Of Two Minds, Multiple Addresses, and One History: Characterizing Opinions, Knowledge, and Perceptions of Bitcoin Across Groups

Abstract

Digital currencies represent a new method for exchange and investment that differs strongly from any other fiat money seen throughout history. A digital currency makes it possible to perform all financial transactions without the intervention of a third party to act as an arbiter of verification; payments can be made between two people with degrees of anonymity, across continents, at any denomination, and without any transaction fees going to a central authority.The most successful example of this is Bitcoin, introduced in 2008, which has experienced a recent boom of popularity, media attention, and investment. With this surge of attention, we became interested in finding out how people both inside and outside the Bitcoin community perceive Bitcoin -what do they think of it, how do they feel, and how knowledgeable they are. Towards this end, we conducted the first interview study (N = 20) with participants to discuss Bitcoin and other related financial topics. Some of our major findings include: not understanding how Bitcoin works is not a barrier for entry, although non-user participants claim it would be for them and that user participants are in a state of cognitive dissonance concerning the role of governments in the system. Our findings, overall, contribute to knowledge concerning Bitcoin and attitudes towards digital currencies in general.

Exploring Perceptions of Bitcoin Adoption: The South African Virtual Community Perspective

“…These findings concur with Gao et al (2016) that likely barriers to Bitcoin adoption are user experience issues and the complex manner in which it is presented. Tools that reduce the complexity of Bitcoin transactions or aid in improving the understanding of the Bitcoin protocol may well, therefore, help to improve Bitcoin adoption (by eliminating key barriers).…”

“…Baur, Bühler, Bick, and Bonorden (2015) found that most stakeholders perceived Bitcoin's ease of use as relatively low. Literature reviewed identified anonymity, security, costs, speculative opportunities and transaction irreversibility as the perceived benefits of adopting Bitcoin (Beer & Weber, 2015;Dupont & Squicciarini, 2015;Gao, Clark, & Lindqvist, 2016;Gentilal, Martins, & Sousa, 2017;Glaser, Zimmermann, Haferkorn, Weber, & Siering, 2014;Hur, Jeon, & Yoo, 2015;Ly, 2013). Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymous and decentralized nature can result in trust issues amongst users, in terms of illicit use and cyber-attacks (Bohr & Bashir, 2014;Sas & Khairuddin, 2017).…”

User perception of Bitcoin usability and security across novice users

“…The study highlights that poor usability and users' lack of knowledge of Bitcoin usage are the main influencers of security breaches. Gao, Clark, & Lindqvist (2015), in their peer-reviewed study, examine adopters and non-adopters' perceptions of the cryptocurrency. The results reveal that both adopters and non-adopters misunderstand how Bitcoin actually works.…”

“…Recently, the HCI community has started to explore areas of digital currency and discuss the value of cryptocurrency from users' points of view (Kaye, Vertesi, Ferreira, Brown, & Perry, 2014). However, there is limited academic work on user-centred approaches to the exploration of Bitcoin's social aspects, system adoption, user attitudes or behaviours (Bohr & Bashir, 2014;Gao et al, 2015;Krombholz, Judmayer, Gusenbauer, & Weippl, 2016;.…”

GeoCoin

“…These technologies are poised to have wide reaching implications for everyday users, yet researchers have found that a small minority employ cryptocurrencies [33] while the broader public --even those that use cryptocurrency -does not fully understand the complexities of the underlying technology [18]. While technical approaches exist to ease development for nonspecialists (e.g.…”