Dubai is quickly achieving its goal of becoming the world’s first blockchain-powered government to utilize the technology for all transactions by 2020.

Speaking at the recently held CIOMajlis (Chief Information Officer’s) session on ‘Blockchain Technology,’ Ahmad Al Mulla, chairman of CIOMajlis, said:

Dubai is a frontrunner in adopting the latest technology and has set a goal to become the world’s first government to execute all implementable transactions on the blockchain by 2020. The government initiatives in this direction present tremendous business opportunities for the private sector in the UAE.

He added:

There is a current global shortage of object oriented programmers and developers. We need to ensure sufficient availability of trained manpower and as these opportunities are accruing across all sectors, we will see a lot of blockchain implementation in [the] near future across government as well as private sectors.

According to a report from Trade Arabia, HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, launched the Dubai Blockchain Strategy. Through this, it aims to explore and research technology innovations that could provide the chance to deliver improvements to the nation.

Dan Frankel, Blockchain City Adviser to Dubai at ConsenSys, which has been named the official company blockchain advisor for the city of Dubai, said that the distributed ledger technology could cut bank transactions by $15 to $20 billion a year by 2022. With the possibility of removing costs of manual processing, processing errors, and re-work it could deliver savings as much as 75 percent.

Frankel added:

Early adopters and first to market with this technology will have a strategic advantage.

Dubai Embraces the Blockchain

Keen to illustrate its embracive nature toward the distributed ledger the nation has taken significant steps to begin the fundamental shift.

So much so, that in June the Dubai government signed a new agreement with U.K.-based blockchain startup ObjectTech to create digital passports for entry at Dubai International Airport. Aiming to end manual passport verification, the partnership hopes to create the world’s first ‘gate-less border.’

Not only that, but the UAE retail banking giant Emirates NBD is due to implement the distributed ledger in an attempt to prevent cheque fraud and boost their authenticity with the best digital security systems available.

Meanwhile, with the government giving the greenlight for a citywide blockchain payments system in Dubai, it looks as though the nation is on track to becoming the world’s first country that is powered by the blockchain.