While awareness of cryptocurrencies is rising, very few people have actually used them.
A new survey, from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the Massachusetts Division of Banks, found that 51% of people in the U.S. were aware of bitcoin and other currencies, albeit only about 3% had said they used it.Still, that’s a big change from earlier this year. Back in February, another survey found that about three-quarters of the population hadn’t heard of bitcoin, and 80% said they’d never even consider using it.
The previous CSBS survey was taken in May, and canvassed 1,000 online consumers.Some of the findings are not surprising; men, for instance, were more likely (64%) than women (38%) to be aware of virtual currencies. Only a limited number said they’d buy or use them – 65% of the overall respondents said they were “unlikely” to ever use them.Younger respondents were more likely to have purchased bitcoins or other currencies, and Hispanics (30%) and African Americans (24%) were also more likely than whites (14%) to be willing to purchase virtual currencies.While people in households where the income is over $100,000 were more likely to have heard of bitcoin (70%) than those in lower-income households (43%), they were less likely to say they’d purchase bitcoins (11%) than those in households with incomes of less than $100,000 (19%).
Green Mining - DigitalBTCIt’s always seemed like a no-brainer to us: if the cost of electricity necessary for bitcoin is so expensive, well, why not try and cut those costs by going green?One miner apparently had the same idea, according to a report in CoinDesk. DigitalBTC, an Australian firm, signed a multi-year contract with a U.K. firm, Verne Global, that specializes in green data centers.Verne’s Iceland data center, where digitalBTC will place its mining hardware, is powered completely by renewable energy.DigitalBTC expects to cut its energy costs by 40%.
