University of Sharjah and the BSV Blockchain's Association signs an R&D agreement to develop blockchain-based platform to preserve the UAE's Culture and Heritage in the Metaverse as NFTs

ZUG, Switzerland, Sept. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The BSV Blockchain Association (Switzerland) and the University of Sharjah (UAE) have launched a joint research project to develop a blockchain-based Metaverse system to preserve the UAE culture and heritage and maintain its ownership as a digital asset and finally developing a showcase platform as a trading marketplace for exchanging the physical originals as well as the virtual heritage assets as Non-Fungible Tokens [NFTs] in the Metaverse Environment.

Prof. Maamar Bettayeb, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, stressed the importance of this project in strengthening the relationship between the university and the industry while providing a very useful use cases of the recent technologies such as the Blockchain, Metaverse, and the NFTs that help not only to preserve the heritage and culture of the UAE but all the Arabic and Islamic legacy in the region. Besides the research and development, the UoS is serving the community and the national economy by translating the vision of Emirates of Sharjah and the UAE to document and preserve the Emirati history and heritage in its various tangible and intangible forms.

Commenting on today's announcement, Mr. Jimmy Nguyen - Bitcoin Association for BSV Founding President, said: "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-thinking and innovative destinations for blockchain and data technologies globally. We are very excited and pleased with the partnership with a premier institution in the UAE such as the UoS to develop an innovative solution that utilize the latest technologies to preserve the nation's values and history in UAE and the region. Launching a new startup will help in creating many jobs for the new technology graduates and create new economy for trading antiques, historic and modern artworks in a digital format and in virtual marketplace as NFTs".

Dr. Mohamed Al Hemairy, the leading researcher added: "UAE has a very wealthy culture and human heritage, characterised by numerous physical inheritances than new generation and expatriate don't know much about it, and it holds intangible value and considered as tangible assets. Therefore, our research was focusing on how we can deploy the immutable properties of the Blockchain to preserve the intellectual property and ownership of the Emirati's Families inherited treasures and to design a virtual art gallery for the Arabic and Islamic culture, heritage, antiques, historic and modern artworks in a state-of-the-art digital format and pertain its intellectual property as a Non-Fungible Tokens [NFT] and present them in a virtual art gallery in the Metaverse and based and backed by BSV Blockchain. We will also store the exceptional moments of our rich history, wealthy culture and achievements of the great UAE leaders and founders' leaders and aware the upcoming generations of it. We will use the Smart Contracts to govern the transfer of these inheritance without third-party involvement in an automated & fully decentralized environment. From the economical perspective, the Metaverses have seen a great deal of interest over the previous years, with many brands and organizations showing interest in being in this virtual environment, which is expected to contribute about $500 million to Dubai's economy, while studies predict that its global market size will rise from $27 billion in 2020 to more than $824 billion by 2030".

The agreement will see the University of Sharjah undertake a multi-phased research and development program, beginning with the creation of a novel solution for maintaining the heritage and the modern belongings and offer a state-of-the-art trading platform that leveraging the latest technologies such as the 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 at a university startup to operate the trading in the metaverse for the public and serve the community.

Dr. Manar Abu Taleb, Member of the Research Group added: "The integrated system will use an open-source solution that will be shared to huge community of coders to further improvements, enhancements, and community engagement. The inheritance can be transferred to the relatives as NFT transfers and can exist as proof of rightful ownership over generations for infinite time. In long term, it will achieve sustainable efforts for this solution and will impact the UAE economy sector in a positive way. This is our second time to partner with the BSV Blockchain's Association and our research group to build impactful utilities for our community and the local economy."

BSV Blockchain will be used as a public Blockchain "Open Source" that has thousands of peers distributed all over the world which validate the transactions and store the ledger in a decentralized environment. The BSV Blockchain has many unique features and properties 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 the stakeholders and users to adopt the platform for storing 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 that.

Mr. Muhammad Anjum, the Head of the BSV Hub for MESA, also commenting and said: "Developing relationships and supporting the academic institutions is a key goal of our regional BSV Hub and an impactful way that the blockchain technology can grow in the 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 a key step towards making UAE the first country in the world in the field of adoption and use of the metaverse. We are confident that we will see numerous engagements between BSV Ecosystem, and the University of Sharjah soon."

About BSV Blockchain Association

BSV Blockchain Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business on the BSV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the BSV ecosystem – enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others – working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the BSV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency. 

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Blockchain technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, BSV is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

About University of Sharjah

For more than twenty years, the University of Sharjah has provided 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 Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah, and President of the University of Sharjah. It is currently considered one of the major universities locally and regionally, and it occupies a high national ranking according to the latest international rankings.

The University of Sharjah includes fourteen colleges and offers 112 accredited academic programs in various scientific disciplines, which are fifty-seven undergraduate programs, 38 Master's programs, 15 PhD programs and 2 Postgraduate Diploma programs. The number of students studying at the University of Sharjah in the various stages of bachelors, diplomas and postgraduate studies is 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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