It’s official. Blockchain is the new innovator. And we have proof.

Deloitte’s 2020 Global Blockchain Survey takes a deep dive into the minds of senior executives and business leaders around the world – taking note that the amount of tangible resources being fed to the blockchain beast leaves no more room for doubt. Blockchain is a permanent fixture in business as far as the eye can see.

In fact, blockchain technology is becoming foundational, as nearly 1,500 polled suggest. According to Deloitte’s survey, eighty-five percent believe digital assets could replace, or at least become a major alternative to, fiat currency over the next decade. But that’s not all we can do with blockchain.

Organizations are using it for payment processing and money transfers, supply chain monitoring, data sharing, copyright and royalty protection, retail loyalty rewards programs, digital IDs, digital voting, real estate, land, and auto title transfers, and much more. This list spotlights one of the biggest ways blockchain upgrades business: tracking digital assets.

Digital asset disruption

Blockchain technology can help track and trace physical goods and services with inherent transparency. We know this. But blockchain is in a league of its own when it comes to doing the same for digital assets. The capability is significant and will keep blockchain sustainable over the long term. In fact, many businesses are beginning to base their entire strategy around it.

While blockchain allows physical assets to be traded more easily in secondary markets, and even divided, where before they were indivisible – it gives us a brand new hold on digital assets as they move through the zeros and ones. Once a digital asset is created, blockchain technology makes it easy to view its entire life cycle and historical provenance, forever.

Of course, digital assets require governance, cyber security, and regulatory compliance, which are a few of the main challenges to blockchain’s global takeover. Varying or competing jurisdictions will give legal, security and governance teams around the world plenty to manage, which is why it’s so important to be involved on a local level at every business touchpoint.

Blockchain of the world

Speaking of variety, the Deloitte survey did a regional analysis, considering three areas of the world and how they’re responding to the evolution of blockchain technology: the Asia-Pacific, the European Union, and the Middle East.

While China’s policies continue to keep crypto illegal, regions like Hong Kong and Singapore are encouraging cryptocurrency, even at the development stage. In the European Union, Germany and the UK are embracing digital asset concepts, while the Nordic region keeps a focus on blockchain’s distributed-ledger capability. And in the Middle East, while Israel surprisingly slows its blockchain adoption, the UAE is encouraging the growth of regulated digital asset exchanges.

A major digital asset: the digital identity

One of the most important digital assets is the digital ID.

As an individual, you likely have a digital identity. Your bank accounts, utility records, titles, social media and more all whirl into one digital record of your existence. You use it to prove your existence to employers, financial institutions, friends, and anyone else who needs to know.

Corporations generally have even larger digital identities – like a macrocosm of the individual. These identities can give them their well-earned status and provide their customers with information that could either promote or derail client satisfaction.

Whether for an individual, a group, a team, or an entire organization, digital identities confirm our presence, our pursuits, and our productivity to the world.

This is where blockchain comes in

Blockchain technology works by creating an instant and accurate record of actions and information about a person, group, company, or asset – creating their digital identity. But what does that mean for you?

At BanQu, we can list example after example of how this type of technology can change lives –

for farmers in Zambia,

for homeless citizens in Texas,

for waste pickers in Colombia,

for refugees in Syria and Jordan,

for unemployed Costa Rican workers

– we can keep going (and we plan to) but we’ll get to the point.

Dignity through global identity

What blockchain technology offers to all these groups is a digital identity. In other words, access to the global economy that they didn’t have before. Records of their transactions that allow them to get bank accounts and loans, a tracked and traced log of their work activities to verify their connections and contributions to large corporations, and digital IDs that don’t require a smartphone, but do afford new privileges and a sense of empowerment.

While the Deloitte survey maintains that the concept of global digital identities is still relatively new, 90% of the respondents will be considering this digital asset for their future blockchain strategies. At BanQu, we had been considering it from day one.

The blockchain revolution

Since its introduction, attitudes toward blockchain technology have gone through many shifts and upheavals. But innovative organizations and executives have pushed forward with blockchain-enabled solutions, and the results have been stunning.

Now, blockchain is a foundational technology for the future of the global economy, and not just as a stream for cryptocurrency. Blockchain has advanced solutions in 3D printing, digital security, supply chain management and more. And organizations are responding by stepping up their investments, and allocating real resources across a variety of businesses, sectors, and regions – as proof that blockchain is everything we thought it could be.

This unequivocally takes blockchain from a concept to a crowd-pleaser, delivering real results that not only keep big businesses delighted by their bottom lines, but help people on an individual level – even, or maybe especially those in extreme poverty – feel more secure in their global digital identity.

Read the full Deloitte report