UAE, Saudi Arabia to unveil cross border virtual transaction venture

Six banks from the Saudi and UAE will be joining for a cross border virtual currency transaction project named “Aber” as reported by the Saudi monetary portal Argaam on 5th of February.

The mission of the venture is to make a financial transaction between the two countries easier by using the digital currencies as reported by Argaam. The banks of these two countries are working on cryptocurrency to make the process faster.

The governor of central bank of UAE disclosed the particulars of the project. He told the financial institutions of both the countries and the SAMA will develop a digital currency backed by blockchain to support the cross-border transaction between the aforementioned countries. This is the first time both the countries are working together on a blockchain based project that will not have any interaction with the third party.

The banks from both the countries were keen on using cryptocurrency for the transaction that happens between them. The banks from both the countries will join the project for conducting some tests. If the project gets success, they will do the transaction in cryptocurrency in the future.

Presently all the work of the project “Aber” is under testing phase, and it may take twelve months for the completion of the project. The project is planned to use Proof of concept protocol. If the project gets success the cross-border transaction between these countries will be ease as cryptocurrencies are economical, fast and secure for the transaction.

The cryptocurrency that is to be developed under the project will not be available to the retail customer. On the contrary, the virtual tokens will be exchanged and issued between the central authorities and the banks of both countries. This way it may maintain its centralized nature. The cryptocurrency mentioned above will be completely different from Bitcoin and other altcoins, as it will work in a different way. It will be an internal technology that will be used only for the transfer of money.

UAE is even planning to have a regulated ICO that will work very similar to securities. According to the sources the ICOs may get regulated during the initial half of the current year. Dubai government is also planning to use cryptocurrency backed by state and pegged to the fiat currency of the country Dirham.