Bitcoin: Aussies sceptical of cryptocurrency but see crypto payments by 2025
Most Australians are familiar with cryptocurrency and at least two-thirds of people expect to be able to pay for goods and services with a cryptocurrency by 2025.
About 94 per cent of Australians are familiar with at least one cryptocurrency, with at least two thirds of people expecting to be able to pay for goods and services with cryptocurrency by 2025, new research shows.
Interest in digital currencies is growing, with nearly one third of Australians – 32 per cent – expecting to purchase Bitcoin over the next 12 months, despite the nation being one of the most sceptical in the world about the digital currency’s future.
These are the findings from Wakefield research commissioned by Block Inc, the parent company of Square and Australian buy now, pay later unicorn Afterpay, which analysed the responses of 9500 people across 14 countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Nigeria, South Africa, the US and the UK.
Across all countries, wealth was relative to optimism with cryptocurrency. Across the Asia Pacific, 48 per cent of people on a higher income were optimistic about the future of Bitcoin compared to 39 per cent of lower income earners. Similar results were seen across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where 41 per cent of high income earners showed optimism compared to 31 per cent of low income earners.
“One of the dominant narratives surrounding Bitcoin has been a means of people making money and usually making quick money, and this is especially true in the US and the West in general,” said Felipe Chacon, a Block Inc economist who worked on the research.
“A key takeaway is that lower income people in lower income countries gravitate towards these utility-oriented or value proposition-oriented reasons for buying Bitcoin, which include things like using it as a means of payment to buy goods and services or using it to send money.”
Locally, Australian men are more gung ho than women when it comes to cryptocurrency, with about 63 per cent of men believing they have fair knowledge of digital currencies compared to 36 per cent of women. While a similar mentality exists across western nations, in Asia, women report much higher expertise.
“When you look at China, and you look at India, you see it completely flips, and that flips the whole APAC region,” Mr Chacon said. “The data really shows a different narrative, which is that women identify as having extra levels of knowledge around cryptocurrency at higher rates than men.”
Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency among Australians, with 91 per cent of respondent aware of the currency compared to 38.6 per cent who are familiar with Ethereum.
About one quarter of Australians who declared they have a “fair to expert” knowledge of Bitcoin are sceptical of its future. Their concerns are mostly around the volatility of Bitcoin and lack of regulation.
Of those Australians who believe they’re well-versed in cryptocurrency, some 67.8 per cent say they are “very likely” to purchase Bitcoin in the next 12 months.
Mr Chacon said that researchers asked respondents to define cryptocurrency to test their knowledge.
“It’s kind of funny, like a tale as old as man, we found that the people who claim to have expert levels of knowledge answered the questions correctly at only a slightly higher rate (than those who claimed not to have fair knowledge),” he said. “ … but it’s not a huge gap there so it seems optimism drives optimism which drives claimed level of knowledge which drives optimism. There is like a little bit of a flywheel there, or just like some overconfidence with some people.”
Across the country, optimism and expertise in cryptocurrency varied from state to state.
About 29.8 per cent of West Australians remain optimistic about cryptocurrency, compared to 22.7 per cent of New South Welshmen. About 22.1 per cent of West Australians believe they have a “fair to expert knowledge” of cryptocurrencies compared to just 14.6 per cent of New South Welshmen.
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