Why Baby Boomers Aren’t Getting Crypto

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Recently, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon again dismissed crypto in a TV interview, calling these pet rocks.[1] You might be wondering if he has a hidden agenda, because years ago the Bank planned an interbank crypto token called JPM Coin. It was eventually discontinued, but their internal blockchain group eventually left to create their own token called Kadena (KDA).

Crypto has had many detractors in recent years, including Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Another thorn in the crypto side is European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde.

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Crypto and blockchain technology

Frankly, the recent high-profile implosions of Terra Luna, Celsius, and specifically FTX/Alameda have soured a lot of people on crypto, not just them. But put those failures aside first, as they are mostly failures of people involved in trading and selling crypto. Pure naked greed. Crypto and blockchain technology is a separate matter.

Remember that when the banks nearly collapsed in 2008, we did not ask to shut down the entire global banking system afterwards. In fact, we’re still using it right now. Likewise, while many people lost money in the implosions of these early-stage crypto projects, these are just part of the natural selection process of any new industry.

Our inability to rely on human trust was precisely Satoshi Nakamotos (a pseudonym) point on trusted third parties when he published his Bitcoin white paper in 2009. The spirit of his article is that you can’t trust to bankers. Community-reviewed open-source software, where code is law, is what blockchain and crypto fans think the world should be using.

They believe the code should replace our reliance on traditional finance. In historical context, many of the key players in crypto these days were children whose parents lost their jobs during the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. They still blame the banks for their dismal childhoods. It is this anger that fuels their desire to see crypto and blockchain take over the way we transact.

This type of attitude threatens establishment baby boomers like Dimon, Buffett, Munger and Lagarde.

Moving from an analog world to a digital world

Consider that there is another dynamic at play here. Most baby boomers and millennials grew up in an analog world. We listened to music on open reel, 8 track, cassette, or 45 vinyl or LP. We watched movies at the cinema or at home on video cassettes and later on CDs and DVDs.

We put a value on physical analog things, forgetting that the Doobie Brothers sing the same song whether it’s on tape or streaming service Spotify. It’s the same Star Wars movie you’ll see if you play it on DVD or stream it on Netflix. We were making calls on analog rotary dial phones and kept putting coins on payphones just to avoid being cut off.

Generation X and Generation Alpha have only lived in a purely digital world. They buy in-game digital assets like skins when playing games like Valorant or Genshin Impact. They’d rather make money on Venmo, not dirty old bills. Treasury bonds? They see it as something their parents or grandparents would invest in. Buy a new car? Some of them living in big cities will say why not just call an Uber.

Think of it this way. A Boomer might think that a blank vinyl copy of a Beatles album is worth several thousand dollars. For Gen X or Alpha though, it’s not worth much. They prefer to stream the latest Taylor Swift or Coldplay album on demand.

So if baby boomers aren’t getting crypto, it’s partly not their fault. Definitions of what is considered valuable may change over time. Digital assets are valuable to young people who grew up in them, but are shunned by older generations. It’s that simple.

[1] JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Calls Pet Rocks Crypto Tokens

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