Aqarchain to launch crowdfunding and tokenization platform built on Tezos

By Leandra Monteiro

UAE based Aqarchain, regulated by the Dubai Finance Services Authority (DFSA) in DIFC (Dubai International Financial Center), the operator of a real-estate crowdfunding portal, will soon be launching the first UAE homegrown end to end blockchain platform for tokenization of the real-estate market built on Tezos Blockchain.

Aqarchain is a fully owned subsidiary of SmartChain which builds products and solutions using emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI, ML, IoT (Internet of things) & many others. Driven by the need to create solutions in promising economic sectors, Aqarchain built a real-estate crowdfunding tokenization platform to help democratize investment in one of the most promising sectors, real-estate, in a safe, regulated, and efficient manner.

According to PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) report, the real estate sector is a major direct contributor to the economy in the region, contributing about 6% of GDP in the UAE and 7% in Saudi Arabia in 2018. Its fortunes are closely connected to other important sectors, such as construction, retail, and hospitality. The GCC real estate sector employs around 200,000 people while the construction industry as a whole provides more than five million jobs. As such, the real estate sector can play a major role in the region’s recovery and support the broader diversification of its economies.

The UAE was one of the first countries in the region via DFSA to regulate crowd funding, which connects crowds with entrepreneurs where crowds invest in a project or business or real-estate allowing investment without a middleman.

According to Waqas Nakhwa, Founder and CTO of Aqarchain, Founder and CEO of SmartChain states, “We are proud to be on the verge of launching one of the most innovative solutions that will revolutionize the way people invest in real-estate using crowdfunding and tokenization through digital assets. This has democratized investments while allowing the digital trade of real-estate assets in a more seamless, secure, efficient, and quick manner.”

Aqarchain is building on Blockchain Tezos platform, which has a set security standard, and is Sharia compliant. Tezos is one of the most prominent blockchain platforms today. Tezos is a decentralized, open-source energy efficient Proof of Stake blockchain network that can execute peer-to-peer transactions and serve as a platform for deploying smart contracts. The native cryptocurrency for the Tezos blockchain is the tez which has the symbol XTZ.

Nakhwa added, “ We have developed not only a state of the art property listing portal with mobile application for retail users, which will be live on July 1st 2021 allowing developers and brokers get a free listing and sales management platform, but, we have also developed our crowd funding self-tokenization platform for properties which allows fractional ownership of properties. Together these two platforms will revolutionize real estate investments. ”

In addition Aqarchain is launching its Native utility token AQR which can be utilized for DeFi staking as well as earning rewards. AQR Staking is a function that allows users the option to earn rewards in linear emissions block. AQR Token rewards are earned by staking AQR token, staking XTZ coin and staking of LP Token generated by adding liquidity in decentralized exchanges. The AQR token can be paired with XTZ (Tezos token) and BNB (Binance Token) to create LP Token (Liquidity Provider token) that can further be staked to earn more rewards. Nakhwa explains, “We are currently underway with regards to our AQR Token sale in our seed round phase and we will be announcing our public sale soon.”