Earlier in 2016, Facebook IQ, a team of researchers, scientists and analysts funded and supported by Facebook Inc., published a white paper entitled “Millennials + money: The unfiltered journey” to evaluate the beliefs and thoughts of today’s youth on traditional banking and financial systems.The paper found that 92 percent of millennials firmly expressed their distrust of banks.The general population, including millennials, are rapidly developing a sense of awareness towards the manipulation, monopoly and control that banks and financial institutions impose on user funds and money.Cash is rapidly becoming a store of value of the past, as banks and financial institutions have begun to demonetize fiat money and implement strict controls over the outflow of cash.68 percent, the majority of millennials in the study, feel their banks do not understand and thus fail to acknowledge their needs.Outdated bank and financial systems are inefficient and aren’t applicable to modern use cases.

Furthermore, the Facebook IQ team revealed that over 45 percent of millennials would switch from banks to alternative solutions if the latter offered increased functionality, flexibility and efficiency.“To start, Millennials want to feel understood.And it matters because Millennials are 1.4X more likely than Gen Xers/Boomers to switch financial institutions.45% of Millennials say they would switch banks, credit cards or brokerage accounts if a better option came along.” Many central banks and commercial banks in Asia, Europe and the US went as far as implementing negative interest rates, forcing its consumers and clients to pay them fees to store cash, even if it is primarily beneficial for the banks and financial institutions.Facebook IQ discovered that the majority of millennials across the globe are switching to non-bank alternatives or what the research team calls the “future of financial services.” An increasing number of users prefer to use FinTech services, which have proven to be more efficient, secure and transparent.

“Millennials also feel disconnected from the financial services industry.Many financial institutions have yet to realize that winning over the Millennial generation will require a transformative overhaul—from how each institution views its competition to how it connects with clients.” Facebook has a truly convenient platform when it comes to data segregation and information analysis.Using its database and user base, the Facebook IQ research team focused on “working-age millennials” from ages 21 to 34 in the US and affluent millennials of over $75,000 in income, comparing their mindset towards money and banks in comparison to boomers (ages 35-65).In total, the Facebook IQ research team looked into 70 mln people in the working-age millennials category and 2 mln users in the affluent millennial group.One of the go-to responses banks and financial institutions provide amid cash demonetization and restriction in the outflow of physical money is that today’s millennials and the general population prefer to use digitized methods of payments.

However, according to the Facebook IQ study, 30 percent of millennials fail to understand the benefits of credit or debit cards and over 57 percent rely on cash to finance both their long-term and short-term day-to-day operations.bitcoin million dollar homepageMore importantly, 46 percent of millennials reasoned their usage of credit cards as a method of helping them “build credit,” and stated that they aren’t necessarily using credit cards for comfort and efficiency.bitcoin confirmed rewardBitcoin payment solutions and wallet service providers are by far the most practical and viable alternatives to the millions of millennials and students worldwide.bitcoin preis steigtIt offers high liquidity, stable global exchange rates and, most importantly, financial freedom and prevention of excessive control from the authorities and central banks.

Once half of the millions of millennials migrate to more innovative and practical systems based on Bitcoin and other non-bank digital currencies, the rest will follow.Thus, the increasing awareness of today’s youth towards the restricted and limited capacity of banks and financial institutions will ultimately add millions of users to Bitcoin and potentially other cryptocurrencies in the market.Young, pale, techie and male.Anecdotally, this has been the make up of bitcoin's core community since the cryptocurrency began, at least if media reports and Internet chatter are to be believed.But in 2015, is this still an accurate reflection of its user base worldwide?In our latest research report – Who Really Uses Bitcoin?– we put this theory to the test.Analysing nearly 4,000 responses received in our multilingual survey, likely the largest in bitcoin's history, the 45-page report provides an in-depth look at who is using bitcoin, who isn't and why that matters.But more than that, this report attempts to identify ways in which the community that uses the cryptocurrency can expand its reach, moving beyond the current demographic to new groups, with different cultures, economic status and needs.

By and large, the survey's responses paint a picture faithful to the young, white, tech-savvy men that have become the 'poster boys' of bitcoin.Of the 3,515 respondents who told us they owned bitcoin, almost 60% were under 35 years old.Despite a growing number of initiatives such as Bitcoin Women's Day, women using bitcoin are still a minority, with over 90% of bitcoin users in our survey identifying as male.Though this figure is a minuscule improvement (5.2%) from the male majority seen in previous surveys.With regards to race, 65.8% of respondents in the survey identified as 'White'.While these figures reinforce the young, white, male stereotype, other findings – such as average income – are more surprising.The question of average earnings providing a very even split across all earning brackets.Those earning $50,000–$100,000 came top, at 23.9%.One in five said their household income was below $25,000.While many are tech-savvy, the notion of bitcoin users being 'early adopters' of technology also stumbled into trouble.

Three quarters of respondents said they got into bitcoin after May 2013, and one third began using bitcoin in the last year.This data, like any, has its limitations.The four web surveys – offered in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and English – were propagated across various local interest groups, but were predominantly accessed via CoinDesk's main site and social media platforms.For this reason, responses are largely linked to our North American and European readership and do not necessarily reflect the profile of bitcoin users outside these regions.For example, our Chinese language survey received comparatively few responses, though there are known to be many cryptocurrency users in the region.We have not weighted the results to compensate for this imbalance, but present the findings of the survey as-is.In terms of the location of respondents, 49.85% were based in North America, followed by 32.99% in Europe and 9.36% in Asia.CoinDesk provides world-leading news, analysis and information on digital currencies.