Cash usage has been declining in both the developed and underdeveloped world. We examine payment trends around the globe and examine cultural divergence between the U.S and China.
The U.S population is around 330M, and the most popular method of payments are debit cards, credit cards, and fiat. China's population falls around 1.4B, and more than 90% of China's mobile users use their phones to pay for everyday expenses compared to the U.S, where less than 1/3 use their phones for daily expenses.
When it comes to mobile payments, the Chinese dwarves the U.S. They are 4x the size of the U.S, but their mobile payment system is over 50x more massive than the U.S.
Bitcoin usage and ownership are the most widely used metric to gauge Bitcoin's adoptability. The United States and China are the leading players in the blockchain space. However, between the two world superpowers, The Chinese seem to be more culturally adapted for wide-scale digital asset usage.
China's usage of mobile payments already has people condition for P2P mobile payments, which Bitcoin and all digital assets would benefit from tremendously.
As the world continues to move to a cashless society and a new digital age, will the U.S divergence of debit cards continue, or will mobile payments grow? The Federal Reserve is building an instant settlement system that will not be ready until 2023, something that the EU, China, and Japan already have.
