Dubai launches Digital Assets Will

The new services were launched as part of a display at GITEX Global 2024. A new edition to the current group of wills service offerings by the DIFC Courts

Dubai: A new Digital Assets Will has been launched by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts, empowering individuals to seamlessly distribute their digital assets through a non-custodial DIFC Courts wallet.

This non-custodial wallet provides the freedom to reallocate assets within the wallet to the desired beneficiaries and allows for full control to mobilise assets in and out of the wallet during an individual’s lifetime, with assets finally distributed as “specific gifts”. Digital format assets recognised by the wallet include:

Future enhancements to the system in Dubai will include supported NFT standards ERC 721; ERC 115; Ordinals; HTS (Hedera Token Service).

The new will template joins the extensive legacy will types offered by the DIFC Courts, including:

An existing online automated will drafting service, and a virtual registry reinforce a 360 digitally accessible service, allowing those living domestically and overseas to create and register a DIFC Courts Will.

Investors and residents can access it from anywhere in the world and be connected, via video link, to a compliance officer sitting in Dubai.

Wills can also then be added to the global digital vault, tejouri. Launched in 2022, tejouri provides a unique platform that functions simultaneously as a cloud vault and an online safe for data, supported by a state-of-the-art onsite DIFC data centre and a secondary UAE-based backup data centre.

Access to all data is restricted to the vault holder and the listed intended recipients, guaranteeing zero knowledge proof privacy principles.

All uploaded life admin files are secured under the highest standards of security regulation, using multiple factors of authentication, encrypted data, personalised biometric information and safe-keeping ledgers through advanced cryptography.

Using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), tejouri can ensure the transmission of your entire portfolio to your designated stakeholders, or loved ones, at a key time.

Also announced as part of the new upcoming digital services is the Notary Service, which will be the notarising English documents only and is the first-of-its-kind service in the UAE.

The service will provide three options for users:

Users of the service will also have the option to utilise an authentication service through primary source verification (PSV).

An electronic or physical stamp and seal will be issued with each document and notarised documents will be verified using advanced cryptographic methods, powered by Hedera Blockchain, by logging notarisation events with a timestamp on the blockchain.

Preservation and integrity of documents will be ensured using distributed ledger technology (DLT) by converting documents to NFTs, in compliance with ERC20 standards.

User privacy will be maintained at all times through advanced encryption methods and privacy-preserving protocols, ensuring that sensitive information is fully protected throughout the entire process.

Document types accepted for attestation and notarisation will include, but is not limited to:

As part of the mission of the DIFC Courts to provide an effective portfolio of dispute resolution mechanisms, a new alternative dispute resolution avenue will also be provided.

The Mediation Service Centre will enable parties to negotiate resolution of their dispute with the help of DIFC Courts Part III registered mediators.

Parties will be able to choose the mediators and agree fees and terms in advance, as well as the choice to conduct mediation meetings online using the newly upgraded and AI-enabled Court Management System (CMS), or in-person at the DIFC Courts premises.

Justice Omar Al Mheiri, Director, DIFC Courts, said: “In our new digitally driven societies, individuals and businesses are demonstrating increased desire for easily accessible public services. The strong growth momentum arising from the implementation of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, and the Dubai Digital Strategy, has touched a diverse range of sectors, including government legal services.

“Our obligation is to deploy the latest emerging technologies to facilitate this growth and demand. Breaking down the boundaries of access to justice sits at the core of our operations and these new digital services provide ease of process across administrative tasks, such as notarisation, to more complex matters involving alternative dispute resolution and inheritance.”