Finoverse, a FinTech and Web3 community platform, expects blockchain co-operation between the UAE and Hong Kong to accelerate with the formal opening of its office in Dubai, its founder and chief executive has said.
Bridging two of the world's top business hubs will provide more avenues for entrepreneurs and investors to connect and grow the industry, Anthony Sar told The National at the Dubai leg of Finoverse Arabia on Sunday.
“There's a lot of complementary traits between the UAE and Hong Kong, and we've seen how rapidly the FinTech ecosystem developed,” he said.
“The level of excitement, the level of commitment from the government, from the regulators and the overall spirit of entrepreneurship gives us a lot of confidence in this part of the world in the years to come.”
However, activity will not be limited to between the two countries. Markets in their proximity can also tap into this partnership, such as Saudi Arabia and China, the biggest economies in their respective regions and ones that are at the forefront of technology.
“Hong Kong and the UAE bring together a lot of regional players … we want to be the one facilitating and helping stakeholders to exchange, learn and collaborate,” Mr Sar said.
Blockchain is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance, which is generally considered to be a safer way to conduct transactions and one that could end up replacing middlemen, such as brokers and banks, in the financial system.
The UAE has taken several steps to integrate blockchain into its economy, government and society.
Blockchain, in particular, has received special focus, with a number of government initiatives established, including the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 and the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, as well as the formation of the Global Blockchain Council.
“Blockchain is an enabler for a lot of other technologies, so it's an alternative economy,” Marwan Alzarouni, chief executive of the Dubai Blockchain Centre, told The National.
“It's important to be at the forefront of technology and make the most out of it by practical examples, not by theorising and anticipating what is going to happen. You need to get deep into the technology by actually practising it.”
Mr Sar acknowledged that there were challenges within the blockchain sector, particularly in trying to address the unfamiliarity around it.
He said connecting markets and promoting the technology's use can help ease that uncertainty and advance the adoption of blockchain.
“The industry is new and changing, and rapidly developing every day. So there's a lot of uncertainty,” Mr Sar said.
“This makes it even more important to have dialogues between regions so companies and founders can explore different markets and jurisdictions.”
Finoverse is based in Hong Kong but has offices in London, Paris, Shenzhen and cities across South-East Asia.
The Finoverse Arabia conference will make stops in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh this week.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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BMW M5 specs
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Desert Warrior
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Director: Rupert Wyatt
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What Super Bowl LIII
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Temperature: -50°C
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House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
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The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
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