United Kingdom Poll Reveals People Want Bitcoin Regulated
A new poll taken by Miningpool.co.uk reveals some interesting information on Bitcoin views and use throughout the United Kingdom. Miningpool.co.uk has spent the last two months polling over 10,000 unique monthly visitors to find out how the British Bitcoin community uses and sees Bitcoin.
Bitcoin use still dominated by the usual suspects
The new poll reveals that use of bitcoin is still an issue, with only 6% of those surveyed claiming to be female owners of the digital currency in the United Kingdom. Demographically, almost half of all bitcoin users in the country are between 25-34 years of age. Just over 10% are 45 years of age or older.
How are people in the United Kingdom getting their hands on bitcoin? Almost half get them from other bitcoin owners or broker sites like LocalBitcoins.com. Local Bitcoin.com is by far the most popular broker site, with over 40% of the people polled saying it was their site of choice. BitBargain was second at 18%. Almost one in five get the currency through their own mining services, and about one in three use bitcoin exchanges. The most popular exchanges are Bitstamp, with almost one-third of all exchange purchasers using them. Coinfloor has about 20% of the UK market, and BTC-e runs at about 10% overall.
What are people in Britain using bitcoins for? About two-thirds of those responding said they either use them for savings or future purchases. Day trading is the next most common refrain at about 20%, closely followed by sending it to friends and family. Paying bills with it is becoming slightly more common, as businesses slowly accept it more and more, at just over 6%.
Some of the most interesting views come from those who were asked if the British government’s intended regulation of bitcoin are going to be positive or negative. Only 13% said they don’t believe in bitcoin regulation while almost half, at 48%, favor future regulations by government.
“It clarifies some grey areas for businesses and indicates that the government does not currently consider it a threat to the banking system. there may be long-term negative side-effects (of being regulated by the government), but the short term implications seem positive,” said one poll taker.
Finally over 80% are dismayed at the inability to use bitcoin in UK businesses, and almost half see a reluctance by businesses to accept bitcoin. Less than 15% can use bitcoin at businesses locally to their satisfaction.
Hopefully, bitcoin regulation may help improve adoption, without hurting its ability to innovate and compete with legacy payment systems, like debit card transactions. This is the downside of government regulation, the influence of banks and corporations on how the legislation is written, protecting private interests over the greater good. This poll also highlights large opportunities for entrepreneurs to bring women and older consumers into the young male-dominated bitcoin space.
Anything surprise you in the new polling numbers? Share above and comment below.
