University of Sharjah and BSV Blockchain’s Association sign an R&D agreement to develop blockchain-based platform to preserve UAE’s culture and heritage in the metaverse as NFTs
ZUG, Switzerland, 15 September 2022 /PRNewswire/ — BSV Blockchain Association (Switzerland) and The University of Sharjah (UAE) has launched a joint research project to develop a blockchain-based Metaverse system to preserve UAE culture and heritage and maintain its ownership as a digital asset and ultimately develop an exhibition platform as a trading marketplace for the exchange of the physical originals as well as the virtual legacy assets such as non-fungible tokens [NFTs] in the Metaverse environment.
Prof. Maamar Bettayebrector for research and doctoral studies, emphasized the importance of this project to strengthen the relationship between the university and the industry, while providing a very useful use case of newer technologies such as Blockchain, Metaverse and NFTs that not only help to preserve the heritage and culture of the UAE, but the entire Arab and Islamic heritage in the region. In addition to research and development, UoS serves society and the national economy by translating the vision of the Emirates of Sharjah and the UAE to document and preserve Emirati history and heritage in its various tangible and intangible forms.
Commenting on today’s announcement, MR. Jimmy Nguyen – Bitcoin Association for BSV Founding Presidentsaid: “With a firm mandate from the government to build and implement world-leading blockchain technologies for the benefit of all its citizens, the UAE represents one of the most forward-looking and innovative destinations for blockchain and data technologies globally. We are very excited and pleased to partner with a premier institution in UAE as UoS to develop an innovative solution that uses the latest technologies to preserve the nation’s values and history in the UAE and the region.Launching a new start-up will help create many jobs for technology graduates and create new economy for trade with antiques, historical and modern works of art in a digital format and on a virtual marketplace like NFTs”.
Dr. Mohamed Al Hemairyadded the lead researcher: “UAE has a very rich culture and human heritage, characterized by many physical heritage than new generation and foreigners do not know much about it, and it has intangible value and considered as material assets. Therefore, our research focused on how to distribute the immutable characteristics to Blockchain to preserve the intellectual property and ownership of the Emirati family’s inherited treasures and to design a virtual art gallery for the Arab and Islamic culture, heritage, antiques, historical and modern works of art in a state of art digital format and belongs to its intellectual property as a non-fungible tokens [NFT] and present them in a virtual art gallery in Metaverse and based and supported by BSV Blockchain. We will also save the exceptional moments of our rich history, prosperous culture and the achievements of the great UAE leaders and founding leaders and be aware of it for the coming generations. We will use the smart contracts to manage the transfer of these legacies without third party involvement in an automated and fully decentralized environment. From a financial perspective, Metaverses has seen a lot of interest in the previous years, with many brands and organizations showing interest in being in this virtual environment, which is expected to contribute approx. 500 million dollars to Dubai’s economy, while studies predict that its global market size will rise from 27 billion dollars in 2020 to more than 824 billion dollars by 2030″.
The agreement will see the University of Sharjah undertake a multi-phase research and development program, starting with creating a new solution to maintain the heritage and modern assets and provide a state-of-the-art trading platform that utilizes the latest technologies such as blockchain and the virtual reality environment “Metaverse”. This will be followed by the development of a proof-of-concept application resulting from the R&D phase and will be commercially used by a university startup to trade in the metaverse for the public and serve society.
Dr. Manar Abu TalebThe member of the research group added: “The integrated system will use an open source solution that will be shared with a large community of coders for further improvements, refinements and community engagement. The legacy can be passed down to the relatives as the NFT transfers and can exist as evidence on rightful ownership over generations for infinite time. In the long term, it will achieve sustainable efforts for this solution and will positively impact the economy sector in the UAE. This is the second time we have partnered with BSV Blockchain’s Association and our research group to build impactful tools for our community and the local economy.”
The BSV Blockchain will be used as a public Blockchain “Open Source” that has thousands of peers distributed worldwide validating the transactions and storing the ledger in a decentralized environment. BSV Blockchain has many unique features and characteristics such as stability, massive scaling for the block size and a fast transaction rate with the lowest transaction fees. These features are so critical for stakeholders and users to adopt the platform to store their special assets and collections as a digital format and enable them to share them with others in a 3D format in the Metaverse and even trade them if they prefer.
MR. Muhammad Anjumthe head of the BSV Hub for MESA, also commented, saying: “Developing relationships and supporting the academic institutions is a key objective of our regional BSV Hub and an impactful way in which blockchain technology can grow Middle East. The University of Sharjah has brought very strong used case to utilize the powerful features of the BSV blockchain. The Dubai Metaverse Strategy is an innovative initiative and an important step towards making the UAE the first country in the world in the adoption and use of metaverse. We are sure that we will see many engagements between BSV Ecosystem and the University of Sharjah soon.”
About BSV Blockchain Association
The BSV Blockchain Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organization that works to promote business on the BSV blockchain. It brings together key components of the BSV ecosystem – businesses, startups, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners) and others – working together with them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of BSV the blockchain and admission of BSV’s digital currency.
The association works to build a regulatory-friendly ecosystem that promotes lawful behavior while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Blockchain technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, BSV is also a network protocol; just like the internet protocol, it is the basic rule of an entire computer network. The association supports the use of the original Bitcoin protocol to power the world’s single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.
About the University of Sharjah
For more than twenty years, the University of Sharjah has delivered its academic, scientific and research services as a comprehensive public university for all academic disciplines. The university was established in 1997 with the kind patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimimember of the supreme council, ruler over Sharjahand President of the University of Sharjah. It is currently considered one of the great universities locally and regionally, and it has a high national ranking according to the latest international rankings.
The University of Sharjah comprises fourteen colleges and offers 112 accredited academic programs in various scientific disciplines, which are fifty-seven bachelor’s programs, 38 master’s programs, 15 PhD programs and 2 Postgraduate Diploma programs. Number of students studying at the University i Sharjah in the various stages of bachelors, diplomas and doctoral studies are more than 16,400 thousand students, and the number of graduates exceeds thirty-two thousand graduates from different regions of the world.
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