From 65b2309c38c38c46980ee7a801a005a95b4e302a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Radim=20Lipov=C4=8Dan?= Date: Fri, 17 May 2019 12:55:57 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Docs - Monero User Research --- .../_posts/2019-05-04-Monero-user-research.md | 256 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 256 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/_posts/2019-05-04-Monero-user-research.md diff --git a/docs/_posts/2019-05-04-Monero-user-research.md b/docs/_posts/2019-05-04-Monero-user-research.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a6b237 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/_posts/2019-05-04-Monero-user-research.md @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: Monero User Research +subtitle: Getting into users perception +tags: [research,cryptocurrency,users] +gh-badge: [star, fork, follow] +--- + +## 5 Monero User Research + +The goal of this research is to gather information on end users behavior +regarding Monero cryptocurrency with emphasis on key management +and security practices. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was +created. +Specific survey design and research questions are based on Bitcoin +security and privacy study, typical usage patterns of cryptocurrency +users, online forums and Reddit communities centered around Mon- +ero as well as problematic areas regarding computer and data security +in general [50]. + +### 5.1 Research questions + +The survey was designed around seven question groups. Some of them +were shown only if the participant chose the appropriate answer. + +- G01 - Introductory information +- G02 - Monero usage +- G03 - Monero key and coin management +- G04 - Monero and malicious things +- G05 - Monero recovery +- G06 - Special question set for miners +- G07 - Demographics + + +Following this pattern, four research questions were set: + +- R1: What are Monero’s main use cases? How do participants + perceive Monero’s features? +- R2: What are participant’s ways of wallet access and storage? +- R3: What security incidents have affected users? How did they + deal with them? +- R4: In case of recovery, how did they recover their keys? + +### 5.2 Participants and survey’s background + +The significant characteristic of Monero is its anonymity, and this +feature is not taken by community lightly. Due to this fact, the survey +was not hosted on third party servers, but instead on dedicated Virtual +Private Server (VPS) running Lime Survey self-hosted software with +HTTPS interface using signed Letsencrypt certificates [51–53]. +This means that data exchanged between participants and survey +software stays only between these two parties, so Google or other big +data company cannot analyze them. To allow extended anonymity +features, Tor and proxy connections were allowed, but each participant +had to solve the CAPTCHA before starting the survey. + + +#### 5.2.1 Methodology + +Data collection method was online only and was using the survey +website software. Participants selection was based on opportunity +sampling. Links for the research were shared among dedicated Reddit +Monero community, Facebook Monero groups as well as Cryptocur- +rency forums. Study limitations are described in the Section 6.3. +To reduce nonresponse rate, participants were asked only to fill +out parts that were significant for them, e.g., Monero recovery part +stayed hidden in the form if the user selected that he/she had never +made any recovery of the seed or wallet keys in the previous part. +The data from the respondents were collected from 11.15.2018 to +01.27.2019. The complete survey is attached in the Appendix Figure C. + +### 5.3 Collected data + + +Before entering the survey, each participant had to pass the bot test +by entering the correct CAPTCHA, which resulted in 179 participants +of the questionnaire in total. As for survey data cleansing, following +measurements for valid dataset were taken: + +1. Partially answered or unanswered questionnaires were not taken + into account (67 out of 179). +2. Respondents that filled out the survey in less than two minutes + were discarded (1 out of 179). +3. Responses with more than 4 entries with the same IP were fil- +tered (0 out of 179). + (a) In total 7 responses were sent from duplicate IP addresses. +The highest number of responses from a single IP was 3, +which belonged to MIT University. +4. Responses containing invalid answers, e.g., not using Monero + or repeating the same answer pattern in multiple submissions +(1 out of 179). + +Figure 5.1: Overview of respondents in the user survey dataset. +Usinggeoiplookuppackage in Ubuntu on the filtered dataset, most of +the responses were from USA (31 out of 113), followed by the Czech +Republic (17 out of 113) and Germany (11 out of 113). Detailed list of +countries with the corresponding number of responses is available in +the Appendix Table B.1. + +### 5.4 Results + + +Next section is based on the final filtered dataset with 113 responses +of people who voluntarily entered the research based on opportunity +sampling. + +#### 5.4.1 General information + +First, users were asked about their operating system preferences when +accessing Monero. Majority of users tend to access Monero using +Windows 58% (65 out of 113) or Linux 60% (68 out of 113). While +accessing Monero from mobile Android OS 43% (49 out of 113) is +primarily used. As for the Apple ecosystem, MacOS combined with +iOS was selected as used method of access only in 14% (16 out of 113) +occurences. + + +Monero desktop application usage + +Desktop applications are used by 104 out of 113 users, making it +the most frequent means of accessing the wallet. As Monero Official +application has no other direct competitors aside from web-based +wallets, the majority of users 81% (84 out of 104) use the official + + +application with GUI, but there is also a notable part of the users +in the dataset that use CLI as well 53% (55 out of 104). Alternative +desktop clients, that were sometimes misinterpreted as web apps, are +used by only a few users cca 4% (5 out of 104). + +Monero Mobile application usage + +From 113 people that filled out the survey, 53 of them stated that +they use either Android or iOS application for accessing their Monero +wallet. Digging deeper, out of 49 Android users, Monerujo application +is used by 92% (45 out of 49) of them, followed by other Android +wallets 14% (7 out of 49). Freewallet on Android is only used by one +user (2%) in the dataset thus following the fact the community does +not like closed source software with bad history as mentioned in the +Chapter 4.4. Detailed description of the applications is included in the +Section 6.1.3. + +5. Monero User Research + + +iOS is used by 7 out of 113 users (please note that users could check +usage of both platforms as can be visible from simply adding iOS and +Android users and comparing it to the total number of mobile users). +All of them (7) reported using the Cakewallet application. Following +the Android pattern, one user also revealed usage of Freewallet app. + +Online wallet services + +When asked about online wallet usage, only 24 people (out of 113) +said that they use some sort of online service with MyMonero wallet +being used the most 79% (19 out of 24). + +Wallet software usage + +First part of the survey shows that userbase present in the dataset is +more oriented towards open-source software in general (110 out of 113 +use some form of open-source Monero client), but this is not limited to +the usage of particular OS as there are 33% (37 out of 113) of Windows +only users, 35% (40 out of 113) Linux only users and 25% (28 out of +113) users of both OS. This discovery follows the information about +Monero community as they prefer open source software (OSS) to +closed source software (CSS) because they can not personally review +for hidden features or unintentional bugs. + +#### 5.4.2 Monero usage + +When asked “ _What are your reasons to use Monero?_ ”, the majority of +respondents in the dataset said that they use Monero or at least are +interested in the topic because of the technology 88% (99 out of 113), +but also see it as an investment 73% (83 out of 113). +A significant portion of respondents also see Monero as a way of +secret storage of value 74% (84 out of 113) but not as much in the way +of sending money 53% (60 out of 113). + +This result is strongly affected by the way how participants were +selected (self-selection) and from what sites they were informed about +the survey (mainly Reddit Monero subreddits and Facebook Monero +groups). The short overview of the preferences is shown in the Table +5.1 with the full text of the questions asked available in the Appendix +Figure C. + +Transactions in the Monero network performed by respondents +can be divided into two user groups, where the first group that can +be described as active, those who make at least one transaction per +month, 50% (53 out of 107) and passive who are much less frequent +51% (54 out of 107). Detailed overview of transactions frequency in +the dataset is in the Figure 5.9. +Following this question, respondents were asked if they hold onto +their coins for a long time (often referred to as one being a HODLer). +Majority of respondents 79% (84 out of 106) said that they are, but this +statement conflicts with transaction frequency. When comparing data +of respondents that make a transaction at least every month, about +60% (34 out of 57) think that they are HODLers, this contradicts the +previously mentioned statement. + +Important usage factor of a currency is where its users can pay +with it. Monero has already a known reputation between darknet +markets, but its mainstream usage isn’t something that is advertised +as its feature. +When asked about the payment options, many of the respondents +45% (51 out of 113) selected that they use Monero as a way for donating +other people, followed by paying for VPN services 35% (31 out of 113). +Although Monero features are considered ideal for black market use, +only 5% (6 out of 113) respondents revealed that they use Monero +cryptocurrency in this way. +Perception and the reality of anonymity in cryptocurrency is an +important topic in the cryptocurrency environment [54]. Although +Monero is private by default, additional precautions can be made to +hide users activity from the third party like using Kovri or Tor. +Among users in the dataset, Kovri 7% (8 out of 113) or Tor 20% +(23 out of 113) is used by less than one third of the respondents in +total as can be seen in the Table 5.2. + +**5.4.3 Monero key and coin management** + +Apart from client software that is used for accessing and making +transactions in Monero, wallet management is at least as important. +Main reason is that users choice of wallet storage has a direct influence +on who has access to the funds as explained along with the wallet +types in the Chapter 4.1. + +#### 5.4.4 Monero recovery + +For further wallet protection, the majority of users also encrypt their +wallet or the datastore on which the keys reside on 78% (88 out of +113). +A slightly higher number of users admit backing up their wallet +keys 89% (101 out of 113) while a significant number of respondents +had already needed to restore their wallet keys 44% (50 out of 113). +To complete the recovery statistics, 98% (49 out of 50) were able to +restore the keys from the backup media. +See the Figures 5.12 and 5.13 for visualization of wallet recovery +reasons and restore methods. + +#### 5.4.5 Monero and malicious software + +This part was answered only by those respondents that selected Yes +(15 out of 113) when asked whether they have ever been affected by +malicious software that used Monero in some way. +The primary cause of problems was mining malware (8) or some +form of mining script (7). The main affected platform was running +Windows (10), and malware was recognized mainly by slow system +response (7) and high CPU usage (11). + +#### 5.4.6 Demographics + +Survey participants were mainly males 44% (50 out of 113), females +2% (2 out of 113) represented only a small portion of the dataset, and +some of the participants did not disclose their gender 54% (61 out of +113). Most respondents in the dataset were from the age groups 25-34 +29% (33 out of 113).