Consumers accepting CBDCs is like turkeys voting for Christmas

A recent survey commissioned by Crypto.com shows that nearly 87% of respondents agreed that consumer demand for CBDCs has increased over the previous 3 years, and 83% agreed that greater international cooperation is needed in order to legitimise them.

The survey came in the style of a report, and was conducted by Economic Impact. It set out to compare attitudes towards digital payments. One half of those surveyed were from developed countries, and the other half from developing ones.

Around 7 in 10 were aged between 18 to 41, while the rest were 42 or older. 53% were men and 47% were women. Around 3 out of 4 have a university or professional degree.

The report took into account the different types of digital payments, which included online banking, mobile payments, online money transfers, digital currencies, CBDCs, and corporate-issued digital currencies on a permissioned blockchain.

About as many respondents (36%) expected their government or central bank to issue a CBDC, as to officially make bitcoin or another cryptocurrency legal tender.

Respondents were asked to select up to 3 statements that in their view correctly identified the barriers to adopting open-source digital currencies (bitcoin etc.). The most selected option was that they were not well understood, but this went from 51% in 2021 to 22% in 2022.

Being mostly used for fraudulent or illegal transactions was selected by 24% of respondents in both 2021 and 2022. This kind of message being put out by central banks etc has obviously stuck in many minds.

When asked about the barriers to CBDC adoption, most surveyed agreed that a lack of education (27%) and the fact they are not well understood (27%) were the main ones.

Respondents who were executives were very pro CBDCs, with nearly two thirds of them expecting CBDCs to replace physical currency. 7 out of 10 of them expect this to happen within the next decade.

“More than nine in ten (93%) now say they agree that issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is necessary to establish a functioning market for new financial instruments such as digital bonds or other forms of digital assets,”

Finally, nearly 87% of all respondents strongly agreed that consumer demand for CBDCs has increased in their country.

Opinion

It would appear that all questions in the survey had only options supplied by the surveyor, Whether there were any open questions was not able to be seen.

It might be wondered just how many of those questioned had any sort of basic understanding of what a CBDC was, or for that matter, had any kind of understanding of how cryptocurrencies worked?

Given the amount of academics on both sides of the argument for and against CBDCs or cryptocurrencies, many respondents could be forgiven for having little understanding of them, and may have been prompted to their choice by mainstream news stories on them.

Major adoption of any cryptocurrencies as payments has certainly not come to pass yet, and it might be said that there is still a long way to go here. Current upheavals in crypto lending companies show that the sector hasn’t got it right yet.

However, the public starting to accept the idea of central bank digital currencies bears great testament to the power of the mainstream media, which can paint them in a non-threatening light.

Having a central bank in a direct line between it, and the digital wallet of the citizen, can be extremely dangerous indeed, and can lead to total loss of privacy, and the potential for full control over a population. 

The fiat system is currently going through its death throes, and not many people are even aware of it, although they will continue to lose purchasing power on the fiat they own at an ever increasing rate.

Prolonging this system by changing over to CBDCs may sit well with the banks, governments, and all those enmeshed in the current traditional financial structure, but this technology has the potential to strip away rights and wealth from the vast majority. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.