The
UNLOCK Blockchain Forum - one of the biggest Blockchain event of the region,
was held on January 14th and 15th 2018 in Dubai. Inaugurated by Dr. Aisha Bin
Bishir, Director General SmartDubai, this event gathered over 500 attendees and
45 prominent Blockchain expert speakers under one roof to discuss, network and
address challenges involving Blockchain use-cases of the present and futuristic
scenarios.
“We
are proud of the efforts we have taken to help build the Blockchain ecosystem
not only in Dubai but also across the MENA region. We will have more than 60
Blockchain startups, exhibiting, speaking, and attending UNLOCK Blockchain. We
hope that Dubai benefits from having these startups where many are present here
for the first time ever. These innovative startups are from more than 35
countries around the world”, said Mr. Walid Abou Zaki, Executive Director of
Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Co. - the organizer.
"Blockchain
will improve people's experience. The applications are in various fields, some
of them are in road and transport, while others in energy, health and education
sectors. About 20-use cases are under pilot, and we are looking forward to see
the results so we can scale it.” Said, Dr. Aisha Bin Bishir.
Dr.
Aisha opened an expo on the sidelines of the event, with over 60 innovative startups from over 35 countries around the
world to help build the Blockchain ecosystem not only in Dubai but also across
the MENA region. These Blockchain startups were exhibiting their solutions,
seeking partnerships from Dubai and the region, which became a first time ever
opportunity for several of them.
While
Smart Dubai had set a deadline for 2020 to roll out a complete blockchain
strategy implementation, it was already being used in land registry
transactions.
Early 2017, #SmartDubai had kicked-off a city-wide implementation
of Blockchain technology with partners @IBMMEA, Juan Llanos - @JuanLlanos Author
of http://contrariancompliance.com, and @ConsenSysLLC.
In
the national expert session at #UnblockBC, @SilvioSchembri (from the Prime
Minister’s office of Malta) highlighted on how public sector could trail blaze
to benefit with lower cost of services and increased investment through
#BlockChain technology, thereby democratizing businesses and leading to
the exploration of new areas of
innovation.
In
a panel session with @ZeinaElKaissi,
of @SmartDubai , Ramed Dandan of
IBM, Dubai, @AndreaTinianow, #VincentWang and @jihadtayar the focus was on actions
that needed to be taken in terms of processes, legalities, private and public
partnerships in the implementation of a successful blockchain solution.
Hashtagged
#UnlockBC was a floor for the launch of several ICO offerings in the fields of
– Medical or Healthcare (@luvenmedcl, www.medicalchain.com, CureCoin – dedicated to medical and
biotech research via scientific mining. How cool it is to know that the
CureCoin system rewards you with CURE tokens for doing scientific research on
your home computer, or that #luvenin can diagnose the probability of cancer
occurrence with almost 96% accuracy in just under 15 minutes. Ross M. Doyle
from #CureCoin @CureCoinCH was part of the ‘Blockchains for Healthcare’ Panel
at @UnlockBC along with Mohammed Tayeb @Motayeb from @Medical_chain and Viktor
Tabori of @etheal_com, Estonia.
On
the panel discussing which industries are to benefit the most from Blockchain
implementations, Mr. Oliver Bussmann, Founder of Bussmann Advisory @Obussmann
gave examples from his experiences in Switzerland. He was accompanied by @drkablan,
James Wallis, VP BlockChain Markets and Engagements, IBM, Ralf Glabischnig,
Co-Founder of Swiss CryptoValley Labs, Jehan
Chu, the founder of @Hyperledger in the panel, discussing about secured Digital
Assets, #cryptocurrency, #ICO #sustainability,
Regulations, Trend reversals, Consolidation of business logic, using
#blockchain #innovation technology.
ArabianChain Technology - the first MENA Blockchain
startup was represented by its CEO @ElSehli where he presented his vision for regional
consolidation and lead, while stressing that joining the Blockchain revolution
will soon become inevitable. One of the main aims of ArabianChain was to bring
Islamic banking to the Blockchain. As AlSehli explains, “We have created a
full-fledged public Blockchain platform inclusive of smart contracts. The
ArabianChain Blockchain is a result of a fork out of the #Ethereum platform,
built on proof of work, creating a fully decentralized Blockchain.” One of the
basic differentiators that will set ArabianChain from others is that it will
allow developers to develop smart contracts in different languages using
Thuraya, the first programming language for smart contracts in Arabic and soon
to be in other languages.
In his keynote session titled - Staying ahead of the
digital disruption curve: @obussmann put forward his ‘Eight disruptive forces
model’ at @unlockbc #Blockchain summit.
In the #Blockchain solutions for #energy and
#utilities sector panel with Abraham Cambridge @vladounet Mahmoud Abu Fadda
@DEWAOfficial @collectionist, experts taked about smart cities with green
buildings using #IoT where ach solar panel or energy-creation source has its
own ID and authentication / validation for source associates meaningful crypto
value as an implementation of Fluid ID management. In the same session, Dr.
David Kravitz, VP of @DarkMatter On the panel that discussed as to how
blockchain technology could enable smart-city implementations#WaqasMirza of
@AvanzaSolutions presented a strong need for the case-by-case evaluation of
Blockchain implementation in an integrated manner alongside legacy systems.
UNLOCK
Blockchain was sponsored by Smart Dubai, IBM, DarkMatter, Emirates Airlines,
Microsoft, Avanza Solutions, DEWA (Dubai Electricity & Water Authority), DU
Telecom and Dubai Municipality, alongside startupbootcamp, CrytpoValley Labs,
and Careem as transportation partner.
According
to Lara AbdulMalak, Project lead for the summit, “We have created an event that
will bring Blockchain into the mainstream discussion and across various
sectors. Several announcements and agreements were signed at UNLOCK
to further develop Blockchain in the MENA region and encourage startups to
flourish.” In the end we can confidently summarize that
the #UnlockBC
summit achieved its aim in creating an impact both offline & online, while
enabling a healthy networking of public & private sector to harness
#blockchain tech #innovation for a better world.
VIDEO
to download:
3. https://twitter.com/SangitaSri/status/952810482167173120
