Nearly 75% of German Consumers Would Reject Facebook’s Libra: Survey

Nearly 75 percent of German consumers would not use Facebook's Libra stablecoin as a means of payment at home or abroad.

Almost three-quarters of German consumers would not use Facebook's planned digital currency Libra, according to a recent poll.

Only 27 percent considers using Libra

On Oct. 17, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported that out of 2,000 Germans aged 16 and over, only 27% would ever consider using the social network’s stablecoin as a means of payment at home or abroad.

The poll was conducted on behalf of the Wirtschaftswoche business news magazine and Creditplus Bank AG. The results indicate that 73% completely reject the idea of Libra as a digital currency — 42% because they do not trust Facebook as a company and 31% because they only have trust in state-controlled currencies.

The rejection of Libra among the over-35 age group is significantly higher than among younger consumers. Of those who were 55-plus, 85% said that it is impossible to do anything with the digital Facebook currency. Libra finds its biggest support in the age group between 22 and 34 years. In this age group, almost 42% of the consumers would be open to using the stablecoin.

German finance minister rejects Libra

Germany is obviously not the biggest fan of Facebook’s Libra coin. Cointelegraph reported in September that German finance minister Olaf Scholz stated that policymakers cannot accept parallel currencies such as Facebook's proposed Libra stablecoin.

That statement was quickly followed by news that the German government had approved a blockchain strategy to prevent stablecoins from becoming alternative currencies and threatening state sovereignty.

United States Senator supports Libra

United States Senator Mike Rounds wrote to Nathan McCauley, president of crypto custodian company Anchorage Trust, where he expressed his concerns that other parts of the world are “dwarfing” the United States in innovative payment technologies. Cointelegraph reported that the senator was puzzled to see that his colleagues reacted with such hostility to the creation of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin. Rounds wrote to McCauley:

"It is profoundly disappointing that my colleagues chose to address your peers in such an ominous tone, which I fear may put a chill on innovation in the long run."