Canadian consumers are skeptical about the Bank of Canada (BOC)'s early widespread adoption of the digital Canadian dollar concept. The Bank of Canada recently conducted a study to understand changes in consumer payment preferences, with the ultimate goal being to prepare for the development of an internal central bank digital currency (CBDC).
A research report released by the Bank of Canada on October 28 reaffirmed Canadians' long-standing preference for traditional legal payment systems, while more and more people support issuing a digital Canadian dollar. In contrast, in the latest survey, 42% of participants had a good initial impression of the hypothetical digital Canadian dollar, while only 20% completely "disliked" or "hated" this idea. The remaining 38% either held neutral attitudes or expressed lack of understanding about this technology.