Reddit cryptocurrency survey 2014

By: Ryan Walker

The Cryptocurrency Reddit Survey 2014

On May 28th 2014 I posted a cryptocurrency survey to the following subreddits: !• r/bitcoin!• r/litecoin!• r/DRKcoin!• r/vertcoin!• r/dogecoin !!I also posted it to twitter via my handle @RyanMWalker. I received 148 responses. The contents of this report include the analysis, some serious insights, and some not-so-serious insights.

Twitter: @RyanMWalker 1

In my research and education specific to cryptocurrency I have become very interested in the idea of currency becoming a MEME. Furthermore, I am intrigued by the possibility of a future where cryptocurrencies are selected by users in the same way the people currently select product brands or news networks, tailored to their personal ideologies and preferences. Hence the origins of this brief survey to better understand the degree to which this phenomenon may or may not exist. The survey includes several Pareto Charts, bar charts, and line charts.!

It should be noted that this survey was created rather informally. While I was hopeful I would get enough responses to derive some statistically sound conclusions I was surprised to have received almost 150 responses in total. Had I known I was to receive such a great sample I would have certainly put more thought into the creation of the survey to make it as insightful as possible.!

With that, the information enclosed can not be considered entirely random as the majority of responses are predominantly from the Reddit community. The data should not be interpreted as such to reflect the entire community of cryptocurrency owners. Finally, only 4 alternative crypto currencies were selected for focus and I acknowledge this leaves out several good candidates that may have proved even more insightful.!

I am pleased to report that all of the original respondents who chose to share their address have been sent several satoshis in gratitude for their participation. Many thanks to these respondents and the Reddit & cryptocurrency community for being so open with their information.!

Best Regards,!

Ryan

Background Info

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_chart

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Section Page

1. Political Ideologies & Cryptocurrency 4

2. Type of Cryptocurrency Holdings vs. Awareness 12

3. Bitcoins vs. Altcoins 15

4. Fun Stuff - Movies & Home Preferences 18

5. Final Conclusions 23

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Section 1: Political Ideologies & Cryptocurrency

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Political Ideologies & Cryptocurrency

Count 64 48 19 17Percent 43.2 32.4 12.8 11.5Cum % 43.2 75.7 88.5 100.0

AnarchistConservativeNone of the AboveLiberal

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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?All Responses (n = 148)

! I m p l i c a t i o n s w i t h t h e cryptocurrency space are that political ideologies are strongly linked to specific cryptocurrencies. Be it anonymity & privacy, economic schools, or affiliation with established political parties, these themes are widely recognized. This section shares some data related to specific political affiliation by type of cryptocurrency owned.!

! One large regret in the design of the survey was the failure to include “Libertarian” as an option. I strongly believe that respondents of the “Libertarian” ideology have recorded their responses in the category of “None of the Above”. Unfortunately this muddies the waters between pure Libertarian participants and others who simply do not subscribe to any of the responses made available to them.

CONCLUSION: For all respondents (n = 148) 43% identified themselves as being liberals. Only 12.8% of respondents identified themselves as conservative. It should be noted that 32.4% responded as “None of the Above” though this may reflect a large number of Libertarian responses.

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With which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?

( All Responses = 148 )


CONCLUSION: While each category of political ideology share relatively similar percentages across crypto currencies it should be noted that Vertcoin owners indicated they are more prone to being Anarchists (18.8%) and Darkcoin owners are more prone to being Conservatives (17.5%).

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ConservativeAnarchistNone of the AboveLiberal

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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?Bitcoin Owners

Bitcoin Owners

CONCLUSION: 41.7% of Bitcoin owners responded that they were liberal. 32.5% of Bitcoin owners responded “None of the Above” which also likely encompasses a large number of Libertarians. Conservatives ranked lowest making up only 12.5% of respondents.


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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?Litecoin Owners

Litecoin Owners

CONCLUSION: Litecoin responders closely reflected those of Bitcoin owners with Liberals representing 41.7% of respondents and “None of the Above” reflecting 32.5% of respondents.


9CONCLUSION: Dogecoin responders closely reflected those of Bitcoin and Litecoin owners with Liberals representing 42.4% of respondents and “None of the Above” reflecting 34.8% of respondents. I was slightly surprised to find that Dogecoin owners were only slightly less conservative than Bitcoin and Litecoin owners.



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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?Dogecoin Owners

Dogecoin Owners


10CONCLUSION: Vertcoin owners largest response was “None of the Above” with 37.5% of the response. Additionally, Vertcoin owners reflected themselves as slightly less conservative (only 8.3%) and far more likely to be Anarchists (18.8%). Possibly a social undertone to the idea of ASIC resistance?


ConservativeAnarchistLiberalNone of the Above

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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?Vertcoin OwnersVertcoin Owners


11CONCLUSION: Darkcoin owners largest response was “None of the Above” with 35% of the response, likely with a large influence from Libertarians. I believe the popular belief that Darkcoin increases anonymity may be a contributor to favor by such ideologues . Surprisingly only 15% of Darkcoin owners described themselves as Anarchists.


AnarchistConservativeLiberalNone of the Above

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Which of the following ideologies do you most associate yourself with?Darkcoin OwnersDarkcoin Owners

Section 2: Cryptocurrency Holdings & Awareness

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Cryptocurrency Holdings & AwarenessAs most respondents to this survey are active in the reddit community it can be safely assumed that many have had exposure to bitcoin as well as alternative cryptocurrencies. !

! Additionally, only three cryptocurrencies can currently be purchased using traditional fiat currencies. These are bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin. It should be understood that all other alternative cryptocurrencies require the use of bitcoin for purchase.

CONCLUSION: 71.6% of all respondents reported owning bitcoin as well as at least one other alternative cryptocurrency. Only 9.5% or respondents reported owning bitcoin alone and 18.9% of respondents reported owning only alt-coins. I was surprised to find that only 1 in 10 respondents owned solely bitcoin, though this may be reflective of the fact that many respondents came from subreddits of alternative coins. 13

Count 106 28 14Percent 71.6 18.9 9.5Cum % 71.6 90.5 100.0

Bitcoin OnlyAltcoins OnlyBitcoin + Altcoins

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Pareto Chart of Crypto HoldingsAll Responses ( n = 148 )

Do respondents own Bitcoin, Altcoins, or Both?


Cryptocurrency Holdings & Awareness

14CONCLUSION: The % of respondents indicating that they only own alternative cryptocurrencies (red) displays a slightly upward trend the longer respondents are familiar with cryptocurrency. Conversely, the percentage of respondents that hold bitcoin only and no alternative cryptocurrencies (blue) displays a downward trend from roughly 15% (<1 year) to 0% (>4 years) the longer they are aware of cryptocurrency.

** By Awareness, this report means to reflect how long respondents have been aware of cryptocurrency.

Section 3: Bitcoins vs. Altcoins

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Bitcoins vs. Altcoins! I was interested to know about those individuals that o w n e d o n l y a l t e r n a t i v e cryptocurrencies and no bitcoin. To many, this would seem counterintuitive as many of the alternative crypto currencies require bitcoin to purchase in the first place without actually mining them yourself. ! This chart displays the count of respondents that reported not owning any bitcoins but owning altcoins. Please note the only altcoins included in this survey specifically were Vertcoin, L i t e c o i n , D o g e c o i n , a n d Darkcoin. The “Other” category is representative of over 200 other altcoins.

CONCLUSION: There was a fairly even distribution of altcoin ownership by non-bitcoin holding respondents. I was somewhat surprised to find this to be the case as I believed there might be a single altcoin community more prone to purely own their coin and no bitcoin. There may still be others in the space that were not included int his survey that would prove this true.

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Bitcoins vs. Altcoins

CONCLUSION: On average 86% of all altcoin holders also own bitcoin. This seemed like a fair assumption to have made prior to seeing this data but it is interesting to know that across all altcoin communities, irregardless of coin or purchase requirement, roughly the same percentage of owners also choose to own bitcoin simultaneously.

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Section 4: Fun Stuff Movie & Home Preferences

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Fun Stuff - Movie Preferences

CONCLUSION: It should come as no surprise that the genre of Fantasy and Sci-Fi movies was most favored by respondents, taking 40% of the vote. It should be noted that romance was an available category as well but received 0%. 19

Count 59 28 27 24 10Percent 39.9 18.9 18.2 16.2 6.8Cum % 39.9 58.8 77.0 93.2 100.0

DramaComedyDocumentaryActionFantasy / Science Fiction

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What genre of movie do you prefer?All Responses ( n = 148 )

What genre of movie to you most prefer?


Fun Stuff - Movie Preferences

CONCLUSION: It can be stated with relative certainty that if you own Darkcoin, you love the Aliens Trilogy. Dogecoin owners seem to be the biggest fans of comedy with a higher percentage of comedy fans than other altcoins (21%). Darkcoin needs to get a sense of humor. Litecoin loves a good documentary and probably is a big VICE fan (28%). And yes, we all love Star Wars.

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** It should be noted that only 8% of total respondents were female.

Fun Stuff - Home Preferences

CONCLUSION: Respondents reflected a fairly even balance across living preferences. The majority of respondents would prefer to live in a big house in the suburbs (36.5%) or an apartment in the city (35.8%) over cabin in the woods (27.7%). 21

Count 54 53 41Percent 36.5 35.8 27.7Cum % 36.5 72.3 100.0

Cabin in the woodsApartment in the cityBig house in the suburbs

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Where would you prefer to live?All Responses ( n = 148 )

Where would you prefer to live?


Fun Stuff - Home Preferences

CONCLUSION: Living preferences were relatively similar across different cryptocurrency owners with the exception of Vertcoin. In this regard Vertcoin owners would prefer to live in the suburbs more than 10% more often than other cryptocurrency owners. So domesticated… I guess the woods would be too much roughing it. Looks like doges are happy laying down just about anywhere.

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Final Conclusions

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Reviewing this data was fun, and despite the surveys informality I did derive a couple interesting conclusions as well as reinforce and dispel some preconceived notions. Here they are:!

1. Conservatives are either not strongly represented in the online community or do not appear to be a large demographic of cryptocurrency owners (only 12.8%). Darkcoin and Vertcoin appear to be slightly more conservative than other coins.!

2. The longer people know about cryptocurrency, the more likely it seems they will own multiple cryptocurrencies over time. Bitcoin-only owners drop from 15% for those with less than 1 year of familiarity with cryptocurrencies down to 0% with over 4 years in a steady downward trend. The longer you know, the more you own.!

3. If you own crypto, bitcoin is most likely in the mix. On average 86% of alternative cryptocurrency holders also reported owning bitcoin.!

4. We’ve still got a long way to go for both women and romance in bitcoin. Only 8% of respondents were female and 0% of respondents liked a good romance movie. Maybe I should have included RomCom as a category.!

In closing, I believe there are some indicators that currencies are becoming representative within the communities they are adopted. There are certainly some variances between coins respective to the variables reviewed today. Overtime I would anticipate these differences to become more clear and definitive, but as of June 2014 the space is still too muddied with speculation and irrational volatility to truly define if this will be the nature of cryptocurrency in the future… though I still suspect this will likely be the case. Only time, and data, will tell.

About the Author

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!About the Author:!Ryan Walker is an entrepreneur, freelance writer, and quality consultant. !For business inquiries or referrals please contact via Twitter or LinkedIn.!!Twitter: @RyanMWalker!LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/bgMH5kh!Blockchain Wallet: 153Cpm4vxGTKyUXyVWLQkx5s8fLwcb24mD!!

http://lnkd.in/bgMH5kh

Reddit cryptocurrency survey 2014

Economy & Finance

Transcript of Reddit cryptocurrency survey 2014