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Topic: Bitcoin Survey Initial Results - page 2. (Read 7159 times)

legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1002
June 24, 2012, 07:55:39 PM
#23
It's a bit disheartening to see the lack of people who have recently heard about Bitcoin.  The vast majority heard about it more than 1 year ago.  Does that mean that Bitcoin growth is slowing?

I'd say it means most people that frequent these forms are mostly died hard fans that have been here for 1 year +

would be really cool is if someone would do a cold call survey

438 - 257 - 1495
ring.. ring...
Quote
hello?
would you like to take a quick 5 min survey, and make some cash?
sure ok
have you heard about bitcoin
no
awww, sry you cant take this survey,  thank you!
repeat! Endlessly  Cheesy



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.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 24, 2012, 11:57:21 AM
#22
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.
legendary
Activity: 2324
Merit: 1125
June 24, 2012, 10:11:58 AM
#21
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...


Seems like I formulated that a bit harshly. That was unintentional, I was just explaining to the previous user why the number of Chinese Bitcoin users could be under-represented in the survey.

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?

full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 24, 2012, 09:53:13 AM
#20
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.

Quote
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. Wink

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.
legendary
Activity: 2324
Merit: 1125
June 24, 2012, 08:57:33 AM
#19
Could be, but this survey likely suffers from selection bias.
newbie
Activity: 25
Merit: 0
June 24, 2012, 08:55:18 AM
#18
why you list no china?
Question 1:      
What country do you live in?

I think china is a big market of bitcoin!
legendary
Activity: 4536
Merit: 3188
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
June 24, 2012, 08:11:05 AM
#17
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.

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.

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. Wink
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 24, 2012, 12:29:38 AM
#16
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...
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 22, 2012, 08:53:39 AM
#15
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.

 
Quote
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... Cheesy
sr. member
Activity: 295
Merit: 250
June 22, 2012, 03:51:53 AM
#14
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.

Are you planning to repeat the survey in e.g. 6 months? Would be really good to know how things change.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 22, 2012, 12:10:06 AM
#13
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.
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1037
Trusted Bitcoiner
June 21, 2012, 11:49:28 PM
#12
It's a bit disheartening to see the lack of people who have recently heard about Bitcoin.  The vast majority heard about it more than 1 year ago.  Does that mean that Bitcoin growth is slowing?

I'd say it means most people that frequent these forms are mostly died hard fans that have been here for 1 year +

would be really cool is if someone would do a cold call survey

438 - 257 - 1495
ring.. ring...
Quote
hello?
would you like to take a quick 5 min survey, and make some cash?
sure ok
have you heard about bitcoin
no
awww, sry you cant take this survey,  thank you!
repeat! Endlessly  Cheesy

full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 21, 2012, 10:32:12 PM
#11
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...
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 501
There is more to Bitcoin than bitcoins.
June 21, 2012, 10:26:30 PM
#10
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...? 
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005
June 21, 2012, 07:46:08 PM
#9
Wow, 18.9% with graduate degrees!  That's significantly higher than the national average (around 10%).  I suppose it is to be expected, given the technical nature of Bitcoin and complexity of using it (for now), but still, it surprises me.

It's a bit disheartening to see the lack of people who have recently heard about Bitcoin.  The vast majority heard about it more than 1 year ago.  Does that mean that Bitcoin growth is slowing?
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 21, 2012, 07:06:20 PM
#8
Very nice questions, responses, and survey size! I'm impressed! This will help me market Bitcoin a lot better!

hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Coinabul - Gold Unbarred
June 21, 2012, 06:27:15 PM
#7
Very nice questions, responses, and survey size! I'm impressed! This will help me market Bitcoin a lot better!
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
June 21, 2012, 03:45:52 PM
#6
I also think the percentage of female libertarians is pretty low. Females like sharing a lot  Roll Eyes

According to the Pew Research Center, there are twice as many male libertarians than female.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/section-3-demographics-and-news-sources/
legendary
Activity: 2324
Merit: 1125
June 21, 2012, 02:40:35 PM
#5
I also think the percentage of female libertarians is pretty low. Females like sharing a lot  Roll Eyes
legendary
Activity: 1190
Merit: 1004
June 21, 2012, 02:38:54 PM
#4
With the survey I did, it was mostly male as well. Also a lot of Americans again.
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