What does Bitcoin offer to the UAE region?
Introduction
Since the mid 1990’s, the internet has given rise to technologies that have disrupted many industries. It started from affecting the traditional mail industry and moved on to causing flutter in telecommunication, publishing, media & retail industry to name a few. Most of these disruptive technologies have been innovative i.e.) it has simplified complex problems and made the product/service affordable to many. As Scott Anthony of Innosight rightly says in his book “Little black book of innovation” – Innovation is doing something different that has an impact but at the same time affordable.
If we look into the global mega trends for the past few years, Peer to peer economy sits on the top with huge market cap. The market revenue predicted is around $335 Billion dollars by 2025. Start-ups like Airbnb & Uber have leveraged this trend and started disrupting the hospitality & transport industry. Their growth has been meteoric and right now has billion dollar valuations. The most powerful value propositions of such peer to peer economy are that its decentralized system (no hierarchy) and it provides products/services at cheaper prices by negating the need for third party agents.
Bitcoin, the open sourced crypto currency network having the same concept of peer to peer economy is right now disrupting the finance & payment industry. It’s transparent, cost-effective & above all highly secured. To know more about bitcoin check out www.bitcoin.org or www.igot.com.
The UAE is going to host the Expo 2020 and the two major sectors that are going to be affected are tourism & retail. Let’s look at some simple applications of Bitcoin in these sectors.
Retail:
The UAE retail sector is set to grow by 33% by 2015. UAE stands 4th in the global retail development index. The customer can use his bitcoin Wallet from mobile to make payments to retailers by scanning the QR code and transactions will be verified in quick time. Bitcoin payment applications can benefit the retailers by reducing the transaction fees and also same time providing convenient method of payment for customers. The other advantages are that there are no charge backs and money is credited into merchant’s account instantly.
There are some 63k merchant’s around the world accepting bitcoins including companies like Dish, Expedia, and Virgin and it’s expected to reach 100k by end of this year. We have to wait and watch if the e-commerce and brick & mortar companies in UAE will follow suit their global peers.
Tourism:
UAE is expected to attract around 20 million visitors by the year 2020. Majority of the visitors will be expatriates from different parts of the world. One of the major hurdles faced by the travelers is the need for carrying fiat currencies. The other major hurdle is for them to use currency exchanges and credit cards which comes with heavy amount of fees attached for processing. Bitcoin can help solve the first hurdle by providing the customer with a secured wallet in his mobile phone. It eradicates the need for carrying huge loads of fiat currencies while travelling. Bitcoin can also help the customers overcome the second hurdle by completely eradicating transaction fees to a nil/negligible amount since there is no currency handling/bank transaction fees. Companies like www.igot.com makes it cheaper to send money.
Like the above examples, there are several other industries that are going to be disrupted by bitcoin network in the coming years.
I foresee increased interest among startups, corporations and individuals to join the bitcoin ecosystem in the UAE region in the nearby future. The question is which part of the innovation adoption curve are you willing to be: Early adopter or laggard? The choice is yours. Let me know your thoughts.
By Vignesh Raja (Business and Strategy Development for MENA Region)
This article is provided by igot.com Bitcoin Exchange.
