The UAE continues to push the boundaries of digital governance. Innovation City, a free zone in Ras Al Khaimah focused on artificial intelligence, has deployed what it describes as the first blockchain-based corporate digital identity system. Every company registered in the free zone will receive a sovereign, cryptographically verified identity built on the OPN Chain, an IOPn blockchain.
This moves businesses away from traditional paper documents, PDFs or even standard databases. Instead, every business becomes a living, immutable, soul-bound digital asset on the blockchain. The aim is to reduce the reliance on centralized intermediaries while increasing verification certainty. This aligns with the UAE’s national strategy to digitalize using blockchain, AI and related technologies.
Agentic AI drives adoption
The launch comes just after the UAE government announced a directive to transition 50% of federal government sectors, services and operations to agentic AI within two years. For intelligent agents to autonomously manage tasks like licensing, permitting, compliance checks, taxation, and cross-border interactions, they need a reliable way to verify identities. This blockchain system aims to provide this basis.
Paul Dawalibi, CEO of Innovation City, said the free zone is no longer just about registering companies, but giving them a soul on the blockchain. He pointed out that for decades, corporate identity was locked in paper, PDF files and fragile, slow and opaque databases. Now, every business in Innovation City carries a living, verifiable digital identity that works across borders and platforms.
Transparency and fraud reduction
The blockchain-based registration process brings transparency and auditability. Ownership changes, compliance updates, and audits are continuously recorded and can be publicly audited. Banks, regulators, investors and AI agents can confirm the authenticity of a company in seconds. This should also reduce document fraud.
Mojtaba Asadian, CEO of IOPn, explained that IOPn is the sovereign infrastructure layer enabling the UAE’s agentic AI economy, starting with commercial identity. He said the system is designed to accommodate all jurisdictions, institutions and sectors. When Innovation City chose the OPN chain, it selected verifiable and active on-chain digital sovereignty infrastructure.
Technical foundations and future potential
The blockchain solution is AI-native, meaning it has the exact infrastructure needed for agentic AI to operate at a government scale. It runs on a high-performance, EVM-enabled Layer 1 blockchain capable of over 10,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality. This makes it compatible with other systems.
Research suggests that the agentic AI market could grow from around $5.25 billion to nearly $200 billion between 2024 and 2034. Blockchain will likely play a key role in this growth, as AI agents need verified identities to function properly. In the future, AI agents could even autonomously pay registration fees for free zone businesses using smart contracts. The cooperation between blockchain and AI is still in its early stages, but the potential seems great.
