Thanks Boomer? Bitcoin-Friendly Generations to Inherit $70 Trillion
Bitcoin (BTC) aware Millennials are set to inherit almost $70 trillion of value from the Baby Boomer generation by 2045.
Data compiled and originally released in a November 2019 report by digital asset management firm Coinshares revealed those who grew up with Bitcoin will soon benefit from savings worth over three times the United States’ GDP.
“Boomers” to pass on $68.4 trillion
The findings continue to circulate on social media, where they have found traction with commentators who have become notoriously suspicious of so-called “Boomers.”
As Bitcoin has gained popularity, those with an affinity for traditional assets such as gold or stocks have earned the label for their alleged unwillingness to embrace cryptocurrency.
On Twitter, the “#OKBoomer” hashtag has become synonymous with the rift between old and young.
With their elders now set to retire en masse, those more sympathetic to Bitcoin will have more options than ever to invest in it.
In total, Coinshares suggests, $68.4 trillion will transfer Generation X, Millennials and Post-Millennials over the next 25 years. Existing data from monitoring resource Coin Dance suggests the 25-34 year old demographic makes up almost 50% of Bitcoin holders.
As the Twitter account CryptoBalkans summarized, “a bit of #ThanksBoomer instead of #OKboomer” should be the line taken by BTC supporters.
Pushing back against a world of debt
The generational gap has already formed a topic of discussion in Bitcoin circles. In his popular book, “The Bitcoin Standard,” Saifedean Ammous explains that even the Baby Boomers were more likely to save for the future than the current generation.
Financial mismanagement by governments and central banks, encouraging citizens to spend and borrow instead of saving, means debt characterizers modern-day finances to a greater extent than sixty years ago.
The situation is characterized as a shift from low time preference to high time preference — saving for the future, knowing wealth will buy more, versus spending money as fast as possible before it depreciates.
“Low time preference generations produce prosperity, which produces high time preference generations, who bring ruin, which produces low time preference generations,” Ammous himself summarized in 2018.
As a decentralized form of hard money, Bitcoin firmly rejects the trappings of fiat-based economics.