Towards understanding the perception and management of risk and trust among cryptocurrency (non) users

近年来，随着加密货币市场的大规模增长，新用户大量涌入。虽然用户总数很难衡量，但剑桥大学估计，截至2017年，加密货币的总拥有者在290万至580万之间。至于不同的加密货币的数量，它爆炸式增长到2000多种。为了正确看待加密货币市场的增长速度，人们可以看看最近几年的整体市值。2016年初约为70亿美元，2017年3月接近250亿美元，2018年3月达到4000多亿美元。尽管之前对区块链域的安全风险进行了研究，但人们几乎不知道加密货币用户实际上是如何感知和管理风险的。文献中的主要重点一直是识别潜在的攻击媒介和风险情景，而不考虑各自的最终用户。虽然早些时候的一项研究调查了用户经历的风险，但没有进一步调查风险感知和缓解，以及在加密货币和交易所中建立信任的技术。解决这一知识差距将有助于为加密货币用户开发更有效的技术支持。在这个项目中，我们将与Symetria工程师和其他员工合作，调查加密货币用户和非用户对风险和信任的感知和管理。了解知情的非用户对加密货币相关风险的看法也是至关重要的。通过调查风险认知，我们将确定可能阻止知情的非用户购买加密货币的风险。我们相信，从我们的调查中获得的理解将在未来加密货币钱包和交易平台的设计中发挥重要作用。我们的发现还将帮助加密货币公司消除对非用户的误解，最终可能会促进加密货币的采用，并简化入职过程。

With the massive growth of cryptocurrency markets in the recent years, came an influx of new users. While the overall number of users is difficult to measure, the University of Cambridge estimates between 2.9 and 5.8 million overall owners of cryptocurrencies as of 2017. As for the number of distinct cryptocurrencies, it exploded to over 2,000. To put the pace of the cryptocurrency market growth into perspective one can look at the overall market capitalization just in recent years. In early 2016 it was around $7 billion, in March 2017--nearly $25 billion, and it reached over $400 billion in March 2018. Despite prior research on security risks in the Blockchain domain, little is known how cryptocurrency users actually perceive and manage the risks. The main focus in literature has been on identifying potential attack vectors and risk scenarios, without taking the respective end users into account. While an earlier study investigated risks experienced by users, risk perception and mitigation, as well as techniques for building trust in cryptocurrencies and exchanges, have not been investigated any further. Addressing this knowledge gap will inform the development of more effective technology support for cryptocurrency users. In this project, we will collaborate with Symetria engineers and other employees to investigate the perceptions and management of risk and trust among users and non-users of cryptocurrencies. Understanding the perceptions of the risks associated with cryptocurrencies among informed non-users is also vital. By investigating the risk perception, we will identify risks that potentially prevent informed non-users from purchasing cryptocurrencies. We believe that the understanding gained from our investigations will play an important role in the design of future cryptocurrency wallets and exchange platforms. Our findings will also help cryptocurrency companies to clear misunderstandings of non-users, which could eventually facilitate adoption of cryptocurrencies and ease the onboarding process.