Web3 isn't just for crypto, but MUST use CBDC if it practices the "inclusion" it preaches.
CBDC is like the nerds in the film "Revenge of the Nerds" who ultimately win!
Web3 reminds me of the movie “Revenge of the Nerds." You can only be in the Web3 cool club if you use crypto.
As a kid who was a nerd, I have news for Web3 cool kids:
There will be no Web3 unless it includes CBDC.
Web3 preaches being inclusion, right? Only around 10% of the EU owns crypto. What will Web3 do with the other 90% who use fiat?
Unless you offer them the use of the digital euro, there will be no inclusion and no Web3.
Just like “Revenge of the Nerds,” Deloitte’s digital euro survey shows that digital euro nerds will have the last laugh against the cool crypto kids in the end!
👉TAKEAWAYS:
You cannot have an inclusive Web3 without CBDC and the digital euro.
CBDC is an enabler of innovation for Web3, not the “antichrist.”
CBDC will make applications more accessible through secure and easily available payment
You cannot build Web3 and exclude the 90% of EU citizens who don’t use crypto.
People like the digital euro more than many think:
Deloitte conducted a consumer survey in Germany, the most pro-cash nation in the EU, with intriguing results for the digital euro.
71% of 18-34 year olds trust the ECB to issue the digital euro! (See graph above) But a mere 23% of 55+ year-olds trust the ECB! How ironic is that?
Web3's first adopters will be young people who trust the digital euro.
Get this: 56% of people trust the ECB with their data more than they do their bank! (see chart below)
This isn’t to say the digital euro didn’t meet with skepticism. Only 25% trusted that future changes would benefit users!
No surprise that the leading features were No fees, Convenience, and Security, with 41%, 40%, and 39%.
But a full 22% said they wouldn’t use the digital euro, but that means 78% will!
👊STRAIGHT TALK👊
“There will be no Web3 unless it includes CBDC.” If this sounds harsh, it is! I’m sick of hearing from the cool kids in crypto say that CBDC isn’t welcome!
Remember the movie “Revenge of the Nerds?” Well, it’s time for the CBDC nerds to get their revenge, and I think it’s coming sooner rather than later.
Web3 focuses on digital ownership and digital property transfers. If those transfers use crypto, great, I’m all for it. That said, I’m sure that many would prefer to be paid or monetize their data in native currency. Can you blame them?
Now, back to the survey results, which, given that they come from “pro-cash” Germany, show that age seems to play the biggest role in digital euro adoption.
A shocking 41% of 55+ stated that they would “never use a digital euro” compared with 19% of 35-54 and a mere 5% of 18-34.
The paper does not explain such a strong difference in opinion between ages, but I think it broadly maps the acceptance of digital payment in China. Many of the older people who won’t use the digital euro simply like cash and are resistant to change.
Look how, five years after the launch of mobile payments in China, only 17% of users were over 51 years old! (see below).
Digital payments are for the young!
Older people have great difficulty adapting to digital payment. Roughly 5 years after the launch of mobile payments in China only 5.5% of users were over 61! This shows that whether private money, as in WeChat and Alipay, or gov’t CBDC, older people find digital payment challenging.
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