Dubai has announced plans to launch a blockchain-based virtual business-to-business marketplace that is designed specifically for the travel and tourism industry. The project is part of the which aims to make the city to be ten years ahead of other world cities. Blockchain technology has always been an integral part of the 10x initiative which puts an emphasizes on disruptive technology and innovation to achieve their stated aims. Already, Dubai has undertaken a number of in several aspects of and with the a main point of focus due to city’s tourism potential.
Harmonizing the Travel and Tourism Industry
As part of the plan, the Dubai tourism blockchain marketplace is being designed to create a robust and functioning distribution channel for hotels in the city. The blockchain marketplace aspect of the plan is expected to be completed within the first two years. All stakeholders in the industry will be connected via a network thus harmonizing the entire industry. One major advantage of doing this is that it will provide tourists with real-time pricing as well as easy access to a variety of choices from the Dubai tourism catalog.
In a from the city’s Department of Tourism, the blockchain marketplace was described as having the potential to providing the global consumer with greater access to the city’s travel industry. The statement also said that the plan would deliver many of social and economic benefits to the city leading to a net positive “GDP impact.” According to the statement, the plan will position Dubai as a leader in the democratization of the travel industry. With the aid of sophisticated contracting protocols, the ability to fulfill all the aspects of any travel itinerary within the city will be significantly enhanced.
Enhancing Dubai’s Tourism Sector
Helal Saeed Almarri, the director general of Dubai Tourism, said that his department is focused on making the city to become a global leader in the tourism industry. He also stated that there was a lot of attention being paid to accelerate the city’s ‘digital, mobile, and social’ first strategy as a vehicle for driving the enhancement agenda of the city’s tourism potential. He acknowledged the level of disruption and transformation being brought about by technological innovations in the industry.
The tourism marketplace initiative has the added advantage of opening up the and tourism industry. The tourism marketplace will encourage greater participation in the city’s tourism sector. Smaller organizations will have equal opportunities in the truly democratized blockchain marketplace landscape which means more employment opportunities in the industry.
The 10x Initiative
On the subject of the 10x initiative, Helal Saeed Almarri believes that it will transform both the government and private sectors in the city. He stated that the many innovative ideas that are being implemented as part of the initiative would help to bring to reality many crucial transformations within the city. According to the director general, Dubai Tourism will be in close contact with the government and all other stakeholders in order to make the tourism blockchain marketplace a reality.
The post appeared first on .
Cryptocurrencies have all the security functionalities of blockchain technology, making them the safest way to send money yet. However, where the problem lies is with the methods of storing these blockchain-based currencies. In recent times, there have been countless due to the carelessness of crypto users and loopholes in some bitcoin and altcoin wallets as well as exchanges.
All that is about to change now as Casa has built the most secure crypto wallet ever.
Casa bitcoin and Altcoin Wallet
is a startup that has been around for only six months but is already doing great works in the crypto industry. The firm whose primary focus is to help users secure their digital assets better has created its first product and raised $2.1 million in new investment. Highly reputable Venture capital firms Lerer Hippeau, Compound and Boost all took part in the financing round.
According to the founder and CEO, Jeremy Welch, specifically made for big crypto whales who own from $400,000 to $10 million in virtual currencies.
To move digital assets from the Casa wallet, users are required to sign three different devices electronically. This functionality makes it almost impossible for unauthorized persons to gain access to a user’s funds. Casa is also designed in a way that makes it easy for users to manage their private keys.
Although the wallet supports only bitcoin at present, altcoins like ethereum and others will be added starting from the second quarter of 2018.
Over the past ten years, Welsh has created some solutions, including an electric vehicle charging system and a home sharing app.
Crypto Inspiration
The exponential rise in the price of bitcoin in 2017, coupled with the lack of excellent options for investors to store bitcoin and other inspired the serial entrepreneur to put his other projects on hold to develop a bitcoin wallet app that is 99.9 percent secure.
The wallet uses five digital keys to store each customer’s cryptocurrencies.
The five keys reside at different locations. One of the keys stays with Casa, one lives with the user and the remaining three keys are stored on the highly secure Trezor or Ledger hardware , which the firm already has integrations between the wallets.
While a user can decide to safeguard the three keys anywhere they deem secure enough, the firm highly recommends customers to keep one in their house, one at their office and one at their bank.
Peradventure the need arises for some coins to be moved, the owner must digitally sign with three of the five keys. The hardware wallets must also be retrieved from their locations and inserted into a computer USB port.
With this system, it is very difficult for to be robbed at gunpoint by robbers.
Since all the keys are in different locations and transactions can’t be made without being signed by the three keys. Also, in case of eventualities, a user’s keys can easily be retrieved from Casa.
“Someone can’t come to you with a gun, put it to your head and say, ‘Transfer me all your money,’” Welch declared.
It might interest you to know that BitGo, also offers multi-signature wallet services just that it is wallets requires users to sign at only two locations digitally.
Casa’s for the High Flyers
The Casa multi-sig wallet service is not for the average cryptocurrency investor. The company targets only virtual currency multi-millionaires and large crypto-based businesses. Casa ’s target audience being millionaires explains why the firm’s fees don’t come cheap.
The founder has hinted that Casa’s annual fee will hit the five-figure range and quite a number of customers have already signed up for the service.
Partnerships
It’s only befitting for such a premium service to have a team of highly seasoned experts in the blockchain technology world. Casa is well aware of this fact and has already made two high profile hires, in Jameson Lopp, the highly reputable engineer at BitGo and Scott Hurff, a former lead designer at Tinder dating site.
Jameson Lopp, excited over his new deal with Casa, declared on his handle that:
“I’m excited to announce @CasaHODL, a premium cold storage solution for sovereign Individuals who want to be their bitcoin bank without having to overcome tons of technical hurdles.”
Challenges
While the Casa storage solution is an excellent piece of blockchain technology in itself, the question remains whether users would be able to follow Casa’s instructions to the letter.
“A user might say, ‘Well, I’m going to place two of my extra Trezors next to each other on the mantle.’ Now you’ve fooled yourself into thinking you have security,” said Cornell professor Emin Gun Sirer.
Lopp fully understands that the success of the project relies entirely on how users store their Casa digital keys and he has stated that the team will try their best to mitigate this considerable challenge. In his words: “We’ll need to explain to people this ideology of self-reliance and personal responsibility. I think that will be one of the missions of the company.”
Will the Casa innovative cold storage wallet succeed in its quest to revolutionize the way ‘big whales’ store their coins? Only time will tell.
The post appeared first on .
