Out of the 700+ applications, only 20 finalists were flown to Dubai with a chance to pitch their ideas and where only three can be crowned winners do receive cash prizes.

We first speak with Karin Gabriel, a Project Lead at the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA), who explains to us what the DFA is and its role within the Dubai Government, and also what the Global Blockchain Challenege is all about.

We then spoke with 6 of the finalists to learn more about what they’re doing and what their projects are! These include:
-TE-Food (Supply chain management for food traceability)
-Bluechain (Digitizing and optimising the industrial management process and operation)
-Quantstamp (Blockchain agnostic protocol which secures smart contracts)
-Ole Sports (Making football fairer and tokenising the aspects of the football experience)
-PO8 (Marine archelogy start-up that is tokenising underwater assets)
-Akita Blockchain Solutions (Building tangible prototypes and products based on blockchain)

We wish we could have sat down with all 20 start-ups, but the above 6 just showcases how diverse the finals were.

The competition took place on Wednesday 3rd April and the winners were announced during the Future Blockchain Summit -
Congratulations to:
Quantstamp (1st place)
iGrowChain (2nd place)
GrayBlock Power (3rd place).

We hope you enjoy!!!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Karin Gabriel.

Ahmed sits down with Mohammed Al-Sharid, the Senior Project Manager for Business Development & Global Partnerships at the Smart Dubai Office, which is a government agency in the UAE tasked with making Dubai the happiest city on earth.

Mohammed gives a deep dive into how Smart Dubai are using their role as an implementor and orchestrator within the blockchain ecosystem to ensure Dubai becomes the first blockchain powered city by 2020.

Mohammed starts off the deep dive by talking about the 3 pillars that defines Dubai’s Blockchain strategy.

The First Pillar: Government Efficiency

Mohammed explains the 3 different elements (Use Cases, Blockchain Platform and Blockchain policy implementation) within the first pillar and how the three contribute to help the government of Dubai increase efficiency within their government departments. Make sure to listen to this episode to find out about these 3 elements, especially If you’re a start-up, policy implementor, and also interested in crypto. (Yes, a Crypto Positioning by Smart Dubai is cooking under the hood for 2019).

Mohammed also mentions a couple of uses that is being implemented currently.

The Second Pillar: Industry Creation

To achieve the 2020 vision, Smart Dubai have been running the Global Blockchain challenge for the past 2 years where they have received hundreds of applications across the world to tap into the growing innovation taking place globally. The Global Blockchain Challenge is back for 2019, where Dubai is calling all blockchain start-ups to apply to the Challenge. The 20 shortlisted winners will be competing in the Future Blockchain Summit organised by Smart Dubai which is taking place in April 2019. P.S. Application deadline is 30th January 2019. Details are below.

The second part of the Industry Creation is about helping to accelerate blockchain projects at the Dubai Future Accelerators program where start-ups work with government agencies for 12 weeks to build a proof of concept.

The Third Pillar: International Leadership

This pillar is about cross border collaborations to build Dubai as an international leader within the blockchain space. Listen in to hear how they are building bridges with other cities to build blockchain use cases.

As well as building Dubai as a hub, they are actively learning from different jurisdictions such as Malta and Crypto Valley in Switzerland.

Finally, listen into how one of the live blockchain use cases being built across several government departments in Dubai regarding payment reconciliation.

Global Blockchain Challenge Details
Link: Smart Dubai Global Blockchain Challenge
Applications are open until 30 January 2019, 11.59pm GMT +4.

For more information about Smart Dubai, please click on this link Smart Dubai.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Mohammed AlSharid.

First up they discuss XRP, a cryptocurrency created by Ripple, and its short ascension to number 2 in coinmarket cap and the conversation quickly goes into the concept of decentralisation as big question marks hang over Ripple’s centralised approach. The three go down the rabbit hole of historical references citing how there had to be incremental steps before real disruption took place.
They also touch on whether the pump in the price of XRP was down to speculators increasing the price.

Next, Ahmed delves into the blockchain uses cases that help to serve humanity! He talks about how Palestinians are using bitcoin to facilitate transactions cross border and how this serves as a pretty common use case for countries that do not have the required financial infrastructure that developed economies typically enjoy. Irina, very passionate about this subject, talks about how lucky they are of being able to participate in the international economy. The three then discuss the differences of bitcoin use cases between countries like Palestine and Venezuela. The challenges of using cryptocurrencies in these developing economies are also talked about as on ramp and off ramp are still huge issues faced by the local people.

Irina also touches on a project called AIAR which uses both AI and blockchain to actually help the lives of refugees globally.

Ahmed then starts a topic on women in blockchain as Irina is a huge advocate for women in tech. Reasons as to why there is underrepresentation in tech and blockchain more specifically is discussed. Irina talks about her initiatives of bringing more women into this space! Bro culture is also explored during this discussion and ways of combatting it is also laid out!

Lastly, we touch on the new and exciting news that Dubai Pay has been launched which is using blockchain technology. The reconciliation of transactions which typically takes 45 days to settle, now takes only a couple of seconds! FYI, this is one of the first Dubai Governmental projects that is now in live in production after months of testing and a year since its concept design.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Sources:
The Flippening: XRP Overtakes Ethereum as Second-Largest Cryptocurrency

Palestinians Are Using Bitcoin to Transact Across Borders Amid Conflict

Smart Dubai turns to blockchain to expedite government transactions

Special Guest: Irina Heaver.