53% of Americans think crypto will be 'the future of finance,' poll finds
- The 53% figure in a full national sample rises to 68% among 35 to 44-year-olds. Crypto use is huge, and set to skyrocket driven by strong enthusiasm of young adults
- Poll marks launch of StarkNet, a new platform to make crypto apps 'as widespread as smartphone apps'
- Blockchain's bandwidth is already overwhelmed; poll results raise questions of how it will cope with expectations
NEW YORK, March 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A majority of Americans are convinced that cryptocurrency will be "the future of finance," according to a new opinion poll.
Some 53% of respondents in the national survey subscribed to this view. Among the 25 to 34 age group the figure was as high as 68%, and among 35 to 44-year-olds it was 61%.
Almost one in five respondents — 17% — said they have invested in cryptocurrency, and the proportion rises to 28% among the 25 to 34 demographic.
Those who have invested are constantly checking and adjusting their assets. Some 82% have at least one crypto tracker on their phone. Exactly half of them say they "fiddle or amend" their holdings daily, and 27% of investors do so several times a day. Only 14% of those with active crypto holdings let a week pass without making changes.
"This poll shows how widespread crypto has become, while indicating just how huge it will soon become," said Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and president of StarkWare Industries, which commissioned the research.
"We see that young Americans, those who will soon shape the economy, are especially tuned in to crypto. It's an important insight that they are investing in large numbers, and overwhelmingly convinced crypto will be 'the future.'"
StarkWare commissioned the poll to mark the launch of the new StarkNet platform, which aims to make it easy and cost-effective for developers to build blockchain apps — a key requirement to make crypto part of everyday life for the general public. Until now, crypto app rollout has been slow because a crisis surrounding blockchain's bandwidth has acted as a deterrent.
Uri Kolodny, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, commented: "We wanted to research public opinion as we launch StarkNet, to get a sense of how much the general public expects to use crypto over the coming years. The results are exciting, but also unsettling.
"They highlight huge enthusiasm for crypto, and show that blockchain is creaking under the weight of current use. Unless we start to work smarter, blockchain simply won't be able to cope with growing demand."
StarkNet is a platform for developers to create crypto apps, initiated by StarkWare and due to be fully decentralized so that in the future it is owned by everyone and no one, like the internet.
StarkNet uses an advanced math-based compression system so that apps can be fully secured by the Ethereum blockchain while only a fraction of their information is actually added to the chain. In blockchain jargon it is known as a Layer 2.
Transaction fees, which rise based on a supply-and-demand formula as blockchain use increases, are sharply reduced. These fees have prevented the development of crypto apps for many everyday uses, and Kolodny predicts that making them tiny, StarkNet will lead to "a building boom on blockchain and make crypto apps as widespread as smartphone apps".
The poll showed that environmental concerns over blockchain are widespread. Just over a third of respondents (34%) said that reducing the carbon footprint of cryptocurrency is important to them, and would make them more inclined to use it. For the 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 age groups, the figure rose to 49% and 39% respectively.
Asked about non-fungible tokens, NFTs, some 38% of respondents said they would be "excited" to use them if they were sustainable. Among people aged 35 to 44, 52% were excited by the prospect of sustainable NFTs.
Kolodny commented: "We expected to detect concern over crypto's carbon footprint per transaction, and enthusiasm for reducing it — but not to the massive levels we found.
"We were pleasantly surprised that people seem to understand the environmental challenge of crypto.
"StarkNet represents one of the most important steps so far on the road to making blockchain more sustainable. Our scaling tech massively reduces the electricity use per transaction, and will complement other initiatives that are underway to address crypto's overall environmental impact. The power normally used to mint a single NFT can cover the minting of around 12,000 via StarkNet."
StarkNet is called a Layer 2 scaling solution because it conducts the computation for transactions away from the blockchain ("Layer 1"), and then submits a large batch of transactions to the chain via a single concise proof. Powered by a mathematical system called STARK, co-invented by Ben-Sasson and other researchers, it retains all the security benefits associated with transacting directly on Layer 1.
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About StarkNet
StarkNet is a platform that enables any developer in the world to build blockchain apps that are highly scalable. It was built by StarkWare Industries, a four-year-old software company. StarkNet is based on a class of cryptographic technologies, known as STARK proofs, which was invented by StarkWare co-founder and president Eli Ben-Sasson, with other computer scientists.
In more technical language StarkNet is a general purpose composable Validity ('ZK') Rollup. StarkNet has been deployed on a public testnet since June 2021, supporting permissionless deployment of tens of thousands of contracts. StarkNet Alpha has been live on Ethereum Mainnet since Nov 2021, and has attracted the attention of thousands of developers worldwide.
About the survey
The survey, conducted by OnePoll, questioned a national sample of 2,000 American adults.
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