The Influence of Privacy Concerns on Cryptocurrency Acceptance

Despite the hype, cryptocurrencies have to far failed to establish themselves as a means of payment for everyday transactions, spawning a wealth of research into acceptance factors and obstacles for cryptocurrency adoption. Our paper adds to this literature by investigating the role of organizational privacy concerns and risk perceptions on cryptocurrency acceptance. Employing a representative survey of German e-commerce users with 257 respondents we find that while risk perceptions and concerns about data collection do affect adoption willingness for cryptocurrencies, neither are useful for predicting actual adoption behavior. This is especially notable since the lack of central counterparties that may steal funds or personal data was one of the original motivations for the creation of the first cryptocurrencies. Our results provide insight into the nature of cryptocurrency adoption and highlights a discrepancy between intention and behavior.