Dubai Aspire To Become World’s First Blockchain Powered City

Dubai, is a city with Arab billionaire lifestyles, with the tallest building in the world, 6-star hotels, and awe-inspiring skyscrapers. Dubai dubbed as “city of the future,” aims to have flying taxis & robot cops. It has recently appointed a minister in-charge of Artificial Intelligence to become the world’s first blockchain powered city by 2020, yet another transformation.

Director general of Smart Dubai, Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr believes that Dubai has the potential to establish itself as a blockchain and crypto epicenter and become a smart city. By 2020, emirate desires that all visa applications, bill payments and license renewals with an annual cost of around 100 million should be digitally transacted using digital assets.

Smart Dubai will host the Global Blockchain Challenge, a competition relevant to the blockchain. The purpose of serving this challenge is to invite blockchain startups from all around the globe to operate in Dubai. According to her:
“Dubai has established itself, and in record time, as a global destination for innovators and entrepreneurs in the Blockchain industry. Guided by the vision of our leadership, the emirate has become synonymous with bravely embracing avant-garde technologies and utilizing them to create an advanced, connected and seamless urban experience for its residents and visitors.”

Global Blockchain Challenge is going to be held at the Dubai World Trade Center in Future Blockchain Summit on April 2-3, 2019. The competition is a joint venture between Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) & Smart Dubai. The startups who qualify the preliminary stages of the competition will secure an opportunity to train with DFA in Dubai. There will be a total of 3 winners of the competition, first place will receive $20,000 in cash & second and third place will receive $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.