UAE telecom giant Du sees 'unlimited' potential in blockchain

Rage Comment : UAE telecom giant Du believes that blockchain has unlimited potential for expanding its business. Wherever there is a transaction, there is a place for blockchain. Jose Valles, vice chairman of Du's business group, is working on how to use blockchain to help companies create new applications for identity authentication and authorization. The application of blockchain technology in the medical field has attracted widespread attention and is believed to greatly facilitate our daily lives. The potential of blockchain technology should not be underestimated, and more and more countries have participated in the development of blockchain technology.

Translation: Nicole

If Technicolor, Du's Dubai headquarters, is any indication of state-of-the-art mobile technology, the visitor check-in desk is an entirely different experience.

To demonstrate the progress blockchain has made in creating information and verifying management processes, every Du visitor is asked to show a plastic ID card and then place it in a blue wooden box. When I went, there were dozens of yellow sticky notes, each with a handwritten number on it, indicating that as many as 700 IDs were being saved to the state-of-the-art blockchain system.

Beyond managing the entry points, blockchain foundations that could solve this problem are still in the early stages of development.

Jose Valles, vice president of Du's business group, is working on how blockchain can help companies create new applications for identity verification and authorization, arguing that this could expand Du's business, which provides money transfer verification services to banks.

Like Etisalat, Du is an authorized telecommunications provider in the UAE with 7 million subscribers and revenues of approximately AED 12.34 billion ($3 million). Because of this, Valles believes Du has the ability to implement blockchain solutions on a large scale.

Jose Valles

Valles told CoinDesk:

“The potential of blockchain is unlimited. Blockchain will be used wherever there is a transaction.”

As a first step toward that goal, Du has joined Dubai’s Global Blockchain Council (GBC), a group of more than 40 regulators, financial firms and technology startups dedicated to blockchain technology under the guidance of the government’s incubator, the Museum of the Future.

Seven proof-of-concepts were presented at GBC last week to demonstrate research progress, but the real headline was Du’s announcement that he was trying to use blockchain technology to store medical records.

Medical field

According to Valles, Du’s move into the healthcare market was inspired by the Dubai government’s search for better ways to protect medical records.

The healthcare industry is also exploring related solutions following announcements from blockchain startup Gem and healthcare supplier Philips.

Valles said:

“Suspicious activity can compromise data security, and I think we can protect all data with blockchain technology.”

Valles said that overall, Du should pick another solution with a similar expansion theme that is based on achieving GBC's expansion goals.

Other proofs of concept that have been in focus so far include mechanisms to improve tourism (which Du is also involved in) and to make it easier for international business to enter the country's free zones.

Du is working on the healthcare project with Estonian distributed ledger startup GuardTime, which has recently gained prominence in the distributed ledger discussion after the company made news that it can protect 1 million medical records in Estonia.

Valles said the two companies are working to capitalize on the proof of concept and are looking to hire local hospitals to participate in the blockchain technology trial.

Long-term development opportunities

But Du has long-term plans for the technology, one that rivals Valles’ 35-story building with azure beaches, seven-star hotels and desert, and Valles has long-term plans for Du to play a key role in delivering new formal verification methods.

He said:

“I believe blockchain can develop many businesses because we follow the KYC process, we have a trusted blockchain, and users can verify it over the phone.”

It is not clear when the more convenient verification process will be implemented on Du.

Valles believes Du should also work on developing blockchain technology, and he is optimistic about the technology’s potential.

He concluded:

“When people started to build roads, it wasn’t because they had cement, it was because they needed cars. In the same way, blockchain can provide value to new businesses. Blockchain is going to improve our daily lives.”