Last year the most influential banker, the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi claimed that youth was struggling to get jobs in the EU. “In many countries the labour market is set up to protect older ‘insiders’ – people with permanent, high-paid contracts and shielded by strong labour laws. The side-effect is that young people are stuck with lower-paid, temporary contracts and get fired first in crisis times” , explained Draghi the catastrophic rates of millennials unemployment in Europe to The Guardian .
The situation seems to be the same in the US. According to Trading Economics , the youth unemployment level in this country is expected to grow after the decrease to 9% in autumn, 2017. Whether the cause of it is the stereotypical laziness of the millennials or the adverse changes in the world economy, youth choose to move ahead, giving preference to cryptocurrencies, in particular, to Bitcoin.
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Such outcome has been shown by the survey, conducted in the US by Harris Poll on behalf of Blockchain Capital . The online survey was undertaken in October 2017, among over 2,000 of American adults, including 387 millennials, aged 18-24, and it demonstrated quite surprising results.
What do Millennials trust in?
If the generation of baby-boomers mostly prefers investing into treasuries, certificates of deposit or real estate, as Investopedia informs, this is not relevant to the more open-minded and risk-taking generation Y. No gold, neither government bonds attract millennials, but the investment into cryptocurrencies, which might provide them with gainful future.
For instance, 27% of generation Y representatives claimed that they would give the preference to owning 1,000 USD of BTC rather than the same amount in stocks. It means that more than 1 out of 4 millennials trusts Bitcoin more than stocks.
Almost the same situation is with a traditional financial asset, as 30% of generation Y representatives claimed they would prefer Bitcoin to government bonds. At the same time, 22% of millennials would not choose real estate but Bitcoin and 19% trust gold less than Bitcoin. Young males are more disposed to the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. 43% of them would choose Bitcoin over government bonds, 38% would prefer Bitcoin to stocks and 26% would prefer Bitcoin over gold.
Notwithstanding the above, millennials mostly desire to possess Bitcoin than they do. Only 4% of them have ever owned or own Bitcoin at the moment. So why generation Y is so attracted by Bitcoin?
Information boom
It turns out that millennials are more aware of the existence of cryptocurrency as well as by the quick profit that it may bring. On the whole, millennials are two times more acquainted with Bitcoin than the older generation. For example, 42% of youngsters claim they are aware of Bitcoin, when there are only 15% of people aged over 65 years old who have ever heard of this cryptocurrency.
Positive perception
Besides, millennials are more likely to accept Bitcoin as a positive innovation in fintech. Those aged 65+ are ten times less confident is this statement. 20% of millennials strongly agree with the fact that Bitcoin is a positive innovation when 48% (including males) just agree with this fact. On the other hand, only 2% of people aged 65+ strongly agree with this statement, and 19% of them agree in general.
Belief in bright future
On the ground that 27% of millennials consider Bitcoin to be more trustworthy than top banks, they also believe that most people will be using this cryptocurrency for the following ten years. One in five millennials strongly agrees with this statement, including 29% of males.
What millennials themselves say about Bitcoin
Some millennials see Bitcoin as a long-term saving, particularly, for the time of retirement. A 20-year-old senior at Virginia Commonwealth University – Roshaan Khan – told Forbes that he recently invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum and encouraged his close ones to do so.
“All of my net worth is in cryptocurrencies because I see them as the best way to escalate my ability to be financially secure and pay off my student loans… That idea appeals to me… Not having to go through banks. Having financial control over our lives again” , explained Khan.
Another millennial, Emil Thorsplass, who is a 24-year-old musician from Norway, said that however he invested in Bitcoin, he does not give up on traditional means for savings.
“It feels better to run my own savings plan by investing and reinvesting in new technology. I still have my regular pension fund, and my bills still have to be paid through a bank account, but cryptocurrency investments have become a central part of saving for me” , said Thorplass.
It seems that Bitcoin has conquered the hearts of millennials, who consider banks and traditional means of investment less trustworthy. So if millennials choose Bitcoin as the investment for their retirement, this could undermine the existing system of financial institutions all over the world.
