Experts in banking and finance shared insights on the impact of Blockchain at a panel discussion organised by the e-Dirham team of the Ministry of Finance, MoF, in partnership with First Abu Dhabi Bank, FAB, during GITEX Technology Week, 2017.

The panel discussion was a part of e-Dirham’s awareness initiatives which include an interactive talk by experts from financial and banking sector focused on highly relevant topics including latest trends in electronic payments.

Amongst the panel members were Tony Joseph, Chief Information Security Officer, e-dirham team at Ministry of Finance, Ramana Kumar, Head of Payments at FAB, and Sultan bin Kharsham, Managing Director at PayCommerce ME, while Karen Remo, Managing Director of New Perspective Media, was the moderator for the panel.

The panellists highlighted the phenomenal growth of Blockchain, a distributed ledger database based on cryptographic peer-to-peer network. Driven by its transparent, cost-effective and time-efficient features, the Blockchain market worldwide is estimated to rise from US$210 million in 2016 to over $2.3 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 61.5 percent, according to a report by market survey organisation, Markets and Markets. High adoption across diverse application systems including payments, exchanges, documentation and smart contracts are leading to the fast growth of the Blockchain market.

The UAE is also making strides in the adoption of Blockchain and Dubai is already working towards attaining its goal of becoming the world’s first government to execute all transactions on Blockchain by 2020.

The transformative technology, considered a principal tool for establishing and supporting the digital economy all over the world, also assures an effective protection against the growing threats in the fields of data security and e-crimes. Blockchain is also considered a qualitative leap that will lead to the emergence of the second generation of internet offering tremendous opportunities for communities and individuals all over the world, as it is being widely adopted, said the panel members.

The MoF, in partnership with FAB, is showcasing e-Dirham’s latest mechanisms and technologies in electronic payment systems in the UAE at the GITEX Technology Week 2017.

The World Economic Forum published a recent report entitled, "Blockchain will be the beating heart of the global financial system" which noted that Blockchain will lead to reduce banking fees, and minimising human errors, which, in turn, will immunise the global economy against 'bubbles'.