Dubai Economy, the mainstay development agency for the Government of Dubai, UAE, has finalized an agreement with a UK-based smart ID firm, ‘Objet Tech’, to introduce a whole new way of ‘digital legal tender’ within the country soon.
The encrypted digital currency, brand named emCash, will be available on smart phones and computers as an ‘emPay’ e-wallet for the people who choose to handle their every day sale/purchase activities using the Digital Economy option. For them, no physical paper-based legal currency notes need be carried.
EmPay allows UAE residents to make varied payments, from their daily coffee and children’s school fee to utility charges and money transfers, through the near field communication (NFC) option in their phones.
Dubai Economy says that with emCash, emPay users will get the advantage of a secure method of immediate payments in real time, without going through intermediaries.
Muna Al Qassab, CEO, Emcredit, a division of which is emPay, says: “Customers can choose between two payment options on the emPay platform – the existing UAE Dirham payment or emCash. While the Dirham payment goes through normal settlement procedures, intermediaries and costs, emCash payments are settled directly between the user and merchant. emCash thus gives real time value movement and merchants can pass the cost benefit to the emCash holder.”
Under the highly secure Blockchain technology that allows for a Distributed Ledger and Shared Ledger Technology to be implemented across the financial infrastructure, control over the payments will not be limited to a single member in the emPay ecosystem, with transactions recorded instantly.
Other offerings coming up from emPay : P2P lending and credit ratings records, running on the DLT platform.
