The UAE public sector is driving the country’s blockchain’s USD 300 million market to deliver fast and secure customer and citizen transactions, global blockchain enabler SAP announced today.

In contrast to business transactions with third parties like banks, blockchain sends records over a peer-to-peer network. With the inter-connected Internet of Things era advancing, UAE organizations are increasingly using blockchain to process loans, land titles, and intellectual property. There is strong interest in adopting Blockchain as a Service, with private networks running on the cloud.

As a result, blockchain is taking off in the UAE, with the market set to reach USD 300 million by 2022, according to a recent report by Aseel Consultancy. Worldwide, 10 percent of the global GDP will be stored in blockchain by 2027, according to a recent survey by the World Economic Forum.

“Blockchain is best way for UAE organizations to deliver fast transactions in a transparent and secure manner, while generating leaner, more efficient, and more profitable return on investment. The UAE government is already a global leader in blockchain, and is set to transform the supply chain,” said Tayfun Topkoc, Managing Director for the UAE and Oman at blockchain enabler SAP.

The UAE government recently launched the Dubai Blockchain Strategy to make the government process 100 million documents per year without paper, a digital blockchain platform for the private sector, and exchanging global best practices with Future Cities.

Industry verticals set to be transformed by blockchain include logistics and supply chain to track and trace materials back to the source, public sector to provide official registries, utilities for energy sales between neighbors and utilities, and banking and financial services for cross-border transactions.

In the UAE, SAP is seeing strong demand for the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, which includes ready-to-use blockchain technology and the SAP Cloud Platform blockchain service, which supports the easy-to-use and low-risk Blockchain as a Service.

“UAE organizations are especially interested in Blockchain as a Service, for an easy and low-risk gateway to prototype, test, and build customized blockchain applications and smart contracts. SAP Leonardo supports UAE organizations to adopt blockchain without large upfront capital investment,” added Tayfun Topkoc.