The solutions presented by PwC shed light on implementation challenges, laying out solutions for organizations to establish ground rules and mitigation strategies that can be adopted to deal with these limitations. It is without question that blockchain has been on the lips of innovators over recent years. The level of interest and investment from technology buffs, venture capital and established companies alike suggest that the revolutionary technology is here to stay.

PwC’s latest whitepaper titled, ‘Establishing blockchain policy: strategies for the governance of distributed ledger technology ecosystems’ investigates the challenges that blockchain and the broader distributed ledger technology landscapes pose. These include issues such as privacy, performance, unpredictability, security, access to law enforcement mechanisms and cryptocurrency as a new type of asset. The solutions discussed, are based on the output commissioned by the Future Blockchain Summit through PwC and Smart Dubai’s 2^nd Global Leaders Exchange roundtable hosted by the Dubai World Trade Centre. The aim is to institute some ground rules, which will allow organizations to establish governance structures to help navigate the technological landscape, while understanding some of the most important components of a strategic approach to policy.

The collective this year dissected and developed on the challenges from a technical to an organizational and regulatory framework that currently challenge the online ledger technology over two central themes: establishing policy for blockchain implementation and positioning crypto-assets in a time of market turbulence.

The PwC analysis offered the following strategies:

1. The need for adoption of a technology-agnostic approach when implementing blockchain technologies, whereby identities and data formats constitute core interoperability capabilities
2. The PwC paper also stresses the importance of agile governance models, with organizations adopting flexible policies that can adapt to the ever-changing technological landscape
3. An innovative rather than a risk-averse approach to blockchain is key to success 

PwC’s Technology Consulting Partner, Ahmad Abu Hantash, said, “The distributed ledger space might be the fastest growing area of innovation in the entire technology sector today. Along with huge potential to disrupt business and government operations, it presents many challenges. As with all emerging technologies, innovation, expansion and development have been and will be led by both startups and major technology companies, collaborating and pushing each other to develop a sustainable technology. Predicting the way this will happen is beyond the scope of this paper, but the solutions presented here aim to establish some ground rules. These will allow organizations to establish governance structures that will help them navigate the rapidly changing technological landscape, while understanding some of the most important components of a strategic approach to policy. These components include identity as the basis of security, incentive models as funding strategies and the balance of progress vs. risk avoidance.

Oliver Sykes, Digital Trust Partner at PwC Middle East added, “Organizations need to adopt flexible policies towards blockchain that are ready for a fast-paced and ever-changing technology landscape. Rigid policies risk becoming quickly outdated. Depending on the appetite for innovation, policies can be either restrictive or permissive. Leaning too far to either end of this spectrum can yield negative results, stagnation if the policy is too restrictive, or harmful compromise if it is too permissive. With the policy strategy set and tuned to be biased toward balanced permissiveness, the challenge becomes to improve through iteration, because in order to maintain a leadership position in a nascent field, agility is a crucial ingredient.”

PwC’s Ahmad Abu Hantash concluded, “We are delighted to be collaborating with Smart Dubai again to launch the second in-depth white paper, outlining how to successfully implement blockchain technology policies and governance to work towards developing a technology ecosystem in the city. The UAE has been very active and established in this space, having already adopted flexible, optimistic and innovation-oriented attitudes towards blockchain and reaping its benefits. Launching several programs; including a blockchain platform for government entities and a legislative sandbox for fintech startups has enabled them to explore the practicality of the technology in business, define regulatory changes and be prepared to adapt to them if necessary.”

PwC Middle East’s Technology Consulting Director, Jan Grabski will offer a presentation of the outcomes of this whitepaper at the GITEX Future Stars, the region’s biggest startup event at the Dubai World Trade Center in October.

About PwC
Established in the Middle East for 40 years, PwC has 22 offices across 12 countries in the region and a network of firms in 158 countries with over 250,000 people committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services.

For the full report visit: www.pwc.com/me/blockchainpolicy