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170 global speakers at Future Blockchain Summit

DUBAI, May 26, 2019

More than170 speakers, 68 blockchain startups, and businesses and governments from over 130 countries gathered at the recent Future Blockchain Summit, hosted by Smart Dubai in partnership with the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).

The second annual edition of the event nited an agenda-setting global pool of technology visionaries, government bodies, the world’s biggest brands and industry first-movers to push blockchain forward, championing the conversation beyond theoretical use-cases and into real-life opportunities, featuring world-renowned brands including Coca-Cola, Tencent, Johnson & Johnson, Maersk, HSBC, eBay ,Lufthansa and many more.

In a global first, UAE based telecommunications giant du brought a blockchain-powered society to life at the Summit with the walk-through ‘City of the Future’ experience. The feature – enjoyed by thousands of show attendees –allowed visitors to earn and spend tokens while coming to grips with the true potential of the new technology, learning how it can impact every single aspect of our lives.

The unique experience featured ‘hubs’ hosted by local businesses and government entities including Dubai Police, Dubai Culture, Be’eah, Careem, Evoteq and Takaful Emarat, all demonstrating how they will utilise the blockchain through real-life examples.

Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, director general of Smart Dubai, said: “We are building on the success of last year’s inaugural Future Blockchain Summit. While the industry continues to grow at a phenomenal speed, it has also experienced volatility and market correction in the past year. Resultantly, it is vital to bring all key stakeholders in the blockchain ecosystem together year-on-year to cooperate, learn and grow real business relationships.

“We designed the Summit with this in mind, as the world’s foremost platform shaping the future of the industry. We look forward to seeing how the UAE, and all smart cities, will be impacted by the way this technology is implemented.”

The third round of the Global Blockchain Challenge was hosted at the Summit by Smart Dubai, in partnership with Dubai Future Accelerators. The competition drew an incredible700+entries from79 countries, all vying for the chance to be recognised as the world’s most innovative blockchain startup. Quantstamp – a smart-contract security company from the US – took top spot, winning $20,000 in prize money. Indonesian agriculture startup iGrowChain came in second, winning $15,000; while Grayblock – a blockchain financial services and development company from Canada – placed third, taking home $10,000.

At the heart of this year’s Summit was the PwC Middle East-backed Global Leaders Exchange – an annual invite-only round-table discussion with over 20 senior government and business officials working to catalyse global blockchain adoption. The focus of this year’s Exchange was two pivotal topics: policy and governance for blockchain implementation, and positioning of crypto-assets and ICOs.

The outcome of the meeting is a white paper report with guidelines on the focus areas which will be unveiled in June this year. Participating bodies included Smart Dubai, the United Nations, the Dutch Government, the Government of Estonia, the European Parliament, Litecoin and HTC, amongst others.

The Summit was also the host of several key MOU-signings, with one of its most inspiring being between the British University in Dubai (BUiD), the Dubai Blockchain Center and the University of Nicosia, who committed to collaborating to further the understanding and promotion of blockchain through training courses, workshops, conferences, educational programmes and research. – TradeArabia News Service




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