NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 20, 2015

It is always interesting to learn about the Bitcoin community with a good ‘ole survey every few months, and this Spring is no different. Bitcoin in Ireland is producing this global survey and intends to get feedback from over one thousand Bitcoin owners over the next couple of months. We have the preliminary results of a sample of about one hundred and fifty respondents so far.

Bitcoin survey reveals information that reflects recent events

The largest percentage of respondents were from the United States, one of the top 2 global markets for Bitcoin owners. The age profile of the responses shows Bitcoin is heavily male-owned, with the majority in between their twenties and early forties. 89% of respondents were male, which is actually putting female owners at a higher percentage than previous surveys.

Virtually all respondents said they had a bitcoin wallet. 30% say they are using a desktop wallet, and 26% are using a mobile wallet. Paper wallets make up a sizable number of wallets in use at 15%, followed by the Bitcoin Core at 13%. 72% of those that responded say that they have tried several bitcoin wallets and have finally found one they’re happy with while 11% say they hadn’t found one they’re happy with yet. About one in six responders have lost access to a bitcoin wallet, although most owners said that in the early days when bitcoin was of little value.

Over 51% of owners are actively using the currency, with about 27% of respondents saying they’ve used bitcoin within days of doing the survey. 22% said they had used Bitcoin the same day. Respondents are also actively recruiting people into bitcoin, with four out of five owners saying that they have gotten their sphere of influence to start using bitcoin. Almost 30% said they had gotten multiple friends to start using bitcoin.