Credit: Coindesk Coindesk has released its latest report ‘Who really uses Bitcoin?’ in a bid to dispel, or compound, some of the myths and legends around the digital currency.Who do we think of when we talk about bitcoin users?Is it the ideological libertarian, wanting to subvert traditional finance?The speculator, wanting to profit from price movements?Or the thrill- seeking drug user, getting their goodies through illicit black markets?Media reports and forum conversations have doubtless portrayedall three.But are such stereotypes appropriate?The results are, well, largely to be expected given ongoing criticism laid at the door of the supposedly distributed and democratic cryptocurrency.In a survey of 4,000 Bitcoin owners worldwide, 91.8 percent defined themselves as male, 72.5 percent said they are white and 65.8 percent declared themselves a techie.Almost half of Bitcoin owners surveyed said they live in the US.Interestingly for less-well-publicized diversity issues, users also had the option to identify as transgender or decline to name their gender, but those people made up less than 3 percent of overall respondents.

More encouraging in the bid to dispel Bitcoin as a rich man’s game, the level of income of respondents was pretty fairly distributed, from those who earn less than $25,000 to those who make more than $200,000.Education level, however, was skewed slighty towards those with an undergrad degree or higher.Unfortunately, rather than representing a positive alternative to cash or a great technology to many owners, most people surveyed said they brought Bitcoin as an investment.Here’s how most people got hold of their Bitcoin.And here’s how much each person owns, with only around one in 10 claiming to be heavily invested.Half of respondents said they have used Bitcoin for online shopping, with just over 10 percent saying they’d also used them to shop in person, while 35 percent said they’d never used them in this way.The most popular things to buy among this audience were, not surprisingly, tech gadgets and digital content.Coindesk, which produced the report, has urged the Bitcoin community to embrace diversity if they want it to survive and lays out in detail a number of areas for improvement.

Market adoption is one of the key goals for many in the bitcoin community.Expanding it beyond a niche base of users is key to solving many of its problems, not least of which is liquidity.New markets typically contain new kinds of people, from different demographics.But it’s not dead yet, despite the many Bitcoin Obituaries written since it first launched.Read next: Apple just hired a leading VR expert, which could mean a 'VRKit' is in the worksHomeNews Bitcoin Needs More University Education Efforts To Reach Millennial Demographic NewsBy on August 23, 2014 Reuben Yap [ BolehVPN , Geekzen ] is an active member of our bitcoin community and his company, BolehVPN was the 1st Malaysia based company to accept bitcoin (btc) payments back in March 2013.We managed to get some time off his busy schedule and got some insights into how this mild mannered lawyer, Aikido expert and entrepreneur thinks: BitcoinMalaysia: Were you using bitcoin before introducing it on BolehVPN and Geekzen?

Reuben: Nope, I started looking into Bitcoin as it started to be a popular method of paying for VPNs because of its greater anonymity and customers were requesting for it.bitcoin atm englandBitcoinMalaysia: Personally, how do you use bitcoin?litecoin pool no feeReuben: I use BitCoin both for investment and payments for BitCoin miners or even small things like food, power supply units and electrical extension outlets.uno coin bitcoinBitcoinMalaysia: What is the current acceptance of bitcoin in Malaysia?bitcoin funding team youtubeReuben: Pretty poor, most Bitcoin holders in Malaysia tend to hoard it but slowly we’ve been convincing them to use it for smaller payments such as for food and such whereby volatility in price isn’t such a big factor (especially in our local Kuching community).bitcoin lite wallet

BitcoinMalaysia: How many BolehVPN / Geekzen customers pay in bitcoin?ethereum write smart contractReuben: We get about 3-5 Bitcoin transactions a day in BitCoin.обменять bitcoin wmzDue to our nature of business as being a privacy service we do not know exact demographics but from the names they register under (which may be fake), they do appear to be almost entirely foreign.bitcoin bits to usdBitcoinMalaysia: What are the advantages for a local business to accept bitcoin?ethereum ciscoReuben: No chargeback requests, low transaction fees and it’s quite fun to beep money over through smart phones.It’s also basically free publicity with zero cost in accepting BitCoin.I think also BitCoin creates communities where you can really meet a wide variety of people, an excellent example are the weekly meetups at NDC (Nasi Dagang Kelantan Capitol), whereby people from investment bankers, IT specialists, lawyers, businessmen and students can all come together and discuss about BitCoin.

Accepting BitCoin for your business means you can become a part of this community as well!BitcoinMalaysia: In your opinion, what is the future of bitcoin in Malaysia?Reuben: Bank Negara’s current stand is rather cautious but I do think it will take a few years before BitCoin takes off in Malaysia partly due to the hoarder’s mentality and people getting into BitCoin to ‘make money’ as opposed to seeing its long term benefits.BolehVPN was the first merchant in Malaysia to accept BitCoin but still the majority of Malaysians still prefer to pay via fiat since they worry that they’re losing out on any potential increase in BitCoin price and the hassle of getting more BitCoin.Even NDC which was the weekly hub of BitCoin activity, took a while for its members to start paying via BitCoin.IPMart (one of the country’s largest online tech merchant) is making a very positive step in accepting BitCoin and bringing it into the public awareness.Three things need to happen for BitCoin adoption to rise in Malaysia.

a) a ready Malaysian exchange at competitive prices to trade BitCoin b) a cluster of reputable vendors that would accept BitCoin for payments.c) regulatory guidance from the authorities that would not be overly restrictive.[ ed: let’s hope they don’t stunt innovation ] We are not a country like Argentina where high rates of inflation more than 30% are driving people to invest in BitCoin instead despite its volatility.Our ringgit is relatively stable and so there isn’t a huge demand for an alternative currency.BitcoinMalaysia: Will bitcoin change the local consumer / e-commerce trends?Reuben: In its current form, BitCoin is an excellent way to transfer money cross borders and to not require bank accounts or a third party to hold your money.However for day to day local consumer/e-commerce usage, it does not offer any significant benefits over regular fiat from a consumer perspective and in certain ways BitCoin can be more of a hassle because of its 10 minute block confirmation time.

Online banking is cheaper and fast for e-commerce and cash is easily obtainable.Only merchants gain benefit from using BitCoin by avoiding payment processing fees which are usually 3% and there is no risk of charge-backs.Also although BitCoin is seen as not requiring bank accounts, the reality is currently, you do need bank accounts to get BitCoin off cryptocurrency exchanges.Perhaps in the future when BitCoin’s price is stable, it can be a great way to store wealth securely, but not in its current form.BitCoin’s real strength lies in international transactions which are painless and fast and cheap making systems such as telegraphic transfers and Western Union seem archaic and slow in comparison.However, I think the real benefits of BitCoin are yet to be seen.The currency is revolutionary but the real breakthrough was the invention of the blockchain.Already in development are systems for ‘smart contracts’ whereby blockchain technology can be used to create things such as joint savings accounts, trust funds which would be managed automatically without having to rely on a trusted authority.