General Public Largely ‘Uninformed’ on Crypto

For all the attention that crypto receive, the global public’s basic cryptocurrency knowledge is still noticeably lacking.

That’s the finding of Cryptoliteracy.org. The organisation announced its launch in early November, describing itself as an ‘…industry initiative promoting broad consumer education of digital currency’ and declaring its site to be the ‘…home of the official Crypto Literacy Quiz’.

Most intriguing of all are the results of what CryptoLiteracy.org is calling its inaugural Crypto Literacy Survey.

Widespread Lack of Knowledge

Apparently, 96% of what the organisation describes as American crypto or bitcoin-aware internet users demonstrated that they were unable to score highly enough to pass a quiz about the basic facts of cryptocurrency. The percentage was an even higher - 99% - for Brazilian and Mexican users falling under the same definition.

The response to this widespread lack of knowledge is ostensibly to make the month of November Crypto Literacy Month, with the organisation being the self-appointed vanguard of an effort to promote a basic knowledge and understanding of cryptocurrency among the ‘bitcoin aware’ global public.

Key Takeaways

The organisation’s quiz was a simple 17 question assessment that touched on the topics of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, in particular), blockchain, DeFi, types of wallets, NFTs and the public’s ‘general sentiment’ towards cryptocurrencies.

Three key takeaways from the quiz results were:

• Crypto is coming up short on its ‘purported’ mission of financial inclusion. On average, cryptocurrency owners are younger, wealthier, and more male than the overall population

• Nine out of 10 respondents were NOT aware that Bitcoin was limited to 21 million

• Those who own cryptocurrency know the most about cryptocurrencies, meaning ownership of crypto is directly connected to a higher performance on a test of cryptocurrency literacy

You can improve your own crypto knowledge with the free tools found on Learn Moni.

Should Crypto be in the Educational Curriculums?

The incoming Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, wants to see cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies more prominent in educational curriculums, though he did not indicate if meant elementary and/or high school education.

Adams has a history of ‘cheerleading’ digital assets like Bitcoin since he took office in landslide fashion earlier in November. Recently, Adams publicly stated that he would ‘…take his first three paychecks in bitcoin’ once he formally takes office in January and has even initiated efforts to launch what can best be described as a New York-specific cryptocurrency that would compete with MiamiCoin – a newer cryptocurrency that has enjoyed some surprising levels of success.

Concerns for Obama

These ambitions are meeting resistance from some influential people. One of them, an economic advisor that served former US President Barack Obama, took to Twitter recently to share concerns about Adams’ crypto aspirations tweeting: ‘Not only is this a bad economic strategy for NYC and a bad investment decision, it also seems like a conflict of interest.’

The former advisor compared the New York Mayor’s cheerleading to someone buying a large stake in the stock of a company and then putting policies in place to influence the prices of that company’s stock.

It’s not like that hasn’t been done before…