Design for trust: An exploration of the challenges and opportunities of bitcoin users

• Published in: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
• Main Author: Sas C.; Khairuddin I.E.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: Association for Computing Machinery 2017
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85044587250&doi=10.1145%2f3025453.3025886&partnerID=40&md5=07a20ec071c03d28dada81d88185d4c7

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which has received increasing interest over the last five years. Built upon a decentralized peer to peer system, it supports transparent, fast, cost effective, and irreversible transactions, without the need for trusting third party financial institutions. We know however little about people's motivation and experience with bitcoin currency. This paper reports on interviews with 20 bitcoin users in Malaysia about their experience and trust challenges. Findings show that bitcoins are used more as store of value for speculative investment or savings' protection. The paper advances the HCI theories on trust by identifying main bitcoin characteristics and their impact on trust, such as decentralization, unregulation, embedded expertise, and reputation, as well as transactions' transparency, low cost, and easiness to complete. We discuss insecure transactions, the risk of dishonest traders and its mitigating strategies. The paper concludes with design implications including support for the transparency of two-way transactions, tools for materializing trust, and tools for supporting reversible transactions. © 2017 ACM.