Sampling
From Bitcoin sources such as bitcoin.stackexchange.com (accessed Sept. 2013) it is deemed near impossible to find the total number of Bitcoin users, as users possess multiple Bitcoin accounts and individuals deliberately preserving anonymity. There was an effort from the author to gain as many Bitcoin users opinions as possible. Despite the lack of knowledge of the entire population of Bitcoin users a rule of thumb of 100 participants is stated to be the minimum size to produce a typical problem solving market research (Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2010).
The author wished to test the TAM thus Bitcoin users were targeted specifically for their proximity and understanding of the research field. The extent of international reach of the World Wide Web along with the innate ability of e-currency uses to utilise/feel comfortable with using the Internet made and open survey conducted on Survey Monkey appropriate to collect views. Bitcoin users were contacted to take part in the survey with posts on Facebook, and if they tweeted “#Bitcoin” on Twitter.
Types of variable
After general information section of participant attributes e.g. gender, age, education, hours on the Internet, and location questions regarding the research topic ensued. “Internal processes” which are: attitudes; and beliefs regarding the research topic and factors of the e-trust model were questioned to gain the general sentiment of Bitcoin users regarding Bitcoin. Further questions regarding “externals” which are: behaviour; and attributes were asked to enquire about the actual performance of participants within the research field. The researcher intends to uncover the existence or absence of relationships and the level of applicability which TAM can be utilised in this research field using statistical analysis of data collected by the questionnaire.
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The New Exchange 