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Blockchain Strategic Framework

Application of blockchain to the property system
Dubai Government

RMIT Online Example

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Opportunity
What opportunity are you hoping to create?
To implement a project using disruptive technology, you need to plan toward a grand vision — What is your vision?

Vision

“Our aim is to unite all real estate and department services on a single platform”
The opportunity will allow the government to drastically reduce the time and cost associated with maintaining the current ledger
system, facilitate 100% paperless transactions, increase security and facilitate open access to information for other purposes.
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Concept
Clarify the current approach used to address the problem you have identified.
Write or draw a description of your approach to the problem.
Why is now the best time for your idea? (All truly disruptive technology/ideas have their time.)

Current Approach Future Concept

The technology will allow investors residing in Dubai and around

the world to verify property data that is backed by timestamp
signatures, enhancing the accuracy of data, the credibility of
investment transactions and the transparency and clarity of the
market.

On the leasing side, the department said, the platform will connect
renters not only to landlords, but also to other property-related
billers, such as electrical, water and telecommunications utilities.

Allow tenants "to make payments electronically without the need

to write cheques or print any paper ... within a few minutes at any
time and from anywhere in the world."

The tenant can access the system through a personal identification

card to complete several processes such as contract renewals and
smart payments through Emirates NBD.
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Challenges and opportunities
What are the plusses and potential of the vision and the project?
What are the concerns of this project and how will you overcome them?

Plusses Potentials
1) Simple 1) Integrated data and identity throughout the property ecosytem and
2) Secure government services
3) Fast 2) Gain confidence of global investors and stimulate economic growth
“The entire process can be completed electronically within a few minutes at
any time and from anywhere in the world, removing the need to visit any
government entity.”

Overcomes
Concerns 1) Identity management
1) Identity management
The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai plays an
Public blockchains provide very low barriers to entry for new participants,
which can facilitate competition, innovation, and productivity. However, they important role in this system, as it is responsible for verifying residency data
do not mandate authentication of those participants, which creates challenges and the existence of all required documents
for regulation of money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax avoidance.
2) Early stage technology
2) Early stage technology The use case picked has been identified as one that is a natural fit for an initial
Blockchains are still a rapidly evolving technology, with ongoing developments blockchain POC. The government has also partnered with private businesses to
especially to improve scalability and confidentiality. Globally, governments, share risk and ensure that product/market fit risk is minimised.
enterprises, and startups are exploring the technology/market fit in a wide
variety of use cases and for a wide variety of requirements and regulatory
demands. There is still much that is unknown about the development of
trustworthy blockchain-based systems.
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Impact
What impact will blockchain have on your industry? What do you plan to achieve? Is it to establish a new category or
market (eg., as Uber did with ride sharing)? Or to add to or replace an existing business model?

Yes? Explain
It will replace current operating
model with entirely new model

It will add to current operating Y This technology will facilitate the majority of the current systems and processes without
model without major change major change with the underlying model.

It will open our business to more Y 1) will allow investors residing in and around the world to verify property data. This will
open participation by partners / open up the Dubai property market to a global audience that can trust and transact
seamlessly from anywhere in the world.
customers
2) the platform will connect renters not only to landlords, but also to other property-
related billers, such as electrical, water and telecommunications utilities

It will not fuel new operating

models.
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Drivers
What are the drivers for your blockchain strategy?
Avoid ‘a blockchain looking for a problem’
Why is it better than the other options?

Yes? Explain
Perceived benefits of blockchain Y This technology will allow participants to verify property data that is
backed by timestamp signatures enhancing the accuracy of data,
the credibility of investment transactions and the transparency and
clarity of the market.

To use a blockchain as a differentiator Y This technology will allow global investors to participate in the
to gain competitive advantage Dubai property market without a physical presence. It will facilitate
transaction seamlessly and efficiently which in turn should provide
Dubai with an advantage over other jurisdictions.

To catch up to competition

To protect the businesses from outside

disruption using blockchain models
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Core value proposition of blockchain
What are the core benefits of blockchain as applied to your project?

Core benefits Relevance to strategy?

Speed Blockchain may allow certain transactions to happen more quickly, such as those requiring third-party
security validation.

Security Blockchain technology provides extremely high-levels of inbuilt security as attempts to tamper with data are
visible to the network.

Simple Blockchain may enable operational efficiencies by rationalising aspects of a product value chain. This means
expensive internal or third party services may not be needed, e.g. security services or database management.

Auditable A blockchain is able to efficiently provide a reliable and accurate history of all transactions.
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Hurdles to adoption
What are the hurdles to adoption of blockchain as applied to your project? Do the benefits outweigh the challenges?
What is your strategy to overcome and mitigate these?

Hurdle Challenge Key takeaways or next steps

1) Identity management Public blockchains provide very low barriers to entry for new The General Directorate of Residency and
participants, which can facilitate competition, innovation, and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai plays an important
productivity. However, they do not mandate authentication of role in this system, as it is responsible for
those participants, which creates challenges for regulation of verifying residency data and the existence of
money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax avoidance. all required documents

2) Early stage technology Blockchains are still a rapidly evolving technology, with The use case picked has been identified as
ongoing developments especially to improve scalability and one that is a natural fit for an initial
confidentiality. Globally, governments, enterprises, and blockchain POC. The government has also
startups are exploring the technology/market fit in a wide partnered with private businesses to share
variety of use cases and for a wide variety of requirements and risk and ensure that product/market fit risk is
regulatory demands. There is still much that is unknown about minimised.
the development of trustworthy blockchain-based systems.
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Partners
How will you collaborate with other parties? Do you need a consortium to make this work? Alternatively, run the project
in-house? What will be the effect of going it alone v collaboration with partners? (Rate of learning, resources etc.)

Stakeholders – who are they and how will they participate?

For a property blockchain, the major stakeholders are data providers (owners, buyers, sellers, tenants and service providers), data consumers, and the
data registry

This would not have been possible without the cooperation of our partners in both governmental and private institutions in Dubai.

Emirates Real Estate Solutions (ERES), the technical arm of the Dubai Land Department, is working on the development of Blockchain in collaboration with
a number of external partners including Emirates Identity Authority, DEWA and Emirates NBD.

The Dubai Land Department (DLD). The initiative has been developed in cooperation with Smart Dubai and other partners.

External Partners – who are they and how will they participate?
Partnering with the Dubai Land Department on the initiative are Asset Management Group, one of the largest real estate developers in Dubai; Emirates
NBD, one of the region's largest banks; the furniture chain IKEA; and the Emirates Identity Authority.

Wasl Asset Management Group has opted to join this initiative to benefit from the ability to renew tenant lease contracts via Blockchain, as well as from
the smooth, convenient and paperless service provided by the system

All existing and future partners will be included in the system’s database to provide access to detailed information and ensure customer convenience.
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What technology will you use?
Do you need a blockchain that is specifically designed to solve the problem (eg. Internet of Things) or an open
software platform such as Ethereum? (The answers to this question will affect how you look at the problem.)

The blockchain underlying

underlying function
function here
hereisisaarelatively
relatively
standard use case for blockchain Question Not important Very important
er
ble
ble to
to Function: Do you need a blockchain that is specifically designed to solve a problem? 1 2 3 4 5
ge
or
or
ets. Permission: Is protection of the data and participants important for you business? 1 2 3 4 5

Integration: Does your strategy require collaboration with other businesses and data? 1 2 3 4 5
ould
ate Tokenization: Do you expect to have to reward participation and collaboration on your
1 2 3 4 5
with network?

Customization: Do you need to handle complex requirements unique to your businesses? 1 2 3 4 5

to Automation: Do you plan to automate manual processes in your application? 1 2 3 4 5

tion.
he
Cost savings via Some degree of
automation are complexity unique to
important to this this project is
project. expected.
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Assumption testing
Innovations and businesses can fail because they are built upon assumptions that are wrong, and they didn't make
the necessary precautions to address those false assumptions. Identify the assumptions that your project success
is based on and the risk to the project if these are incorrect.
Assumption Possibility of wrong Level of impact if you are Total risk level
assumption (1-5) wrong (1-10)

Identity of all participant able to 3 10 30

be accurately verified before
every transaction
Blockchain technology is 2 10 20
immutable

Speed of a new blockchain 3 5 15

property system faster than
current system
Ease of use for all 2 7 14
stakeholders will be improved

Partners will be able to 3 4 12

participate seamlessly and
securely
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Proof of concept
How will you prototype this project? What level of fidelity will you get to?
Will you start with a small-scale experiment? What do you hope to learn?

Proof of concept
The Dubai Government, along with it’s partners has the opportunity and position to rework the property eco-system using a “big-
bang” approach. The operating model will be replace with an entirely new system from the top down.

Initially, the project will focus on a few important components of the property system, namely the recognition of a land title and
a buy/sell transaction.

The Dubai government will partner with private land developers to record transactions of apartment sales between two parties.

Once this POC is completed the project must be able to handle current transaction, speed, and ease of use levels very quickly.
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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What will success look like? How will you know whether this was worth the effort?
What are your metrics to gauge this?

KPI Success Method to measure Level of Importance

Simple The system needs to be simple to The World Bank ranks the ease of registering
property in their annual Ease of Doing
use and provide an easier solution
Business report. A material improvement to
to transacting property. the top 5 countries in the world would be an
important long term success measure. Low Med High
Short term, comprehensive and independent
stakeholder surveys could provide a proxy.

Secure The system needs to perform to the This KPI is the critical element of the system.
If data is compromised in any way this would
highest levels of security and
be a system failure. Blockchain has this level
without any potential to be of security inherently built within it. Low Med High
compromised.
Method to measure: Data tampering or
identity hacking > 0 = Failure

Fast The system needs to faster than the Transaction processing on Blockchain:
Transaction Per Second benchmark
incumbent model without
compromise of security or ease of Transaction processing end to end: World Low Med High
use. bank report and stakeholder surveys to
establish speed of processing each
transaction.
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Go to market strategy
How will you take this from a lab experiment to production? The challenge for an incumbent tends to be bringing the
idea to production (to customers) in a meaningful way. In what circumstances would you not take it to production?
(Eg., will you pivot?) How do you address the hurdles to adoption?

Go to market strategy

The Dubai Government, along with it’s partners has the opportunity and position to rework the property eco-system using a “big-bang” approach. The
operating model will be replace with an entirely new system from the top down.

Because the Dubai Government maintains the land titles registry it does not expect to encounter significant challenges in bringing the concept into
production or getting the system in the hands of the customers.

SDG launched the Blockchain initiative in government transactions and formed the government team to work under the leadership of SDG in March

This initiative is still in a stage of infancy. In the near future, we will see many partners joining Blockchain to improve their client services, including banking,
mortgages, and utilities and maintenance operations.

While the first phase of the initiative is limited to Wasl Asset Management Group, DLD will open the door for other property development and
management companies to include their properties in the system, allowing a wider number of customers to benefit from the Blockchain database.

The Department of Economic Development (DED) will enter the database during the second phase.
Blockchain services are currently available only to landlords and tenants, but the next stages will include developers and investors, with the potential to
offer properties for sale.
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Iteration
One of the drivers of a successful strategy is the ability to iterate based on feedback and evidence. What feedback
did you receive from your peers or mentors that changed your strategy? How did your ideas evolve during the
course? Please summarise some of the key changes and iterations you made in 100-200 words.

Iteration

N/A for worked example.

Students – please review the feedback you have received from your group, mentors and self reflection in order to
summarise the progress and iterations you have made as you have developed your strategy framework.
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Recommendations
What is the way forward for your organisation? What are the key takeaways that need to be communicated? What
does the roadmap look like? Do you have questions still need to be answered?

Recommendations
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Thank you
[Your name]