A new study from a firm called Genesis Mining finds that Americans are not ready for a central bank digital coin, at least as a practical matter.
“A survey conducted by Genesis mining discovered that out of the 400 participants, less than 25% agreed to the proposition that the government should abandon paper money in favor of a digital dollar, while more than half were opposed,” writes Joshua Mapperson today at Cointelegraph.
Originally, U.S. legislators and others started looking at a central bank digital coin for the U.S. after being frightened by the advances of Facebook’s proposed Libra stablecoin as a potential economic competitor to the dollar. Other nations are considering similar moves, for similar reasons: it is thought that CBDCs can help to protect economies against private stablecoins and other cryptocurrency encroachments.
However, public opinion is another animal entirely.
While the study found, as Mapperson notes, that of 400 respondents, less than a quarter of Americans surveyed approved of ditching cash for a central-bank digital currency, Mapperson also notes that number is roughly double, up from 13% in 2019. However, that’s still no mandate for digital dollars.
Some of the other findings of the study are interesting, too. For instance, a full 38% of respondents believed that the dollar is still backed by some physical commodity like gold or oil. 85% said they are familiar with cryptocurrencies, but many of them failed a number of reality tests in follow-up questions.
When it comes to monetary policy, another question posed in the study showed clearly how Americans are oriented toward economic fears.
Most Americans know, for example, that officials pumped trillions of dollars into the economy for covid relief. That led to this decisive number, where Genesis researchers found that 88% of respondents fear inflation as a result of U.S. monetary policy.
All of this provides some background for those who are considering whether to enter the cryptocurrency world now, either with conventional decentralized assets like Bitcoin, or by predicting national CBDC adoption. Volatility is a given, and with Bitcoin decoupling from traditional markets, the jury is out on what may happen. The key is to do your own research and plan accordingly!
