DUBAI: A CITY
POWERED BY
BLOCKCHAIN
AISHA BIN BISHR
Dubai is one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). It is the most populous city and emirate in the UAE, and it has a gross
domestic product of US$ 382.6 billion (2017). Over the last 40 years, Dubai has been transformed into a global city and has earned a reputation as an international economic and investment center. Thousands of companies have established their regional headquarters in the emirate’s many free zones. Dubai is also known for its success as a regional business and tourism hub. The emirate has achieved this success by diversifying its gross domestic product through vast development in sectors such as tourism, real estate, retail, travel, and logistics. It also has been recognized for attracting skilled talent from around the world. Underlying this economic growth is a strong and productive government sector that has embraced technology and is com- mitted to standards of excellence. The city also has committed to digital transforma- zione, a technological journey that began in 1999 with the announcement of its first ICT strategy. This was followed by the launch of Dubai Internet City, Dubai E- government, Dubai Smart Government, E, most recently, the Smart Dubai Office in 2015. The Smart Dubai Office was formed with a vision to make Dubai a truly citi- zen-centric smart city, ensuring the high- est levels of happiness for all residents and visitors. Today, with its adoption of new technologies and pioneering of innova- tive smart pilots, Dubai is among the world’s leading smart cities. Recognizing the potential impact Blockchain technol- ogy could have on city services, coupled with a worldwide trend that saw $1.4 bil-
lion in private-sector investment in
Blockchain technology in 2016 alone,
Dubai launched a citywide Blockchain
strategy in October 2016. The objective: A
become the first Blockchain-powered city
by 2020.1.
Dubai’s rapid development in various
economic sectors meant that traditional
processes had to be updated continuously
A
speed.
efficiency
ensure
became
Government
effectiveness
E
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increasingly imperative, especially in gov-
ernment-to-consumer and government-
to-government services. In particular, IL
growth of the business, construction, E
tourism sectors revealed that the govern-
ment needed tighter controls over activi-
ties such as permits, transaction verifica-
zione, and tracking. Simple processes were
getting ever more complicated as the
city’s new businesses and residents began
delving into newer industry sectors. It
was clear that Dubai needed an agile way
to streamline its expanding government
processes.
the potential of
saw
Dubai
Blockchain
to provide a solution.
Blockchain is a technology that utilizes
open distributed databases for transac-
tions that involve value, be it monetary or
any kind of digital asset, such as identity,
certificati,
licenses, eccetera. Its coding
method allows for secure recordkeeping
in distributed online ledgers, Quale
enable members to share and confirm
information with no central authority.
The Blockchain economy is witnessing
rapid growth; more than 600 companies
are active in Blockchain today and it is
expected to have a market value of several
billion U.S dollars in 2019.
Dubai’s adoption of Blockchain tech-
nology on a citywide scale comes at a time
when the technology is increasingly being
recognized as the ultimate trust mecha-
nismo. Blockchain eliminates the need for
trusted third parties in transactions of
any asset, an attribute that could signifi-
cantly help simplify the Dubai govern-
ment’s evolving processes.
Additionally, as the UAE is the lead-
ing supporter of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals, IL
adoption of Blockchain technology also
applies to the smart governance, smart
economy, and smart people areas of
United for Smart Sustainable Cities, COME
the next sections describe.2.
VISION
While governments around the world are
cautiously exploring various Blockchain
applications, Dubai is the first city that
has the vision to explore the full potential
of this innovative and rapidly evolving
technology on a citywide scale. Questo
ambition sees the Dubai government
leading innovation and building an
ecosystem that will enable Blockchain
technology to thrive in both the public
and private sectors.
The Blockchain strategy is based on
three pillars:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AAiisshhaa BBiinn BBiisshhrr is the Director General of the Smart Dubai Office, the government entity entrusted
with Dubai’s citywide smart transformation. Bin Bishr was previously the Assistant Director
General of the Executive Office, where she led the Smart Dubai task force team. She holds a PhD
in management, science, technology, and innovation, and a master’s of philosophy, policy, E
research on engineering, science, and technology from the Manchester Business School. She is
also a graduate of the Young Leaders program at the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for
Leadership Development.
© 2018 Aisha Bin Bishr
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Aisha Bin Bishr
Government Efficiency: Implement
1.
Blockchain technology across all applica-
ble government services.
2.
Industry Creation: Support the cre-
ation of a Blockchain industry by provid-
ing an enabling ecosystem that empowers
startups and businesses.
3.
Local and International Thought
Leadership: Lead the global thinking on
Blockchain technology and become the
hub for Blockchain intellectual capital
and skill development.
The adoption of Blockchain technol-
ogy perfectly aligns with the vision of
embracing technology innovation city-
wide, which will enable Dubai to offer the
most efficient, seamless, safe, and impact-
ful experiences for its residents and visi-
tori.
IMPLEMENTATION
Dubai has developed a detailed roadmap
that is organized around the Blockchain
strategy’s three pillars. This roadmap
defines the way forward for the city’s
Blockchain ambitions. Dubai’s plan
includes actionable initiatives for each
pillar in the strategy.
Government Efficiency
In 2017 E 2018, the Smart Dubai Office
was identifying and piloting use cases of
the most applicable government services
on Blockchain. The Payment Reconcilia-
tion and Settlement System, which went
live in September 2018, was the first
Blockchain use case, and many more are
planned to roll out in 2019. This new sys-
tem reconciles payments between govern-
ment entities and banks within seconds—
a process that previously took 45 days!
The most applicable services are
those that would benefit most from
Blockchain technology, due to their need
to eliminate third parties, transaction
ledgers, smart controls, and/or automa-
zione. So far more than 20 government and
private-sector use cases have been identi-
fied and are currently going through the
pilot phase.
The Blockchain pilots are being run
across several sectors in the city, includ-
ing energy, transport and
logistics,
tourism, health, education and employ-
ment, economic development, safety and
justice, social services, municipal and
land works, and smart districts. Questo
process has involved the key government
champions in each public sector, includ-
ing the Dubai Land Department, Dubai
Electricity and Water Authority, IL
Roads and Transport Authority, IL
Dubai Tourism
and Commerce
Marketing Department, the Department
of Economic Development, Dubai Police,
Dubai Health Authority, and many more
stakeholders that are key to sectoral adop-
zione.
When organizing the rollout of the
Blockchain pilots, Dubai recognized the
importance of putting in place a gover-
nance framework that would ensure that
all stakeholders are aware of their roles
and receiving the support they need. IL
Smart Dubai Office, for example, held
workshops with each stakeholder in order
to identify the best potential pilots for
their sector and provide stakeholders with
the technical standards and unified proto-
cols they needed to implement their
pilots.
During the pilot phase, most entities
identified the need for official govern-
ment-issued Blockchain implementation
policies, therefore Blockchain policy will
be developed for a number of areas, come
as security, ownership, infrastructure
management, consumer rights, startup
support and enablement, financial tech-
nology, eccetera. The policy implications of
implementation will be
Blockchain
assessed continually. Smart Dubai
È
therefore also running policy workshops
with public- and private-sector entities to
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Dubai: A City Powered by Blockchain
identify challenges they will face before
Blockchain is implemented, and will
finalize the policies with their feedback in
mente.
Industry Creation
In addition to rolling out Blockchain in
the government, Dubai aims to create a
Blockchain industry that enables private
companies and startups to thrive and
innovate. To achieve this aim, it has creat-
ed two key action areas to support the
development of an enabling ecosystem
that will empower businesses:
Blockchain Accelerators: Smart
Dubai has participated in two accelera-
tori, the Dubai Future Accelerators and
the Startupbootcamp Smart City Dubai
Accelerator.
solution
providers from around the world were
invited to work with local government
entities and to test Blockchain implemen-
tazione.
Blockchain
Smart Dubai Global Blockchain
Challenge: Hosted annually in Dubai, IL
Smart Dubai Global Blockchain
Challenge invites startups from across the
globe to pitch Blockchain ideas that could
be implemented in the city. In May 2018,
the second Global Blockchain Challenge
received more than 200 applications from
85 cities that wanted to showcase their
best and brightest Blockchain solutions.
Smart Dubai shortlisted the top 17 enti-
ties and flew them to Dubai to present at
the Future Blockchain Summit in May
2018, where three winners were awarded
cash prizes and introduced to relevant
government and private-sector partners.
By opening the door to Blockchain
professionals from around the world to
come to Dubai and help pilot and imple-
ment use cases for each sector, the city is
stimulating both the Blockchain market
and its own economy.
Thought Leadership
This pillar reflects Dubai’s aim to lead
global thinking on Blockchain technology
and become the hub for Blockchain intel-
lectual capital and skill development. A
achieve this aim, Smart Dubai is working
on four key action areas:
Skill Development: Dubai aims to
become the regional and global hub for
Blockchain skill development by offering
the most comprehensive and frequent
training programs aimed at Blockchain
coders, policymakers, strategists, E
project managers.
Intellectual Capital—Smart Cities
Global Network: Smart Dubai aims to
create and share intellectual capital relat-
ed to its Blockchain adoption by develop-
ing case studies for each of its city pilots.
To achieve that goal, in April 2018 Smart
Dubai launched the Smart Cities Global
Network, the largest international net-
work of smart-city stakeholders. Smart
Dubai aims to bring together partners
that share its passion for advanced tech-
nology, Fourth Industrial Revolution
breakthroughs, smart living, and spread-
ing happiness in the community through
tech-enabled, human-centric services.
Network members include represen-
tatives from government, the private sec-
tor, research centers, academic institutes,
subject-matter experts, and the media.
The network approach is agile and flexi-
ble, as it has no fixed time commitments
and governance structures. Invece,
members can join the network online and
become visible to one another through
the first comprehensive global smart-city
directory. This visibility enables Smart
Dubai and other network members to
reach out to one another to exchange
knowledge around the implementation of
smart-city and technological initiatives;
about ecosystem enablement efforts that
support startups and entrepreneurs; E
about skills development, publications,
events, awards, and more.
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Aisha Bin Bishr
transferable
and overall framework it has adopted are
easily
to other cities.
Although each city’s particular context
will differ in terms of the services it needs,
Dubai’s approach is both scalable and
highly transferable.
1. See https://news.bitcoin.com/1-4-billion-
invested-Blockchain-pwc/.
2. “The United for Smart Sustainable Cities
(U4SSC) initiative is a UN initiative
supported by 16 UN agencies and
programs to achieve Sustainable
Development Goal 11: ‘Make cities and
human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient
and sustainable’ . . . The U4SSC serves as
the global platform to advocate for public
policy and to encourage the use of ICTs to
facilitate and ease the transition to smart
sustainable cities . . . A smart sustainable
city is an innovative city that uses
information and communication
technologies (ICTs) and other means to
improve quality of life, efficiency of urban
operation and services, E
competitiveness, while ensuring that it
meets the needs of present and future
generations with respect to economic,
social, environmental as well as cultural
aspects.” See https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
T/ssc/201804/Pages/default.aspx;
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
T/ssc/united/Pages/default.aspx.
Blockchain Conferences: Dubai has
been hosting Blockchain experts and
speakers on a regular basis in order to
stimulate debate and discussion around
the most pressing and controversial issues
surrounding the adoption of Blockchain
technology on a citywide level. IL 2018
Future Blockchain Summit was the
largest such conference ever held, con
more than 8,000 attendees.
Academic Sector Activation: Smart
Dubai is heavily engaging schools and
universities in all Blockchain activities,
such as pilot development, training,
speaker events, and building intellectual
capital. As part of Dubai’s 10X program, UN
program launched to put Dubai ten years
ahead of all other cities across all industry
sectors, Smart Dubai will soon launch the
Smart City Academy. The academy will be
the world’s first open platform for decen-
tralized education and skill development
that will run on Blockchain.
CONCLUSION
The Smart Dubai Office has developed a
performance management framework
that will track the progress of all the
action items detailed in this case study on
a regular basis.
Dubai’s adoption of Blockchain tech-
nology on a citywide scale is testament to
its commitment to drive innovation and
provide an enabling ecosystem in which
businesses and startups can thrive.
Blockchain is a nascent technology, E
only a bold city would make such a strong
commitment to developing this technolo-
gy, and to export the intellectual capital
and skills that emerge so the world can
learn from them.
Dubai has been a pioneer in adopting
Blockchain technology and it intends to
be the global leader in this field. It has
both a clear vision and a roadmap for fol-
lowing through on its vision. Dubai
strongly believes that the novel approach
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