Founder and Managing Partner of BRIME Aline Daoud
Doha: Blockchain technology will disrupt the markets, industry experts continue to say. And in Qatar, the women-led Blockchain Research Institute Middle East (BRIME) is laying the ground work for blockchain technology to flourish in Qatar, and in the region.
In an interview with The Peninsula yesterday, Founder and Managing Partner of BRIME Aline Daoud (pictured) said the Qatar-based institute, which opened just six months ago, is the first branch of the global think tank in the Middle East. The centre is now in advanced discussions for partnerships with big market players from the country’s public and private sectors for promoting awareness as well as the adoption of blockchain in Qatar.
“We have partnered with the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) in Canada and secured an exclusive agreement to represent the company in the Mena region. We see that people are starting to see the benefits of this revolutionary technology and we are eventually all moving towards it. Currently, we are already in very advanced discussions with big institutions and governmental sectors in Qatar. We offer memberships to large companies and SMEs and certified trainings for individuals and institutions,” said Daoud.
Globally, some of BRI’s prominent clients include FedEx, IBM, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer among many others. More locally, “BRIME seeks to bring together top industry leaders, academics, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and researchers in Qatar and the region, to undertake ground-breaking research on blockchain technology and to bridge the gap between the technological functionality of blockchain and the real market need”.
Education Specialist at BRIME Lina Alsahan added: “We are trying to be the technology hub for blockchain in Qatar and the Middle East, connecting all market players from the government and private sectors who are interested in exploring or implementing the technology. And we’re focusing first on education awareness towards blockchain, and then move forward with the research and consultancy services”.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the blockchain market size in Qatar was estimated at $800,000 in 2018, and is expected to grow by 120 percent annually to reach $19.4m this year. The study noted a low current awareness of blockchain (more than a third of SMEs) and low utilisation rate (around 3 percent) in Qatar, and highlighted the enormous potential of the market to expand. Currently, blockchain players in Qatar include the Digital Incubation Center, QPay, and Commercial Bank, the report added.
“We see that lack of awareness hinders some companies from adopting blockchain. They are immediately hesitant about the technology because they link it directly to cryptocurrency, which is still not legalised in the country. They don’t understand that blockchain can be used in many sectors, such as through the use of smart contracts, without actually having cryptocurrency within the ecosystem. Smart contracts help cut the costs for companies and provide security and transparency on the operations. Blockchain also opens new financial and revenue streams for businesses,” Alsahan said.
Daoud added: “We all say today that data is the new oil. And blockchain enables you to own your data and keep it safe. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of blockchain, especially with the rapid rise of cyber attacks in the region as well as globally during the pandemic.
And to take full advantage of the blockchain technology, you will need a whole ecosystem to move towards it. One company moving there will not be enough. As we see it happening, we believe that it is the big pillars that will start moving towards blockchain technology, and then the whole ecosystem including the SMEs fill follow”.
According to a Gartner report, blockchain technology could be used as a foundational technology for 30 percent of the global customer base by 2030. It added that by 2025, blockchain would add a business value that will grow to over $176bn, which would further increase to $3.1 trillion by 2030.
