A recent survey discovered that more than half of Russians know of bitcoin, with higher awareness among younger age groups and those living in large cities.
Ever since the bitcoin boom in 2017, more and more people all over the world have grown more aware of cryptocurrency. The case is no different in Russia. According to a new survey by VCIOM, 56% of participants stated that they knew of bitcoin. VCIOM is a Russian-based organization with a focus on monitoring the general opinion of the Russian public. Notably, 66% of users who claimed to use the internet regularly confirmed to know of bitcoin.
The survey suggests that younger generations are much more aware of bitcoin than their older counterparts. In the age group between 18-24, 75% claim to know of bitcoin. Interestingly, male participants demonstrated more awareness of the industry than females, with 71% of all surveyed males who claim to know of bitcoin. Furthermore, residents in big cities seem to be more crypto-aware than those in rural areas. From participants who hail from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, 74% stated to know of cryptocurrency.
While these figures are certainly encouraging, most participants who claimed to know of bitcoin, later admitted to having no additional knowledge of the cryptocurrency other than merely being aware of it. For example, only 34% of participants knew that bitcoin was accessible to anyone, where a further 16% of participants were under the impression that bitcoin is banned in Russia. Conversely, 29% of participants knew about cryptocurrency mining, while 44% knew that cashing out on your bitcoin funds is still illegal in Russia.
Surprisingly, 40% stated that they knew that bitcoin can be used to purchase goods and services, despite the fact that bitcoin is often considered as a digital asset, something not quite akin to monetary value. Overall, Russians seemed mostly divided when it came to securing your bitcoin funds. While 36% believed that stealing bitcoin is a complex and difficult process, 33% believed that it was easy to execute.
A notable conclusion from the study is that Russians don’t believe that bitcoin is a lucrative investment option. The majority of participants (67%), who previously demonstrated bitcoin awareness, stated that they did not consider a bitcoin investment to be profitable. In addition, only 9% of all participants showed any interest in investing in bitcoin later on.
The survey seems to confirm an earlier one conducted by an Indonesian firm, where the majority of Russian participants seemed unconvinced that bitcoin would popular or widely used in the future. According to the VCIOM survey, most Russians felt that there is too little information available about bitcoin to truly trust it. However, another recent study also suggests a growing trend among Russians which come into conflict with these assessments.
The firm, Medialogia, recently collected information which confirmed that in the last year, cryptocurrency-related Russian publications have jumped to reach more than 185,000 in the last year alone. The publications cover everything related to bitcoin, including, price trends, regulation policies, bitcoin billionaires, and bitcoin projects.
According to the report by Medialogia, bitcoin has been mentioned in over 6,543,800 posts from Russian publications. In addition, the word “blockchain” has been mentioned 1.8 million times in 2017 alone. Some of the top 10 words used in Russian posts included cryptocurrency, ethereum, and mining, with the term, “ICO” reaching the number 11 spot.
However, firms and individuals are still cautious about being optimistic on this trend. According to Oleg Chernozub, a Lead Consulting Expert at VCIOM, most Russians seem to have adapted to the old adage of when an investment option is discussed too widely, it is likely to crash.
