It conducted a questionnaire survey to gather the opinion about Bitcoin from 527 adults via the internet in 1st Oct 2014. The contents of the questionnaire included familiarity and reputation against Bitcoin.
Cointelegraph: UK Study: Bitcoin Familiar to 71% of Brits but Suffers from an Image Problem
Digital Currency Council: The Bitcoin Barometer: A Study of Sentiment in the UK Toward Bitcoin
As a result, Bitcoin was well known by the interviewees, yet its image was rather negative.
Approximately 70% of the respondents answered being aware to Bitcoin as a payment method. This percentage is following Paypal and Western Union, equal to Moneygram, and superior to Square. In contrast, more than one-fourth of the respondents expressed fair/very bad reputation against Bitcoin, whereas only one-sixth possessed very good/ excellent reputation.
It is an interesting survey, because Bitcoin has not ever been evaluated in terms of public recognition. Some enthusiasts admired the system of Bitcoin, meanwhile conservative people warned the risk of Bitcoin. Each opinion was biased.
The UK is one of the countries in which citizens are familiar to digital currency. It has ground basis of finance. The government is relatively open to such new technologies. Therefore, this result can represent the attitude of people against digital currency to some extent.
However, there is a limitation to validate the result of an online survey. The participants of such surveys are likely to be accustomed to information technology. Novelty seeking tendency can be common in such interviewees. Furthermore, I have not read about how the participants were recruited in this survey. Selection bias could not be negligible as a nature of social survey, especially on the internet.
Londoners were the most favorable to Bitcoin in this survey. It is consistent that London is the center of finance in the UK. On the other hand, it is interesting that Bitcoin is not accepted in Scotland compared to other regions. Scotland was involved in the national debate of independence from England a couple of months ago. Whether it could continue to use GBP after independence was one of the most decisive topics. I guess not a few people considered Bitcoin at that time to protect their estate from currency risk. Bitcoin seems to be advantageous when domestic currency is in a crisis, even if Bitcoin itself is volatile. Indeed, Bitcoin is paid attention in Ukraine. In the future, it is possible that Bitcoin will be a booster for some local ares to become independent.
Anyway, reliability is a critical point for the spread of Bitcoin. All currencies exist based on its trust, as currency itself has no value, regardless of bills, coins, or bank data. The more reputation Bitcoin gains, the more its value rises. So, who is responsible to the value of Bitcoin? All of the users, not a certain authority. Quite interesting.
*Sequel
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