Survey Shows 3 in 10 Americans Share Crypto Wallet Passwords With Others

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A recently published study shows that crypto users are not using the best security practices in order to keep their crypto assets safe and secure from loss or theft. The report produced by Beyond Identity surveyed over 1,000 Americans who disclosed their password habits, and data shows that three out of ten people share their crypto wallet passwords with others.

63.2% Think Their Crypto Wallet Password Is Safe, 3 in 10 Americans Share Their Crypto Wallet Password With Others

One of the most important benefits of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is the fact that it removes the need for a third party. However, in this day in age, people have been dependent on third-party solutions for quite some time, and teaching people how to secure their own assets in a noncustodial fashion can be difficult.

Beyond Identity’s study surveyed 1,015 U.S. residents who used the Amazon Mechanical Turk survey platform to complete their questions. 58.5% of password habit survey respondents were men, while 41.5% identified as women.

The 1,015 had a fairly even distribution across generations as well, accounting for generations like Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen Xers, and Gen Zers. One out of ten respondents believes that someone can easily guess their passwords by using social media.

More than one in three participants had attempted to guess someone’s password, and 73% had done so successfully. The most shared password accounts respondents disclosed include accounts like streaming accounts and phone passwords.

The study further shows that three out of ten Americans share their crypto wallet password with others. 63.2% of the Beyond Identity survey participants believe that their crypto wallet password is safe. While 51% of respondents shared their streaming accounts, 28.2% shared their crypto wallet passwords.

Pets’ Names, Children’s Names, Password Generators

The average password used by the group of surveyed participants was 15 characters long and 37% used random letters. A touch over 30% will replace random letters with other random characters. More than 27% of passwords contain the name of the account owner’s pet while over 20% used their child’s name.

23.5% of the respondents leveraged a password generator or third-party software to create a password. Gen Xers are the most likely to use a password generator, while Baby Boomers are the least likely to use this software.

A good friend just had all their bitcoin stolen because they gave their password away.

Sometimes I forget how simple security practices can be so alien to some.

If your parents are involved with crypto, please routinely sit them down and remind them of good security habits.

— Naomi Brockwell (@naomibrockwell) August 26, 2021

The conclusion of the survey shows that while a lot of participants feel like their accounts are safe and secure, the responses indicate major vulnerabilities with the respondents’ security practices. The data showing how over one in three participants had tried to guess passwords — with 73% being successful — is probably the most frightening statistic, Beyond Identity’s authors note.

“Simply by looking at how often respondents were successful in guessing someone’s passwords, and the amount of people that had their accounts compromised or hacked showed that passwords can pose a large security risk,” Beyond Identity’s survey concludes.

Tags in this story

15 Characters, Beyond Identity survey, beyondidentity.com, Bitcoin, Children’s Names, Crypto Passwords, crypto wallet, Password Generator, Password Safety, Passwords, Pet Names, report, Secure Password, Security, security risk, Sharing Passwords, Social Media, Survey, Third Party, Twitter

What do you think about Beyond Identity’s password habit survey? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.