As reported in a new survey published by an Irish company, out of every six bitcoin users worldwide, more than one of them has been the victim of a hacker or exchange shutdown which resulted in the loss of money. 770 bit coin users from 68 countries worldwide were polled and bitcoins worth thousands in euros have been reported as loss or stolen. These losses came as a result of hackers gaining access to their accounts or bit coin owners completely losing access to their online banking accounts.

The Irish based company, Bitcoin Marketing Team, conducted the survey. The results were delivered just a few days after a Hong Kong base big coin exchange experienced a cyber attack that costs big coin owners €57m. This attack cause panic and further damage to the confidence of consumers in virtual currency. Even more, this same Hong Kong based exchange suffered another cyber attack in May of 2014. The Mt Gox exchange declared bankruptcy and large stashes of companies bitcoins disappeared out of their online account without a trace.

Jaime McCormick, the coordinator of the survey, stated that “while respondents like the freedom of bitcoin, there are still many negative feelings around it, as highlighted in mentions of scams, loss of bitcoin due to technical reasons, or hacks.” He added that “we wanted to stimulate debate about bitcoin by conducting this worldwide poll. With a lack of primary research in this area and with many research papers on the industry behind rather large paywalls that can be prohibitively expensive for normal bitcoin users, students, academics and startups to access, we want to make the result available freely for the community and industry.” Because big coins are viewed as revolutionary, rapid and discrete, big coins have become popular and are continuing to grow in popularity.

66% of the people that were surveyed stated that they had been on either the sending or receiving side of a bitcoin transaction in the seven days proceeding the survey. Interestingly enough, the survey also reveals that the population of bitcoin users is predominantly composed of men. The profile of bitcoin users was found to be predominantly male, with a insignificant proportion of female users. Most respondents reported to be in their early 20s to their late 40s and age, with only a very limited number of those surveyed reported to be under the age of 18 years old.

Significant efforts were made in order to target female bitcoin owners and attract them to participate in the survey in order for the amount of responses to be balance. But to no avail, continuous efforts and extensive marketing campaigns only attracted a small pool of female respondents. Only 5.7% of the participants of the survey were female, with 91.8% reporting themselves as being male and the remaining 2.5% choosing not to specify their gender.

Gambling with the use of big coins is a sector that is already established for exponential growth. 44% of survey participants stated that they had used bitcoins to gamble online with. Most of them report it using the virtual currency to place bets on dice roll websites, while others stated that they preferred sports bets and online casino games. While bitcoins only consume a small percentage of online gambling finances currently, virtual currency based gambling organizations are developing rapidly. This is largely do to the low costs and rapid payments that bitcoins offer as an advantage over traditional forms of currency.

With the eminent expansion that is sure to develop within the bitcoin gambling community, Ireland is already positioned to lead the way within that technological infrastructure. While this survey shines a negative light on coins as a safe form of alternative currency, Ireland succeeded at stimulating debate about big coins that will bring awareness to those unfamiliar with the currency. Prior to the release of this study, there was a lack of research in the field of bitcoins, the community and the industry discovered that it was prohibitively expensive for the average bitcoin user, student or researcher to access industry related information. What the survey released, the negative feelings regarding bitcoins may have been highlighted, the debate has escalated onto a global scale that is sure to boost the number of new users more than it scares them away.