Unlike 83% of total respondents to a Deloitte survey who strongly or somewhat believe digital assets will serve as a strong alternative to, or outright replacement for, fiat currency in the next five to 10 years, those in China stand out with their figure rising to 94%.

Deloitte’s 2020 Global Blockchain Survey polled a sample of 1,488 senior executives and practitioners in 14 countries including Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

It found that the technology’s top use in a global context is for digital currency (33%) – though not the case in Asia Pacific where blockchain’s top uses are for data access/sharing, data reconciliation and track and trace.

Its overall finding suggests that initial doubts about blockchain’s usefulness are fading as business leaders now see it as integral to organizational innovation. The change in perception builds on the affirmation of blockchain’s maturity as a true strategic priority with dramatic increases in production, investment and talent sourcing.

“Blockchain already is an integral and vital tool upon which – and with which – new, cutting-edge solutions are being created, and we are confident that blockchain solutions will gain even greater traction within the global business community over the next 12 to 24 months”, states the report which also explores key insights into the role of digital assets.

It shows that while blockchain may have been seen as a technology experiment, it has since leaped from being a theoretical idea to a practical reality which gives many executives a reason to explore its potential and its application in their organizations.

They say digital assets represent a significant part of blockchain’s enduring sustainability for their ability to “make it easier to view and certify an asset’s historical provenance and allow for otherwise indivisible physical assets to become divisible and more easily traded on secondary markets.”

The Chinese execs’ view on digital assets didn’t come as a surprise considering that China has been making moves in this direction particularly with its leading role as a major global economy that’s at the forefront of introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Though information about its issuance is still vague, China’s proposed Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP) project has been topical in recent months.

“China’s DCEP is a centralized digital currency issued most likely by the PBOC – the central bank in china,” says Lennix Lai, the Director of Financial Markets at OKEx cryptocurrency exchange, who recently held a Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. “DCEP is expected to be distributed by state-owned bank onto its account holder(s). The beauty of DCEP, I think, is its potential application on the impact of M1. DCEP is also benefit(cial) to implementing monetary policies at a micro-level and regulatory oversight.”

China is obviously one of the most crypto-advanced countries across market size, participants, miners, blockchain and crypto startups, blockchain/crypto media, and specialized event managers, Lai adds, stressing that many locals have somehow heard of and engaged with crypto before even as the government is “very supportive of blockchain tech coupled with actual policies and guidelines.”

Meanwhile, like the incoherence seen in blockchain use cases in the past and today, the Deloitte survey states that regardless of their perceived importance, there is “no clear or specific consensus about exactly how those (digital) assets will be used or the specific role they will play” in the future.