The attitude of academic staff towards Bitcoin

Purpose: Bitcoin, the most prominent among cryptocurrencies, is a peer-to-peer (“P2P”) electronic currency and payment system used based on mutual trust. The study aims to measure awareness of Bitcoin, which has recently become popular among investors with its rapidly increasing use. To this end, a questionnaire was applied to the participants to evaluate their opinions and preferences regarding Bitcoin. With this purpose in mind, a questionnaire was applied to the academics of Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University in Turkey. Methodology: In the process of analysing the obtained data, frequency analysis and the chi-square test method were used by using the SPSS 26.0 software package. Results: According to the results of the study, it was observed that 51.6% of the academics (159 persons) had knowledge of Bitcoin, and while 31.5% of the academics participating in the study (97 persons) considered they would buy Bitcoin within five years, 57% (176 persons) conceived the use of Bitcoin would increase within ten years. Despite all these positive attitudes, it was also observed that 45.5% (140 people) considered Bitcoin as unreliable and 51.6% (159 persons) would prefer gold instead of using Bitcoin. As for the opinion of academics, it was concluded that gold and other different investment tools would be preferred instead of Bitcoin despite its increasing use. Conclusion: This research is important as it is the first research study in the field, which means that no similar study has been conducted in Turkey before, and it is thus expected to greatly contribute to the literature within the context of the importance and originality of the study.