The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has made a distinction between blockchain know-how and digital currencies. Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, the CEO of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, acknowledged that it is just concerned with investing in blockchain know-how and never in digital currencies.
He made the comment whereas talking on the QIA’s financial diversification thesis in the course of the Qatar Economic Forum occasion in Doha organized by Bloomberg.
“Our team in the technology space are exploring opportunities in the blockchain. This is the space that we’re interested in, not the currency itself,” he stated in the course of the interview.
The QIA is the fifteenth largest sovereign wealth fund globally, with over $300 billion in property underneath administration. In addition to exploring funding alternatives within the blockchain house, Al-Mahmoud states that the QIA can be trying to develop its portfolio with investments in Africa, Europe, and the automotive sector.
His assertion on blockchain know-how aligns with feedback made by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Governor, H E Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, throughout the identical occasion. Al-Thani famous that Qatar considers blockchain know-how to carry quite a lot of potential to assist the nation implement its digital transformation.
The governor additionally slammed digital currencies as dangerous whereas disclosing that the central financial institution was on the foundational stage of exploring a central financial institution digital foreign money (CBDC).
Blockchain know-how funding race gaining steam within the Middle-East
Qatar shouldn’t be the one Middle-East nation eager on investing in blockchain know-how. Others, together with Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have additionally made important strides on this route.
Earlier this month, Oman’s sovereign wealth fund introduced an funding in Crusoe Energy Systems Inc., a U.S.-based block reward mining firm that makes use of stranded pure gasoline to energy its operation.
Part of the deal is that the corporate will arrange store within the Sultanate. The operation will assist the nation cut back its contribution to gasoline flaring.
Similarly, the UAE has a number of initiatives focused at increasing the adoption of blockchain know-how in its governance in step with its ambiguous purpose of placing 50% of its authorities operations on-chain.
The Emirate of Dubai has been quickly rising to develop into a digital property corporations hotbed for the reason that introduction of its licensing laws. Other Emirate states, together with Abu Dhabi, are additionally catching up with offering regulatory readability.
Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Blockchain in Middle East & South Asia
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