Cincinnati Edition: A new tool to protect cryptocurrency investors

Michael Jones, PhD, Carl H. Lindner College of Business assistant professor of economics and director of the Cryptoeconomics Lab at UC Digital Futures, and Truong “Jack” Luu, a doctoral student and Cryptoeconomics Lab research fellow, joined Cincinnati Edition to discuss their work into developing a scale to measure cryptoeconomics literacy.

“Our research is not about encouraging you to invest, but we want to make sure that we protect future adopters,” Luu said.

A 10-question survey, which is open source and available for any institution to use for free to measure the cryptoeconomics knowledge of their clients or population base, measures users’ knowledge about cryptoeconomics. A higher score represents a greater understanding of cryptoeconomics.

The average score has been six, Jones said, with 40% of people scoring less than a five.

“When you ask people how well they understand it, the vast majority of people said they just don’t have the confidence to make good decisions,” Jones said.

Many people who invested in cryptocurrency did so because of a fear of missing out, Jones said.

The researchers want individuals to be aware of which cryptocurrencies are legitimate, how to safely store their assets and how to avoid scams.

“There are about 23,000 cryptocurrencies out there, and not all of them are legitimate projects,” Luu said.

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Featured image at top: A pile of cryptocurrencies. Photo/Traxer on Unsplash