Business & Money | Wednesday 9 January, 2019 6:11 am |

The UNLOCK Company DMCC, a platform that provides information, intelligence, insights and news pertaining to the Blockchain sector, is holding its second series of the UNLOCK Blockchain Forum in Dubai UAE on Jan 15-16 2019 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, DIFC. 

 

UNLOCK which is being held in its second year has announced the participation of over 56 global and regional speakers that include prominent blockchain experts such as Nick Spanos, CEO and founder of Blocktech and Zap. Most notable is the number of speakers participating from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They include Mr. Mohsen Al Zahrani, Vice President of Strategy and Excellence Saudi Payments (Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority), Mr. Hesham Bin Abbas, Head of Saudi Arabia Blockchain Technology Initiative ,Ministry of Communications and IT, Abdulrahman Alolayan, Chief Executive Officer, Taibah Valley  as well as Mr. Mohamed El Kadri Co-Founder of Smart Transformation KSA

 

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has already made significant advances when it comes to the adoption of Blockchain especially in 2018. For example, Saudi Customs authority announced that they were connecting to Tradelens Blockchain platform  https://www.unlock-bc.com/news/2018-12-28/saudi-customs-connects-to-tradelens-maersk-blockchain-platformIn addition the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency also announced that they are close to finalizing their common crypto-currency for payments between KSA and UAE https://www.unlock-bc.com/news/2018-11-25/ksa-final-stages-of-stable-cryptocurrency-project-out-in-mid-2019 In addition the Central Bank of KSA signed an MOU with Ripple in early 2018. 

 

But these are not the only signs that KSA is in full mode when it comes to blockchain adoption. Riyadh Municipality is working with ELM and IBM on a blockchain use case as is Saudi Telecom within the health sector in KSA. 

 

During UNLOCK esteemed speakers from KSA will further discuss these blockchain initiatives across the governmental and private sector including future investments into this technology. 

 

Blockchain while still in its infancy will play a great role in enhancing trust and efficiencies across the globe. Deloitte predicts that 10% of the GDP will be built on blockchain application by 2025. Gartner forecasts that blockchain will generate an annual business value of more than US $3 trillion by 2030. Implementation of Blockchain is seen as in line with ‘Saudi Vision 2030’ program diversification of the local economy as well as its digitization efforts. 

 

 

Walid Abou Zaki, Founder & CEO of UNLOCK, stated, “In our efforts to build the blockchain ecosystem in the region through platforms such as ours, it is our pleasure to have governmental representatives from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia present at UNLOCK to showcase not only their accomplishments thus far but their future strategies.”  

 

In addition more than 20 blockchain startups will be participating this year at UNLOCK including names such as BabelChain,EnergyOne; unchain, UATAG, Sophiatx, Dhonor Blockchain, Addenda, BarterTrade, Cambridge Blockchain, Dubai Blockchain Center and others.

 

Lara AbdulMalak, Editor in Chief of UNLOCK, stated, “Blockchain in its 10thyear anniversary is starting to mature slowly into a reliable platform that will allow global economies to better trade, cooperate, and develop. According the recent Deloitte Survey on blockchain, the momentum is shifting from learning and exploring to building practical business applications. 74% of those surveyed see a “compelling business case” for the use of blockchain technology; only 34 percent say their company has initiated some sort of blockchain deployment. This is indicative that blockchain will continue to grow as a business enabler and technology, as more organizations incorporate it into their business cases.”

 

UNLOCK is presented this year by DU Telecom, and sponsored by DarkMatter, Avanza Innovations, and others that have shown their commitment to the digitization efforts in the region. 

 

UNLOCK has also signed more than 40 media partnerships with top leading media players, and will continue to develop these partnerships further. For more information on the UNLOCK Blockchain Forum, please visit www.unlock-bc.com/events/unlock/2019