These are busy times for the digital currency world.
There have been the well-documented widespread stimulus efforts from many central banks to help them weather the storm follow a number of pre-crisis initiatives by many of them to launch/consider launching their own digital currencies (CBDCs). The future may be bright for crypto.
But headlines don’t always give a complete view into how people are actually thinking about digital currencies, which is why Crypto.com recently partnered with The Economist to find out. The two combined to produce a research report/white paper titled “Digimentality — Fear and Favouring of Digital Currency” that examines the general public’s behaviors and opinions around digital payments/currencies — such as drivers, barriers and trust factors — and the evolution of a cashless future. 
Some key findings are listed below.
- 85% of survey respondents have owned, used or heard of decentralized digital currency such as a cryptocurrency
- Digital currencies showed the most growth opportunity for payments:
- 20% said they don’t currently use them but plan to in the next year, higher than any other payment method studied in the research, and a trend that may accelerate as a result of COVID-19.
- 34% of respondents considered online payments to be digital currency’s main function, while only 24% cited “short-term investment” as a reason for its use.
- 54% of respondents said they would consider a digital currency issued by their government (e.g. CBDC) trustworthy, compared to only 26% who said the same about currently available cryptocurrencies; however, cryptocurrency was the most recognized type of digital currency in the study.
