Qualitative Methodology

Company Interviews

Companies who spend time and money to exist and transact within the Bitcoin community were asked to participate in qualitative research. Interviews were conducted to let business owners tell us in their own words what in particular they trust about the technology. There are risks and opportunities in every business environment whose complexities cannot be gathered by quantitative methods alone. Suchman & Jordan (1990) described the interview method as a soft way to gather hard data about a phenomenon with the ability for exploration and probing in depth. Despite these advantages Bryman & Bell (2007) commented on the large labour intensiveness of conducting, transcribing and analysing qualitative interviews.

A semi-structured interview schedule was written to probe the interviewee’s views on Bitcoin within the framework of Venkatesh & Davis’ (1996) technology acceptance model (TAM). The interview schedule can be found in appendix 1, was written for data collection. This ensured that all the necessary points were covered and that questions appeared in a logical order while providing the interviewee with enough freedom to express their thoughts. “Interviews are used …in order to conduct exploratory discussions to reveal and understand not only the ‘what’ and the ‘how’, but also to place more emphasis on exploring the ‘why’” (Saunders et al, 2009 pp.212).The non-standardisation of answers provided the potential to truly explore perspectives of companies yet identical questions were asked to increase the comparability between answers. An effort was made to maintain the same environment in which each interview was conducted. The interview schedule was emailed prior to the interview so that the interviewee could prepare answers. This also meant that the technique of omitting questions as suggested by Saunders et al. (2009) depending on the flow of dialogue was minimal. An interview schedule was used to provide a framework for the conversation. International interviews were conducted with the aid of Skype and the same interview schedule for everyone was used to further produce a constant environment for data collection although the researcher was unable to control the environment on the opposite end of the Skype line.

Sampling

20 Major silver and platinum member companies in the Bitcoinfoundation.org were contacted along with 20 other lesser known companies to obtain a spread of responses from firms. These companies however had one unifying factor which was a possession of faith and trust in conducting e-commerce with Bitcoin. The author wished to gain data from people who had invested substantially and devoted time into Bitcoin. With varying annual turnovers, company size, products or services offered it is hoped that a general view of Bitcoin sentiment within companies could be gained. The exploratory and explanatory strengths of semi-structured interviews were deemed appropriate for this segment of the Bitcoin community.

Who	Country	Service/ Product	Other Information	Accolades	Website
CEO, a large forex-style bitcoin trading platform. Alias:FOREX	USA	Financial Services- Trading platform and public information	Dedicated to providing the Bitcoin community with ease of use and user security . The best trading choice for you out there.	Bitcoin Foundation- Silver Member	Chosen to remain anonymous
Top exec,Crypto-Finance	Belize	Financial Services- Investments	“Crypto-finance Investments, Ltd is currently a private ‘hedge fund’ that manages the Bitcoin/Litecoin funds of its owner and private partners.”	Bitcoin Foundation- Silver Member	http://www.crypto-finance.com
Peter Liska, Owner Yogiway	Slovakia	Sports Products	Order sports goods online payable with Bitcoins	Bitcoin Foundation- Silver Member	http://yogiway.eu/
Chris Odom, CTO  Monetas	Canada	Financial Services- Remittance using mobile phone app	“Our mission is to empower people to live and do business with greater freedom than ever before, creating a world of unprecedented prosperity…Are you ready for freedom? The future starts here.”		http://monetas.net
Ron Helwig, manger Shire Silver	USA	Commodities trading- Gold and silver exchange	“Shire Silver produces and promotes an alternative currency that is a combination of the best parts of traditional bullion and local scrip-type currencies.”		https://shiresilver.com/
Richard Kohl, exec Pikapay	Netherlands	Financial Services- Remittance using Twitter.	Originally called PayBitBack, which sent its first bitcoins in June 2011.The service was renamed PikaPay and formally launched during the Bitcoin Foundation’s Conference in San Jose on May 19, 2013.	“World’s first Bitcoin-to-Twitter payment service”	https://www.pikapay.com/
Jesse Heaslip, execBEX	Canada	Technical Services- Providing infrastructure for a currency exchange	“We do the tech, you do the us. Bex removes all he technical complexity of running a Bitcoin exchange.”	Bitcoin Foundation- Silver Member	http://bex.io/
Radoslav Albrecht, Managing Director Bitbond	Germany	Financial Services- Debt instruments.	The “first platform” for Bitcoin debt instruments. Borrow short term and long term loans. Lend and earn interest by funding interesting projects. Credit check information to assess the risk and return of projects	Bitcoin Foundation- Silver Member	https://www.bitbond.net/

Table 2: Companies Interviewed

High level executives and owners from eight companies were interviewed and the table above describes each interviewee and company briefly.

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