I sporadically get asked for access to the primary data from two surveys I did with Bitcoin community members in 2013 and 2014, so for the sake of posterity (and future requests), here it is. 2013 Survey: full data, cleaned data 2014 Survey: full data For context – during this period I was writing a…
The major new addition to this year’s survey was a set of questions about trust, a rich avenue of inquiry for the “trustless” network. There is a clear divide between the relatively strong trust held by Bitcoin users for those within the cryptocoin ecosystem, and the poor trust held for traditional and established authorities. That…
There is no average Bitcoiner, but neither is Bitcoin a perfect reflection of wider society. That said, discussion of imbalances within the community should not be overstated, and should account for where the project stems from (finance, technology, politics) and what the project is a reaction to (crisis, uncertainty, alienation, and rapid social change). Furthermore,…
This is a slightly different perspective on money than Bitcoin users are used to, firstly because it involves looking at the past rather than the future, and secondly because it draws on anthropology more than economics. I outline the two broad competing theories about the origins of money, then give a very quick history of…
Update: Here are some preliminary results, based on the first 120 responses. The community seems to have gotten slightly younger over the last year, and in this initial sample we have twin peaks in the mid-twenties and early thirties. The proportion of people who have mined BTC has dropped from last year, though the breakdown…
Our use of money is infused with profound cultural and political meaning, and the interplay of rival currencies can offer insights into cultural tensions. This was as true of post-Soviet Russia as it is of Bitcoin today. The anarchic virtual currency is part of a wider cultural movement that embraces technology, and replaces institutions with…
PSA for Bitcoin users: please take a few minutes to fill out the 2014 community survey This question was included in my survey of 1,000 Bitcoin users (most of whom responded before the recent price surge), and remains one of the areas poorly examined in media coverage. I don’t buy into the drugs and pizza myth, of…
The first version of a new Internet technology is rarely the one that wins mass adoption. Early versions of the browser, search engine, email provider, and social network were exciting, but ultimately overtaken by later rivals. Behind all the hype and speculation about Bitcoin over the last month, now gradually dying down, there is a…
I created this survey on 12 February 2013 using Google Docs. I posted the link on Bitcointalk.org, Reddit, Twitter, and Google+. From there, the survey was reposted on various Bitcoin related sites. I posted preliminary findings to my blog after 102 responses and 533 responses. In both cases, the results sparked more interest and helped…
These findings are based on the first 1,000 valid responses to an online survey posted in February 2013, as part of my study of the Bitcoin community. For more on this survey see the overview page.