Dubai with 200,000 Chinese: Another Web3 capital in Asia

The story of the Chinese in the encryption industry is full of twists and turns. The Chinese have helped the vigorous development of the encryption industry, but the current Chinese forces are somewhat adrift.

The encryption industry started around 2013 in mainland China and Japan, and then Hong Kong began to exert its strength. Following the bankruptcy of Japan's Mt Gox in 2014, dollar trading began to gain traction in Hong Kong via Bitfinex. In 2016, Bitfinex became the largest non-renminbi exchange. Backed by the Greater China region, Bitfinex has a close relationship with Tether, which also started in Hong Kong, and provided a series of support. The ecosystem in Hong Kong has indeed allowed these big brands to do it, making FTX (later moved to the Bahamas), BitMEX... Mainland China was also the starting point of the encryption industry, and Vitalik, the founder of Ethereum, has also traveled to China many times Try financing.

With the Bitcoin ban in mainland China, the giant companies in the mainland have changed their business and opened up elsewhere through buybacks, backdoors, etc. new road. The bitcoin ban in the mainland has also greatly affected the encryption circle in Hong Kong. Coupled with the once-criticized epidemic policy in Hong Kong during the epidemic, a large number of new forces have since gone to Singapore.

Singapore is now the Web3 center of East Asia, but whether it will continue to be in the future, the answer is unknown.

In October 2022, Asia Token 2049, a grand event held by Web3 in the Asian region, many people in the circle participated in it at the beginning of the month After the meeting, I came to Dubai non-stop in the middle of the month to participate in Gitex, the world's largest technology event, to see what cutting-edge projects were in the Blockchain Summit and Metaverse pavilions of the sub-exhibition. With Singapore tightening its policies on Web3 and Dubai loosening its invitation policy, MENA's booming Web3 industry also seems to be attracting perpetually FOMO insiders looking for a better environment to swim in.

In today's wave of Web3 development, Dubai must be a force that cannot be underestimated. The political and economic development of the most famous emirate in the United Arab Emirates has benefited from the national policies of several extremely far-sighted leaders, and now it has invested a lot of money and relaxed policies, taking advantage of its location in the Persian Gulf port and its proximity to Hormuz The convenient geographical location of the Strait has built its own financial center and transportation hub. Although the country is small, its soft power is amazing, and it can have its own important voice in the frontier field. Currently, Dubai is one of the fastest growing destinations for the Web3 industry. As a resident of Dubai, the author privately believes that the United Arab Emirates is the light of the Middle East and North Africa. Today, I will use the Rhythm platform to chat with you about the development of Web3 in Dubai.

The legend of the trading port - the policy of fighting the big with the small and daring to be the first in the world

Before the beginning of the 19th century, Dubai was a small fishing village. Because it was a port adjacent to Iran, it became a commercial station for trade to Persia, mainly engaged in fishing, shipbuilding, and pearl fishing. In the 19th century, Dubai began to undergo gradual modernization and became politically friendly with its former rival Abu Dhabi. From the 1800s to the discovery of oil in the 1960s and the formation of the United Arab Emirates in the 1970s, Dubai made a series of very far-sighted policy decisions. In 1833, Dubai was ruled by what is today the Al Maktoum family, which adopted a series of liberal policies. In 1901, then Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum declared Dubai a free trade port with no taxes on imported or exported goods. Subsequent sheikhs also followed this free trade policy. Before the discovery of oil, the family had built Dubai into an important port in the Persian Gulf with a large throughput. Also because of Dubai's proximity to Iran, many Iranian businessmen traveled to the world via Dubai and eventually settled in Dubai.

Dubai, adjacent to Iran, benefited from the Persian foreign trade port in the early years

In 1958, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum took over as Sheikh, and under his leadership, Dubai developed from a pearl fishing port to a splendid international metropolis and business center. The sheikh's strategic instincts are a blessing for Dubai. In 1958, no oil had been discovered in Dubai, but the sheikh had begun to focus on economic diversification, using Dubai's surplus from trade to vigorously reinvest in infrastructure, build natural water pipelines, expand power, build hotels, build airports, etc. . The sheikh’s infrastructure development has not always been well-funded or recognized by others. When building the first bridge connecting the Dubai waterway, the sheikh was so cash-strapped that he borrowed a sum of money from his brother-in-law, the person in power in Qatar, and used the tolls after passing the bridge. repayment.

In 1966, Dubai discovered oil underwater, and since then embarked on the "a piece of cloth on my head, I am the richest in the world" Life. But Dubai is lucky. Oil, which is Pandora's magic box for most countries in the Middle East, has not destroyed Dubai's independence and development too much. Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum once said a famous saying, "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drove a Mercedes, my son drove a Land Rover, his son could drive a Land Rover, but his son could ride a camel." The depletion of oil, a heavy resource. So the Maktoum family has been heavily committed to diversifying the economy with oil money.

In 1971, Dubai united with Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, etc. to form the United Arab Emirates, politically reassured. Afterwards, under the leadership of the current Sheikh's older brother and current Sheikh, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai continued to explore different industries. The current sheikh is vigorously developing the real estate industry, and the royal family's industry and the Dubai government's industry are often inseparable. Later, when Europe and the United States experienced the stagflation of the oil crisis in the 1970s, Dubai continued to develop. During this period, we saw the first line of the Arab Emirates, the construction of hotels, beaches, and bridges. Oil revenues accounted for 24 percent of Dubai's GDP in the 1970s, but by 2004 it was just 7 percent.

Current Chief Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( The ex-wife, the Princess of Jordan, is engaged in a sky-high divorce case in the UK)

Enter After the 1990s, the UAE emerged from the Gulf War as a low-key winner, continuing to attract foreign businesses to Dubai. The UAE has a good relationship with the West, stays away from the shackles of ideology as far as possible, and continues to attack the economy by taking advantage of the wave of Western liberalism. Dubai is considered the Hong Kong of the Middle East, and its relationship with Iran is considered to be very similar to that between Hong Kong and the mainland. Unlike Iran, the UAE is also quite "talking about doctrine and thinking about business", and its flexibility in actual policy operations is far greater than that of Iran.

In 2029, Dubai will run out of its last barrel of oil. Led by some extremely politically forward-thinking (albeit heavily patriarchal) people in power, Dubai is now making a big push into Web3 and the Metaverse, handing over an important stick to the city's economic diversification to this booming new industry .

In August 2022, the Sheikh of Dubai personally announced the Metaverse Strategy, aiming to further expand Dubai's influence in the Metaverse. Before the plan, 1,000 blockchain and metaverse companies had already chosen to take root in Dubai. After the plan, Dubai is expected to add 30,000 virtual jobs by 2030, adding an additional value of $4 billion to the Dubai economy.

Advertisements placed by Web3 companies can be seen everywhere on the streets of Dubai. On this land, we strive for every high-quality user who has money, a smartphone, and a high degree of Web3 acceptance.

Dubai anywhere Visible Web3 advertising

Metaverse and Blockchain Regulatory/Government Agencies in Dubai

The regulators in Dubai need to know the most is the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority VARA (Virtual Assets and Regulatory Authority), which was established in March 2022 and issued a license. VARA adopts a set of lightweight compliance model Test-Adapt-Scale, and gives licenses to virtual currency companies with looser supervision. Driven by VARA, Binance, FTX, crypto.com, Bybit, etc. have all obtained licenses in Dubai and opened head offices or branches in Dubai. Since India announced a 30% tax on virtual assets, Indian exchanges such as WazirX have also moved to Dubai. BitOasis, an important exchange in the Middle East, has also obtained a VARA license to develop in Dubai. Back in May, VARA became the first regulator to hold land in the Metaverse, buying a piece of land through Sandbox at that time. It can be seen that VARA dares to be the first to vigorously try the actions and opportunities of the Metaverse and promote "borderless" trade.

It is worth noting that the senior management in Dubai can basically speak fluent English with intriguing words and sentences on the basis of Arabic . The author was fortunate to be invited to participate in many technical and economic activities in Dubai, and listened to many speeches by senior officials. For example, during Gitex, the author participated in some activities involving Iranian government officials and UAE officials. At the event, senior Iranian officials/technical company bosses spoke English in a rough way, while UAE officials had standard pronunciation, Iranian bosses were drowsy when they spoke, and UAE officials were able to substitute participants into that bright "future" "world. Similarly, when I was working in an international financial institution, I also found that some high-ranking officials in the mainland could not speak English. Since Binance and many Chinese Web3 entrepreneurial projects are also in Dubai, He Yi, one of the trustees of Binance, was criticized for not being good at English. The author has also come into contact with some Chinese VCs and projects in Dubai, many of whom actually do not speak English or have a strong English accent. In contrast, the linguistic dominance and degree of innovation of Dubai's government forces is one of the city's great strengths.

Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) is a force to be reckoned with in Dubai and a important neighborhood. DIFC has an incubator and ecosystem FinTech Hive focused on FinTech incubation, which focuses on incubating and supporting innovation in payment methods, and captures the rapidly booming FinTech market in the Middle East. In addition to incubating FinTech companies that traditionally focus on transaction methods, FinTech Hive occasionally looks at cryptocurrency solutions that can actually solve transaction problems. In January 2020, the current sheikh injected 1 billion dirhams to open the Dubai Future District Fund, which belongs to the DIFC Innovation Center and is used to invest in VC groups and entrepreneurial institutions that invest in Dubai's financial future.

Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) is traditionally mainly a free trade zone, and the branch DMCC Crypto Center mainly supports blockchain The landing and initiation of the company in the Dubai Free Trade Zone, there are many favorable policies for the development of the company in the Free Trade Zone. Currently, DMCC has registered 460 local blockchain companies, more than 50% of blockchain companies registered in Dubai. Benefiting from the support of the Dubai government, Crypto Valley, a well-known blockchain ecosystem in Switzerland, opened Crypto Oasis in the Middle East to mine local tokens in the Middle East, build an ecosystem, and connect the two major encryption centers of Switzerland and Dubai.

Dubai Future Foundation (Dubai Future Foundation) was established in 2016, and its Dubai Future Museum is an important landmark in Dubai At present, the fund has both hardware (architecture) and soft power ecosystem construction capabilities. It has a series of detailed promoter projects, incubators, knowledge exchange platforms, etc., focusing on mining leading technologies and finding out the next "future" fashion, "future" Football, "future" AI, "future" civil servants, etc. Founded in 2021, the UAE company BEDU (bedu.io) is a local company based in the metaverse. Its current main business is to provide metaverse NFT content planning and consulting services, audit and development of smart contracts. The company announced a new plan, Project 2117, at a special event at the Museum of the Future, hoping to become a metaverse ecosystem in the next ten years and attract 100 million users into the metaverse. Some forward-looking projects can often also raise their reputation to a higher level through the Dubai Museum of the Future.

Dubai Future The museum is also a landmark building in the city today

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Dubai Chamber), established in 1965, is also vigorously promoting the development of local commerce and trade, aiming at To be the best trade bureau in the world by 2024. The Dubai Commerce and Trade Bureau is indeed implementing, hoping to achieve such a vision. The Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, a division of the Chamber of Commerce and Trade, recently announced the selection of 30 blockchain companies in Dubai to join a new metaverse education program. Under the Bureau of Commerce and Trade, the Dubai Business Women Council has also been set up to support female entrepreneurs.

In addition to these government-backed organizations, there are many large and small well-funded Web3 ecosystems in Dubai and Abu Dhabi organization within.

In addition to the government’s support in cryptocurrency, the Dubai government is also known for its openness in business technology development. The government adopts the "sandbox testing" sandbox testing model, and tests promising projects in a sandbox environment isolated by the regulators, so the approval and support projects are highly efficient and have a large degree of freedom.

Web3 "Geopolitics" in Dubai

Indian Immigration Quite a lot of Dubai is nicknamed "India's Web3 capital" by Indian Web3 entrepreneurs. The Indian government's attitude towards the cryptocurrency industry is vacillating, and the high taxes on encrypted players have allowed India's Web3 to flee India in large numbers. On April 1, 2022, India imposed a 30% income tax on all cryptocurrency revenues, and an additional 1% tax was imposed on electronic asset buyers on July 1. Generally speaking, although India has not explicitly prohibited the development of the encryption industry, different officials have more or less hawkish remarks in different environments, which makes the Web3 community in India feel increasing regulatory pressure.

There are many and cheap flights from Dubai to India, and the flight is also medium-range

Contrary to India, Dubai, which is just over 2 hours away by plane from Mumbai, not only has a loose visa policy and convenient transportation, but also does not impose taxes on the Web3 industry, and the government has provided real money to support Web3 infrastructure construction, the introduction of visa policies that are conducive to the landing of talents, etc. Indian Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, said that there is a serious Web3 brain drain in India. Early investors in Polygon were Sequoia Capital India. Sandeep Nailwal said that he did not want to leave India either, hoping to help build a better Web3 platform in India, but under the current chaotic regulatory environment, he had to leave and chose to move to Dubai in 2020.

In the article of CoinYuppie’s dialogue with the founders of Astar, the founders said that the favorable policies in Portugal and Dubai are attracting a large number of talents. Due to Japan's high taxation, more Japanese Web3 entrepreneurs also choose to go to Switzerland, Singapore, Dubai and other places. Previously, Japan’s Financial Services Agency announced a 30% corporate tax on a company’s crypto assets, including unrealized income, meaning that once a token enters the open market, it is taxed even if the token does not generate income of.

On September 30, the chief financial technology officer of the Singapore Monetary Authority stated that it would severely crack down on cryptocurrency speculation in response to the project promotion of Asia Token 2049 Behavior, as Singapore tightens regulations on cryptocurrencies, will Chinese cryptocurrency practitioners and companies choose to move to Dubai? The author currently knows that many companies and friends in the circle are actively planning to branch out in Dubai in addition to setting up offices in Singapore. It seems that the siphon force of Dubai’s loose policy will first settle in Singapore and attract players to Dubai again.

The author participated in an event in the industry in Dubai, and quoted an executive in the GameFi industry. He said that Singapore is very good at doing finance, but Can't do projects. Few VCs can afford projects in Singapore. You still have to come to Dubai to do the project. The author works in Dubai, and goes to various events every week, and I did find some Chinese entrepreneurial projects, starting from the Middle East to Asia, and then consolidating American and European users. In Dubai, the Chinese are also a very large group, about 200,000 people. People who don’t know English can still have a good life in Dubai and still be able to do projects here. Due to the popularity of UnionPay and the rapid development of FinTech in the Middle East, UnionPay cards can be used everywhere in Dubai, and cryptocurrencies can also be used in many places.

In addition, starting from Dubai, cryptocurrency practitioners use Emirates, the world's largest airline, to go to other It is also very easy to hold meetings in the cryptocurrency center Singapore, Switzerland, Portugal, Hong Kong, and North America.

The advantages of Dubai seem obvious.

There are also many direct flights between Dubai and Singapore, and the voyage is also medium-range

Reference

https://mediaoffice.ae/en/news/2022/August/02-08/Dubai-consolidates -its-status

https://www.animocabrands.com/dubais-vara-enters-the-sandbox-and-becomes-first-asset-regulator-with-a-metaverse-hq

https://cryptooasis.ae/about

https://gulfnews.com/business/corporate-news/dubai-web3 -firm-bedu-expands-its-services-and-team-1.1660138146278

https://gulfbusiness.com/dubai-based-metaverse-solution-provider-bedu-launches-operations/

https://www.business2community.com/cryptocurrency/best-dubai-cryptocurrency-projects

< a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/cryptocurrency/the-new-brain-drain-indian-web3-startups-flock-to-dubai-amid-regulatory-uncertainty-stiff-taxes- 8378361.html">https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/cryptocurrency/the-new-brain-drain-indian-web3-startups-flock-to-dubai-amid-regulatory-uncertainty-stiff-taxes -8378361.html

https://www.ftchinese.com/story /001093603?full=y

https://blockcast.it/2022/10/27/for-some-reason-hong-kong-wants-crypto-back/

https://coinyuppie.com/dialogue-with-astar-founder-and-guo-yu-discussing-the-future-of-web3-and-the-potential-of-the-japanese-blockchain-industry/

https://blockonomi.com/mt-gox-hack/

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