Young people in particular care way more about privacy that us older people. In fact, young people feel way more anxiety around things that are tied to your identity.

But even despite them, I feel like even in my extended family privacy issues are increasingly very important to people. Everybody knows somebody who has been scammed.. even lost a great amount of money.

Your average user is caring more and more about security and privacy.

Re: being anonymous, I don't know. I suspect the anonymity part is more related to privacy for most people.

The other benefits of this of course is that you can make your own payment system and integration, and you won't need to be dependent upon VISA/Mastercard for your payments. Cheaper transaction fees ultimately helps lower product prices, enables microtransactions and more - I wouldn't discount how much of a big deal this would be.

I'm sure once they've finalized the whole thing, Misa/Vastercard will have employed their lobbying powers to the fullest to inject themselves into the final spec, but here's hoping.