No specific characteristics required. It's just the most economic and compact option that suits very well. But If you use MLCC, you likely will need to use capacitor with larger capacitance due to capacitance loss under voltage potential and temperature increase. And avoid capacitors with Z5U and Y5V dialectic type because they have the same problems as X5R and X7R but so much worse. I don't think that a decent electrolytic capacitor will have any lifetime issues in this circuit. Capacitor with 50V or higher voltage rating should be used.