Dubai is embracing blockchain technology
emCash
Dubai announced two days ago that they would soon be implementing their coin, emCash. The city plans for citizens to be able to use this coin to pay for bills, utilities, retail goods, and various other purposes. The company creating this emCash is called emcredit, and the Credit Bureau of Dubai is supporting them. Pundi X also has entered into this equation to bring a POS to enable transactions with emCash, Pundi X has said that they're issuing over a hundred thousand of these devices over the next couple of years. Verdict quoted a spokesman from emcredit saying:
“Deploying cutting-edge technology such as blockchain is a key priority and is delivering benefits to our citizens in the form of convenience and securities to customers and merchants across Dubai.”
Photo by Christoph Schulz on Unsplash
A government powered by blockchain technology
Dubai has pledged to become the first blockchain-powered government by 2020. This move comes to increase transparency within the government, specifically transaction transparency, as well as efficiency.
DoF. Mira Sultan Obaid Abdul Rahman said about the switch:
“There is no real-time monitoring of the transaction in the old system and with blockchain, the whole process can be monitored in real time.” The goal being to one day move all government transactions to blockchain to increase efficiency.
Dubai doesn’t look like it's going to stop improving its systems with blockchain either, as 20 use cases are currently being tested. More practical uses are needed for cryptocurrency to continue, and this move by Dubai is an excellent step in that direction. One of the biggest controversies about cryptocurrency is critics saying there isn’t enough practical uses or places to spend coins. However, by being able to use emCash to pay bills, and even school fees, one cannot still claim cryptocurrency has no practical applications. I sincerely hope other governments follow suit and embrace blockchain technology.
-Written by James Hepburn