Technology
SMART DUBAI ENDORSES WORLD BLOCKCHAIN SUMMIT
Published by Gbaf News
Posted on September 7, 2017
7 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Gbaf News
Posted on September 7, 2017
7 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Smart Dubai, the government entity responsible for making Dubai the happiest city on Earth , recently confirmed its endorsement of the World Blockchain Summit, which is poised to be the Middle East’s Biggest blockchain summit, and organised by global business events and consulting firm, Trescon.
To incorporate blockchain into daily life, Smart Dubai announced the Dubai Blockchain Strategy last year under the leadership and vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.
World Blockchain Summit features Blockchain international and regional experts who will discuss the foundation for new value creation in this emerging technology. This summit is hosting global technology and blockchain giants to discuss ways on how blockchain is not only relevant in the financial sector; but can also revolutionise processes and procedures in several other industries.
Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), will be presenting the opening keynote on ‘The Current State and Vision of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy’. Other notable speakers of the summit include Jack Shaw, Executive Director, American Blockchain Council, USA; Richard Kastelein, Founder, Blockchain News, Cryptoassets Design Group & Blockchain Partners, Netherlands; Jane Zhang, Founder and CEO, Shellpay; Hans Christensen, Director, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, to name a few. View the full speaker line-up here.
Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office (SDO), added: “The integration of blockchain technology is a key link in the evolution of a smart city, which will bring unprecedented efficiency and productivity to the financial sector and will have practical benefits and application across a wide number of industries. The World Blockchain Summit is a strategic platform where we are highlighting the achievements of Dubai in being one of the early adopters of this breakthrough technology. Through our participation, we are not only highlighting our achievements in the field but also our future vision to leverage technology for boosting the happiness of our people and establishing Dubai as the happiest and smartest city on Earth.”
Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, Chief Executive Officer, Smart Dubai Government Establishment, explained: “The launch of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy has been a game changer that underpins the serious intent of our city to unlock the potential offered by this technology. We are presenting our successes in Blockchain technology and our commitment to leveraging it fully as part of our Smart Dubai ambition. By 2020, we aim to conduct all our business through Blockchain technology, ceasing paper transactions and creating a new model in government operations. We are also focused on nurturing the competencies of our tech-savvy youth in this sector having launched the Global Blockchain Challenge, highlighting our commitment to be the first-adopter of modern technologies for the happiness of the community and efficiency of our operations.”
The Summit will also host the regional finale of Startup World Cup, a global competition that brings together the top startups, VCs, entrepreneurs and world-class tech CEOs. Startups working in the blockchain space has an opportunity of winning the regional cup of the Startup World Cup with free flight tickets to San Francisco to compete with 16 other contestants to win US$1 million Grand Prize. Submission deadline for the same is 15 September 2017.
Mr. Mohammed Saleem, CEO, Trescon said, “World Blockchain Summit is part of a series of blockchain summits that we are organising in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and we are proud to have our first edition endorsed by Smart Dubai. It gives us great pleasure to welcome Wesam Lootah to present the opening keynote at the summit and we look forward for a successful event.”
World Blockchain Summit is taking place on 24-25 October 2017 at The Address Dubai Mall.
For more information, visit https://www.worldblockchainsummit.com/
Smart Dubai, the government entity responsible for making Dubai the happiest city on Earth , recently confirmed its endorsement of the World Blockchain Summit, which is poised to be the Middle East’s Biggest blockchain summit, and organised by global business events and consulting firm, Trescon.
To incorporate blockchain into daily life, Smart Dubai announced the Dubai Blockchain Strategy last year under the leadership and vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.
World Blockchain Summit features Blockchain international and regional experts who will discuss the foundation for new value creation in this emerging technology. This summit is hosting global technology and blockchain giants to discuss ways on how blockchain is not only relevant in the financial sector; but can also revolutionise processes and procedures in several other industries.
Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), will be presenting the opening keynote on ‘The Current State and Vision of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy’. Other notable speakers of the summit include Jack Shaw, Executive Director, American Blockchain Council, USA; Richard Kastelein, Founder, Blockchain News, Cryptoassets Design Group & Blockchain Partners, Netherlands; Jane Zhang, Founder and CEO, Shellpay; Hans Christensen, Director, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, to name a few. View the full speaker line-up here.
Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office (SDO), added: “The integration of blockchain technology is a key link in the evolution of a smart city, which will bring unprecedented efficiency and productivity to the financial sector and will have practical benefits and application across a wide number of industries. The World Blockchain Summit is a strategic platform where we are highlighting the achievements of Dubai in being one of the early adopters of this breakthrough technology. Through our participation, we are not only highlighting our achievements in the field but also our future vision to leverage technology for boosting the happiness of our people and establishing Dubai as the happiest and smartest city on Earth.”
Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, Chief Executive Officer, Smart Dubai Government Establishment, explained: “The launch of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy has been a game changer that underpins the serious intent of our city to unlock the potential offered by this technology. We are presenting our successes in Blockchain technology and our commitment to leveraging it fully as part of our Smart Dubai ambition. By 2020, we aim to conduct all our business through Blockchain technology, ceasing paper transactions and creating a new model in government operations. We are also focused on nurturing the competencies of our tech-savvy youth in this sector having launched the Global Blockchain Challenge, highlighting our commitment to be the first-adopter of modern technologies for the happiness of the community and efficiency of our operations.”
The Summit will also host the regional finale of Startup World Cup, a global competition that brings together the top startups, VCs, entrepreneurs and world-class tech CEOs. Startups working in the blockchain space has an opportunity of winning the regional cup of the Startup World Cup with free flight tickets to San Francisco to compete with 16 other contestants to win US$1 million Grand Prize. Submission deadline for the same is 15 September 2017.
Mr. Mohammed Saleem, CEO, Trescon said, “World Blockchain Summit is part of a series of blockchain summits that we are organising in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and we are proud to have our first edition endorsed by Smart Dubai. It gives us great pleasure to welcome Wesam Lootah to present the opening keynote at the summit and we look forward for a successful event.”
World Blockchain Summit is taking place on 24-25 October 2017 at The Address Dubai Mall.
For more information, visit https://www.worldblockchainsummit.com/
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