Dubai's Emaar Reveals Plan To Launch Digital Currency

Dubai-based Emaar Group has announced plans to leverage blockchain technology to offer the Emaar community token for customers and partners by the end of this year.

The announcement is part of Emaar’s focus on innovation, it said in a statement.

The Emaar community token will allow the company's customers and stakeholders to reap the value of a full referral and loyalty system across the entire group, opening the Emaar experience potentially to billions of internet users.

This will be among the first referral and loyalty tokens in the world giving access to an existing operational ecosystem of close to $10 billion, and an initial coin offering in Europe (ICO) will be considered within 12 months of the internal operational launch of the platform, the statement said.

Swiss-based Lykke is leading the technology build of Emaar’s community token based on the Ethereum blockchain and the ERC20 token framework.

The token will be transferable across the entire global Emaar ecosystem, including real estate, malls, hospitality, entertainment, facilities management and online shopping.

Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, said: “We continuously strive to expand our reach, strengthen our growth and extend the Emaar experience. We have embraced the digital world even as we continue to build the most advanced and innovative physical structures and we use both to delight and benefit our customers and stakeholders globally. The Emaar community token marks a significant leap in our digital transformation journey.”

Richard Olsen, founder and CEO of Lykke, added: “We have developed cutting edge technology infrastructure with mass-market usability to support our core belief that all mobile and internet users should be able to participate in economic activity, regardless of size of contribution. We are thrilled to leverage our experience and expertise to support Emaar’s mission to bring value and utility to millions of users globally.”

Emaar grew revenues by 37 percent in 2018 to $7 billion and its brand value by 39 percent to $2.7 billion, placing it among the highest tier brands in the world.

The developer of the iconic Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall, Dubai Opera, The Dubai Fountain and premium lifestyle communities is also the world’s largest property company outside China.