According to a piece published on Futurism, Dubai just launched its first official cryptocurrency. The name of the token is emCash and it's designed to work with a payment system called "emWallet".
The fact that a city state as prominent as Dubai is embracing this technology may be surprising, but if you're involved in the startup scene, you know that they've been banking on innovation and startups big time. Even this move is part of their so-called "Accelerators Initiative'"
The "emWallet" allows domestic payments such as coffee, or school tuition, which makes the emCash really available from the day one.
emWallet handles various types of transactions—from “their daily coffee and children’s school fee to utility charges and money transfers”—with a near-field communication (NFC) support through a smartphone.
I would have loved to know more details about this story, though:
- is this an open blockchain, or is it privately controlled?
- what is the minting / generation algorithm - Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, etc?
- what is the total supply of the emCash and what is the inflation rate?
- is the code open source?
Without the answer to these questions, the news remains interesting enough, but not very revolutionary. It's just "blockchain as a banking service", which do allows for smaller fees, faster transfers and higher reliability, but it's still centralized (which means the "middle man" is still there, in the middle).
image source - Pixabay
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