Consensus: Dubai’s ‘Smart City’ shift to blockchain will save the government $1.5B dollars
The government of Dubai has shown no signs of slowing down in its run to be the most progressive city in the world. Dubai’s Smart City, or Smart Dubai, is integrating several emerging technologies into society, such as artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and 3D printed buildings. They have also pledged to become the first city to be fully powered by blockchain technology by 2020 in hopes of becoming the world’s blockchain capital.
Dubai’s full-on investment in blockchain development is grounded in their stance that “blockchain is the second revolution after the internet,” citing that “it will do for transactions what the internet did for information.” Shifting to a blockchain-based e-Governance system is expected to rake in $1.5 billion in savings for Dubai’s government annually.
Apart from the reduction in costs, the potential long-term revenues make it worth the billions worth of investment dollars being allocated to development today. By 2019, Dubai estimates that blockchain technology will turn into a $290 billion market.
Unsurprisingly, it can be noted that they are not alone in the race to blockchain dominance; the governments of Russia, Japan, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Estonia, US, UK, Sweden, Ghana, and many others have also been investing in blockchain development.
This year, the South Korean government announced their plan to allocate 230 billion won (around $204 million) for both private and public blockchain projects until 2022. China — despite cracking down on cryptocurrencies — has been seeing large investments pour into development. The government-backed Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund has been offering $1.6 billion to Chinese blockchain startups. It’s expected that the rest of the world will follow suit in order to keep up.
Smart Dubai: the plan
Dubai’s strategy is to transfer 100% of government services onto a blockchain-powered system; this includes energy and water, transport and logistics, economic development, tourism, safety and justice, municipality and land, health, social services, and “smart districts,” which refers to local governments managing at the micro level and ensuring that initiatives are executed specific to every district’s needs.
The blockchain-based e-Governance system takes processes that traditionally involve several agencies and consolidates them into one streamlined process, with a unified database that is updated in real-time and shared across all agencies involved.
Smart Dubai has also taken into consideration the impact of blockchain technology in generating opportunities and anticipates the creation of industries along with jobs to keep them running. Several startups are rising to cater to the needs of the blockchain industry, and the demand for professionals in the blockchain industry is growing.
Being a business hub that attracts talent from all corners of the world, Dubai’s accelerator, projects, and events cater to a global talent pool. Complementing Dubai Smart City’s aggressive growth is the Dubai Smart City Accelerator, which was in fact, launched to enable “startups that are developing innovative solutions to help make cities smarter and overcome significant challenges due to congestion, waste, and energy to improve the quality of people’s lives.”
Dubai’s next step
According to Smart Dubai’s roadmap, they expect to see proofs-of-concept by the end of the year, with live city implementation to commence afterward. It will be exciting to see what they come up with, and how other countries can follow their lead and develop similar applicable solutions tailored to their citizens’ needs.
