We caught up with Dr Mohamed Essaaidi, Chair of the IEEE Morocco Blockchain Group at the recent IEEE Summit, co-located with the Smart Cities Week in Rabat, Morocco on May 12, 2022 in partnership with the BSV blockchain’s global industry association.
The event focussed on the topic of IEEE 5G, IoT & Blockchain, with industry executives, government representatives and industry experts coming together to discuss the shortcomings of communication networks in a 5G-IoT world.
On the success of the Global IEEE 5G-IoT Blockchain Summit in Rabat
Dr. Essaaidi views the event’s attendance by world leaders of blockchain, including Dr Craig S. Wright, the co-founder of Bitcoin, as a key indicator of success. Other important signals of the summit’s success are the exchange and transfer of knowledge with the local ecosystem of industrial and academic ecosystem that took place.
The 5G-IoT Blockchain Summits was the first one hosted by the IEEE group in Morocco, launching a platform where academia and industry can exchange knowledge to support the development of a 5G-IoT and blockchain ecosystem in the country.
Morocco’s state of technological development
Dr Essaaidi points out that Morocco has put great effort and energy into technological development over the past two decades, using the example of the mobile technology arena, where the country has 35 million mobile subscribers. In the area of Internet penetration, Morocco has some of the highest on the continent, a good metric of the rate at which their infrastructure is developing to provide all kinds of services to their citizens.
Blockchain appetite in Morocco
Just as the country is one of Africa’s leaders in terms of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and IoT, Morocco is also placing a big focus on blockchain technology. It is this focal point that has contributed to the launch of the summit as part of a series of events organised within the framework of the Smart Cities Week, in partnership with the world technology leader, IEEE. In essence, IEEE is a global network of experts that enabled the event organisers to bring world-class experts to the summit to present on aspects relating to blockchain, smart cities, 5G, Iot and their applications in industry.
Looking forward, Dr Essaaidi sees blockchain serving the country at different levels, especially in securing the transactions. The summit also showcased blockchain’s utility for the Agritech sector for smart transactions or smart contracts. He views blockchain as pivotal to achieving the country’s development goals, with functions like smart contracts to improve administration and ease transactions for the population.
‘Blockchain is key because it will build the required trust. One of our greatest challenges is having trust in online transactions. Blockchain will certainly make things more trustful,’ he clarifies.
While Morocco aims to use blockchain to advance its own development goals, it forms part of a larger vision of connecting the country to a global blockchain network stretching across all continents. The IEEE has groups on five continents, bringing leaders together to share their blockchain knowledge and develop applications. The concept entails collaboration between all sorts of organisations, from government and academia to industry.
Commenting on the technology behind the event’s sponsor, the BSV Blockchain Association, Dr Essaaidi has this to say: ‘I think that the BSV blockchain is one of the most reliable technologies for any country wishing to engage with blockchain technology.’
Attend a BSV blockchain event near you
The Association for the BSV blockchain is the global industry organisation that supports the BSV blockchain. You can read our recap of the Global IEEE 5G-IoT Blockchain Summit in Rabat, and head over to our events page to see similar events in your geographic location.