The UNLOCK Blockchain Forum which commenced today (January 14) at the Ritz Carlton Hotel DIFC in Dubai has received more than 60 blockchain start-ups from more than 39 countries.

The event, which concludes tomorrow, also witnessed more than 40 prominent expert speakers, and over 500 participants.

Dr Aisha Bint Buti Bin Bisher, director general of Smart Dubai, the office driving Dubai’s city-wide transformation delivered her keynote speech at the opening.

“Guided by the example of our nation’s leadership, we have learned to continually look to the horizon to start creating the future today. And while others were still debating the prospects of this new technology, we got to work. We are making Dubai the blockchain capital of the world, we have 20 public sector Blockchain use cases and it’s only the beginning,” Dr Aisha said.

“Dubai took the forward-thinking approach and broke ground on the bold Dubai Blockchain Strategy, and by supporting events such as the UNLOCK Blockchain Forum, we are building a platform to share our learnings and prepare Dubai, and the world, for the future of Blockchain,” she added.

Walid Abou Zaki, executive director at event organiser Al-Iktissad-Wal-Aamal said: “When I first heard the word blockchain I knew it was a game changer, and we at Iktissad Wal Aamal endeavour to learn and understand our topics in-depth because we see ourselves as more than just event organizers.

“We are proud today to say that our efforts have met with success not only in terms of quantity but the quality of participation and the content being discussed. We believe that the next step in the right direction will entail creating the right regulations for Initial Crowd Funding ICOs as this will attract serious blockchain start-ups as well as position Dubai uniquely.”

Ramez Dandan, national technology officer, Microsoft Gulf stated, “Investment in blockchain, across the GCC and beyond, is ramping up at an impressive rate, as organisations recognise it for the disruptive digital transformation technology that it is.

“Microsoft’s participation in UNLOCK follows its commitment in Feb 2016 to the Dubai Future Foundation’s Global Blockchain Council because we strongly believe in the technology’s immense potential for enterprises of all scales and industries. It allows them to share business processes with suppliers, customers and partners, leading to new opportunities for multi-party collaboration and, eventually, exciting new business models.”

The second day of UNLOCK Blockchain will see interesting panels on Banking, real-estate, smart city Blockchain implementations as well as more start-up sessions. – TradeArabia News Service