Monday, February 12, 2018


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


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