No surprises in this article for those of us already in the space, but the numbers are encouraging.
"The survey, which polled 4,852 participants across 17 countries, found that 47% of respondents trust Bitcoin over big banks, an increase of 29% in the past three years..."
"Over 45% of respondents preferred Bitcoin over stocks, real estate and gold..."
"Not surprisingly, then, the survey also found that 59% of millennials are confident that Bitcoin will see mass adoption within the next 10 years, and that most people around the world will likely be using it by that time."
The survey finds that especially millennials are "flocking" to Bitcoin. My guess is that news of negative interest rates (i.e., paying banks to hold your money, instead of vice-versa) being on the horizon for many parts of the world is causing many to re-think their relationship with the banking industry.
Add this to the more well-known reasons for storing your savings / wealth in bitcoin - such as your account can never be seized or frozen, the decreasing supply of bitcoin vs the never-ending supply of inflationary fiat currency, or that you can travel worldwide with just a password in your head not risking theft - are all making more and more sense to more and more people.
The Lindy Effect is proving to be Bitcoin/Crypto's great friend... the longer an idea or technology survives, the longer its life expectancy becomes. This poll focused on how many more millennials are coming to trust bitcoin over banks in just three years' time, altho they likely remember when bitcoin had a different reputation than it does today. How many of us "passed on" bitcoin the first time we heard about it, or didn't think we should trust it?
But now that bitcoin is over 11 years old, we are entering an era where those who are just turning old enough to drive and to work (and to save, and to make financial decisions) quite possibly don't remember a time when bitcoin didn't exist. They don't think about bitcoin in terms of "Silk Road" or drugs, etc. The upcoming generation's view of bitcoin is that it increases in value over time, and is becoming easier to learn about and to use. Generations that grew up texting and having the ability to send messages and pictures and video across the world in seconds simply expect that of course their money should work the same way.
Conversely, these same youngsters have seen numerous bank scandals and recessions their whole lives. In fact if banks just simply acted as good instruments and faithful stewards of people's money - instead of behaving like predatory criminals - they would no doubt be held in esteem by society. Even without bitcoin's positive aspects to compare them to, banks have lost the public trust because of their own criminal behaviours.
In comparison to cryptocurrencies, banks are inconvenient because of their limited business hours, and the amount of time it takes to settle transactions - days sometimes. And let's not forget what happens if you make a mistake - fees, fees, fees! Instead of providing true "customer service" and helping their customers when they are in need, most banks' actual business plan is to profit from fees charged which take advantage of user error. Talk about kicking someone when they are down!
Now that there truly is an alternative to banks which is not subject to human greed, and is secured by extremely reliable technology, it's no wonder at all that so many from the younger generations are choosing to trust bitcoin over banks.
Original article, quoted at top here:
https://decrypt.co/32378/bitcoin-is-becoming-more-trustworthy-than-big-banks-says-survey
The Lindy Effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
Image : Pixabay.com
