The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street aka UK’s Central Bank posted a tweet earlier this week asking revelers how they would prefer to get their Christmas gifts. The revelation is surprising. Most would prefer ‘digital currency’ despite the bears mauling the bulls in most of 2018.

The poll kicked off on December 17th and it has two more days until the actual results are published after the polls close. Anything can happen although it is unlikely that the preference will change. So far, 72% of the almost 10,000 individuals revealed that they would prefer gifts in the form of digital currency.

Cash comes a distant second with a preference of about 20%. Bank transfers so far have acquired 6% while gift vouchers crawl in last with 2%.

The involved currencies

Digital currency may not generally mean cryptocurrencies. Digital currency may refer to unregulated virtual currencies that are totally controlled by their creators. For example, the V-bucks used in Fortnite. Also, there exists the digital fiat currency or the Central Bank digital currency (CBDC).

CBDC is currently just an idea that is yet to see the light of the day when it comes to getting money this festive season. It is more like fiat currency when government regulations are put into context. But, Central Banks can issue it instead of the government.

Nouriel Roubini, a notable crypto naysayer thinks that if launched, CBDC would threaten cryptocurrencies to extinction. The latest updates from Bank of England indicate that the bank has no plans of creating a CBDC yet.

The responses on Twitter were overwhelmingly pro-cryptocurrency. Some users scolded the Bank of England for using ‘digital currency’ instead of cryptocurrency in their polls.

XRP most favored

Most respondents favor XRP in the comment section. The huge support for Ripple’s token made pro-bitcoin users accuse them of being bots. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the XRP community is highly active on Twitter.

The enthusiasm is strong for digital currency irrespective of which cryptocurrency the participants prefer. Then again, Twitter research and reports require you to take them with a grain of salt. Many crypto supporters follow central Central Bank’s activities and developments closely since their moves are relevant to the direction that cryptocurrencies will take in the future.

Reason for the Poll

The Bank of England set up the poll to enhance support for their Future Forum. In this forum, attendants will feature topics like, ‘how people in the UK use their money,’ ‘the bank’s important roles in payments,’ ‘the changing face of banking,’ and many others. Maybe, this twitter poll reveals more about the changing face of banking than the Bank of England realizes.