A recent survey conducted by Crypto.com and The Economist has revealed that, majority of people prefer central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to decentralized currencies. All the respondents used in the survey have been consumers of digital payment services in the last year.

The purpose of the survey which included over 3,000 consumers was to understand issues concerning usage of crypto assets. It was found out that, consumers have greater trust in CBDCs than decentralized digital currencies. This regulation gives a clear indication that cryptocurrencies are yet to gain widespread trust from the public.

The survey revealed that about 38% of consumers consider decentralized digital currencies not to be trustworthy, as against 26% that expressed trust in them. In contrast, 54% of the consumers said they would trust CBDCs as against only 14% who described CBDCs as unworthy.

Speaking with Cointelegraph about the survey, Crypto.com COO, Eric Anziani said that with CBDCs gaining much awareness in the mainstream news, it’s important for the crypto industry to harness the opportunities to turn that around. He added that, data privacy, security and education are 3 crucial areas that the industry needs to strengthen to build a strong foundation to drive adoption.

Although crypto still needs to gain large segments of the public’s trust, Anziani claims the researchers were pleasantly surprised about the level of awareness among the public. About 85% of the consumers were aware of crypto, which Anziani said was much higher than they anticipated.

Another notable finding from the survey was that about 34% of the consumers considered online payment to be the primary function of digital currencies, as against 24% for short term investment. 21% also mentioned illicit transactions as the primary use case for cryptocurrencies, whereas 20% perceived crypto as a safe-haven asset.