'newbs' are spooked and have retreated from the cryptoworld quickly, sometimes with large financial losses.

[Ozero]

Such poll results are much better than those conducted in Russia, where more than 80 percent of the population stated that they had not even heard of the crypto currency. The same about the result, oddly enough in China, as one of the high-ranking officials put it. So the results of the survey in the US about the knowledge of the crypto currency and its participation in it, are still quite encouraging. They indicate that the population is watching the crypto currency and will join it depending on how well it will show itself in the near future.

[squatter]

5% ownership is massive. I would have expected that nearly 100% had heard of Bitcoin by now -- you would need to avoid virtually all cable and print news and social media in order to be totally ignorant of it. But I'm glad to see that popular accumulation has really begun. 5% is several times higher than I expected at this point.

My first reaction was to assume that they must have focused on younger people. But apparently, the survey is weighted to account for population demographics:

“Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 2 percentage points.”

If this trend continues, it's tempting to think that the US government won't eventually crack down harshly on Bitcoin. Then I remember what happened to gold:

Consider the Gold Reserve Act. Yes, private possession of gold became lawful again in 1975, but for the previous four decades, the US government was largely successful in forcing gold owners to give up their holdings to the Treasury. They drove the economy underground into a black market. During that time, the price of gold appreciated 600%. The government essentially robbed private gold owners of those gains.