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

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.

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.