Whether it runs on a blockchain is less important. Adoption and good user interface is what is important and that WeChat already has in a major way.
For example, it's July and I haven't yet used cash once for this year, and for last year it's kind of like twice.
This leads to some shops to reject the cash, making tourist and foreigners who live here more inconvenient.
Alternatively, they could have a 2nd class foreigner version of WeChat and Alipay with whatever restrictions on it they want. The status quo is more of an imposition on Chinese vendors than on tourists.
Anyways it feels weird being the only who pays cash. Many places cannot provide change for a 100 yuan note (20 usd).
I'm in the US and have colleagues who go to China on business trips. It's a huge pain. It's almost impossible and no good work around.
I can't transfer money to their wechat, and they money they have, they can't send. They cant even participate in grabbing red packets. A lot of Chinesw vendors accept wechat or alipay only, and if you use cash, people get pissed off.
It's a system unfriendly to foreigners. It's a shame because I prefer it due to its ubiquity but I can't see international adoption without radical changes by the paranoid Chinese government.
and I am not even joking. And the irony is they are doing it using UK's old gameplan, via capitalistic investment with a side of corruption and military bullying. They call it Belt and Road, instead of Empire.