People don't trust Google Glass or Bitcoin, if they've heard of them at all
Bitcoin isn't to be trusted and Google Glass should be banned, according to people surveyed recently, but at least they've heard of these new technologies.
People think Bitcoin is funny money and Google Glass has no specs appeal -- if they even know what these new technologies are.
Many people are still unaware of Google's smartglasses or digital currencies, according to new research from the UK, and those that do are worried about the privacy or financial issues of these hot new areas of technology.
Google goggles
On the day Google Glass went on sale to the public -- for one day only -- Gorkana surveyed 1,000 adults in Great Britain and discovered that 68 percent of those polled flat out don't know what Glass is.
Part of the problem is that Glass is only available in the US. But of those who have heard of it, almost half are concerned about the privacy implications of Google's smartglasses, with one in five thinking they should be banned from public places.
With Google forced to defend Glass against privacy controversy and reports of early adopters assaulted for wearing a pair, it seems we're still a long way off seeing eye-to-eye with this new technology.
Funny money
Meanwhile pollsters YouGov have asked 2,052 UK adults for their two cents on digital currencies on behalf of e-commerce company Venda. 71 percent of those responding to the survey on digital currency would rather not use Bitcoin to pay when shopping online, with 43 percent admitting they don't understand it, and the same percentage stating they don't trust virtual currencies at all.
Of those polled, 6 percent appreciate the anonymity of Bitcoin, while 5 percent said they'd readily adopt digital readies if doing so meant they didn't have to carry cash any more.
That backs up the findings from my asking my mates on Facebook scientifically rigorous research, where it seems that people outside the tech bubble have heard of Bitcoin but have little notion of how it works.
To coin a phrase
Digital currencies have hit the jackpot in the last year or so -- witness the hapless Welshman searching the local tip for a discarded hard drive holding Bitcoins that had exploded in value to a whopping $7.5 million.
More and more places are willing to accept or pay out Bitcoin, and not just achingly trendy Shoreditch hipster hangouts either: you can turn your unwanted gadgets, games and DVDs into Bitcoins at high street pawn shop CeX or bet the farm on Bitcoin in Las Vegas casinos, for example.
Bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency, but there are many others -- ranging from JuggaloCoin and Dogecoin to HullCoin, used by the local authority of Kingston-Upon-Hull to reward voluntary work and help those affected by government cuts.
Digital currencies aren't sound as a pound just yet, however. Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has been through a messy public meltdown, while digital money is haunted by alleged money laundering and drug dealing. And although US tax authorities acknowledge Bitcoin, in Japan banks are banned from dealing in cryptocurrency.
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