BTC Wires: Dubai is now looking to become the first
BTC Wires: Dubai is now looking to become the first blockchain-powered government in the world by the year 2020. They wish to see all visa applications, bills, licensed renewals, and any such transactions to be made digitally using cryptos. Smart Dubai has maintained that this plan could save 25.1 million man hours and an estimated $1.5 billion per year.
Given how secure data stored on blockchains are, they have now come to usage in real estate as well. The Dubai Land Department (DLD) launched a crypto-based system in October which would help with all financial transactions, records all real-estate contracts, and keep homeowners and tenants to utility services and billers such as water, electricity, and communication.
Director General of DLD Sultan Butti bin Mejren has maintained that their aim is to simply put all real estate and department services on a single platform.
“This initiative is still in a stage of infancy. In the near future, we will see many partners joining blockchain to improve their client services, including banking, mortgages, and utilities and maintenance operations”, he explained.
Notably, they also launched their own alt-coin named emCash back in October. People would be able to use the coins for any government or non-government services, and the strategy would “improve the ease of business and quality of life in Dubai.”
However, a certain lack of technical skills and infrastructure required to support the technology poses new challenges to the strategy. A shared platform called Blockchain as a Service will be deployed in the city to facilitate the authorities in this blockchain implementation. The city is also working with local startup Arabian Chain to shift all documentations onto the blockchain and Dubai Future Accelerators to help rapidly deploy the blockchain across the city.
Dubai also collaborated with UK-based ObjectTech a few months back for crypto-based security at their airport, and also create digital passports in order to effectively remove manual checking. They are also working with IBM to test blockchain for trade finance. Tech leaders like Microsoft, SAP, and Cisco are working on crypto applications in the city as well.
“The Global Blockchain Council’s role is to ensure that Dubai remains ahead of the curve and to provide ideas and guidance on how blockchain can benefit market participants, and ultimately contribute to Dubai’s economy,” explained executive chairman of Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Authority Ahmed Bin Sulayem.