public and the private sectors. The benefits are widely expected to cut costs; enhance security; reduce the need for large, expansive, and maintenance-dependent infrastructure platforms; and produce faster transaction models across a variety of sectors. The UAE, in particular, has been actively exploring the commercial potential of blockchain. The Global Blockchain Council was set up by the Dubai Future Accelerators in February 2016, consisting of regional and international players such as Etisalat, Emirates NBD, du, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), IBM, and Microsoft. In one recent initiative, the DMCC partnered with BitOasis, a domestic Bitcoin exchange, to develop a proof-of-concept for the DMCC Business Centre to incorporate flexible tenancy contracts and registration procedures on blockchain. Although highly specialised, this could be expanded to include similar concepts in property acquisition, rentals, transportation, and furthering the national smart city agendas. What kind of interest have you observed from which sectors for the adoption of blockchain? Blockchain can benefit a range of different sectors including government, banking and finance, start-ups, transportation, real estate, and healthcare. GCC countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE have been actively pursuing continued infrastructure development to achieve their national smart city strategies. In line with these strategies, blockchain technology is becoming an instrumental technology for enhancing city-wide, cross-sector connectivity, collaboration, and security. Financial Services In the financial services sector, for example, blockchain has offered support on a wide range of use cases for financial institutions, including trade finance, remittances, syndicated loans, loyalty programs, and KYC registries. Several banks have developed blockchain-based platforms in order to help optimise internal processes, gain access to digital records, reduce manual processes, increase the speed to process transactions, and reduce overall risk and fraud due to traceability and transparency of all transactions. Real Estate In the real estate sector, blockchain initiatives are being implemented to create a distributed ledger for buyers, sellers, brokers, and regulators. For example, ABN AMRO and its tech-
nology partner IBM recently launched a pilot to help parties involved in real estate transactions record and exchange information. A similar project was put forward by the blockchain city-wide advisor, Consensys, in line with the Dubai Blockchain Strategy 2020 to develop a real estate database. Incubation of start-ups Blockchain is also beginning to be considered as a technology that could support the incubation of start-up ecosystems by simplifying processes such as registering a business, securing funding, and patenting ideas. The technology can allow individuals to make their data accessible to several pre-approved entities involved in the network such as business registration, patenting and funding authorities, while also allowing data to be updated in real time. Transport and logistics The transportation industry is another sector that has been evaluating the potential benefit of blockchain, especially with the focus on developing regional smart city infrastructures. The
advent of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicleto-infrastructure (V2I) technologies mean a growing interconnected transportation grid. Healthcare In the healthcare sector, blockchains can help secure sensitive patient data through the creation of trustworthy, multi-signature, and cryptography functions. Blockchains can also be advantageous when it comes to insurance and billing, with technology creating the possibility for patients, insurance companies, and hospital billing departments to securely manage payments through a single platform, thus reducing redundancies across the industry. As blockchain continues to gain momentum, global education institutions are also increasingly involved in blockchain based research. For example, MIT’s Media Lab Digital Currency initiative brings together international experts in areas ranging from cryptography, to economics, privacy, and distributed systems. The effort will reach across the MIT campus to explore the many issues involved in blockchain and bitcoin technology.
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