Goldman Sachs: Majority of Millennials Still Wary of Bitcoin

In a recent survey conducted by Goldman Sachs, it was discovered that most millennials might not be too open about bitcoin developments. Among the 752 respondents in the survey, 51% indicated that they have never used bitcoin nor do they have any plans of doing so.

Meanwhile, 22% said that they have used it in the past and will most likely use bitcoin again. Another 22% said that they have never tried using bitcoin before but they are open to using it. Lastly, 5% indicated that they have tried using bitcoin and have no plans of using it again.

Concerns about Bitcoin

With plenty of other payment options available such as Apple Pay or PayPal, millennials aren’t drawn so much to the appeal of bitcoin just yet. In fact, the cryptocurrency was rated among the lowest in terms of trust, most likely due to its associations with money laundering or the underground Silk Road market.

In addition, the Goldman Sachs survey also revealed that millennials aren’t too concerned about financial privacy. When asked about how willing they are to accept inconveniences in exchange for better privacy and security, only 34% of male respondents and 48% of female respondents said that they won’t mind as long as the actual service isn’t hampered.

Only 20% of the respondents said that they aren’t willing to give up financial privacy while 22% noted that they would rather sacrifice privacy in exchange for security. Interestingly enough, respondents expressed an aversion to additional fees, with the results suggesting that transactions costs might influence their payments behavior.

Note that bitcoin actually offers much lower transactions costs compared to other existing forms of payment, more so for the traditional ones like credit or debit cards. However, most millennials probably aren’t aware of this just yet, which explains why bitcoin wasn’t rated so high when it comes to their preferred payment options.