Hi,

I'm doing my Masters Project as part of a PhD in Web Science at the University of Southampton, in which I'm investigating the use of Virtual Payment Systems in cybercrime.

The aim of this survey is to try and understand how the Bitcoin community perceives criminal transactions along with possible ways to reduce criminal transactions.

The study is part of my Masters project, which is funded through the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre which is in turn funded by the EPSRC. I'll see if I can get it self archived after so it will be available to everyone.

I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill it out. There are 9 questions, 7 of which are multi-choice so it shouldn't take long (between 2 - 15 minutes).

The link for the survey is:

https://www.isurvey.soton.ac.uk/5830

If you visit that link, there's a bit more information and then if you want to take part, you must tick a box for consent, and then you will be taken to the survey.

Just a few clarifications based on issues raised when others have taken the survey:

• Personally, I support Bitcoin, I have no interests in stopping or shutting down Bitcoin - I would love to see it accepted as a currency.
• The reason I'm sending this survey out to Bitcoin community forums, as opposed to PayPal community forums, as my research so far has suggested a large amount of illegal products and services traded online are typically paid for with Bitcoin. I'm not implying that all, or even the majority, of Bitcoin transactions are criminal, but I'm also not denying that criminal transactions do happen with Bitcoin.
• When I talk about cybercrime and online crime, I'm referring to actions that a user takes part in online, which is illegal in their current jurisdiction.
• The survey will be available most likely until Wednesday 5th Sept, maybe longer if required, but I need to get the data analysed and written up to be handed in on the 14th September

Any feedback regarding the survey, the study or any useful comments or questions, don't hesitate to ask on here, or there's a contact e-mail address on the survey information page at the start.

Thanks in advanced

Dom.