Turkey Launches National Blockchain Platform

Turkish Government is planning to establish a national blockchain infrastructure to utilize distributed ledger technology (DLT) in public administration. The Ministry of Industry and Technology set out its vision during its Strategy 2023 presentation on Sept. 18 in Ankara.

Strategy 2023 emphasizes blockchain and DLT as priorities for the coming year. The document refers to a Startup Genome survey that marks blockchain as one of the fastest-growing tech trends, with a 101.5% increase in early stage startup funding globally.

The Strategy 2023 document says a new opensource platform for blockchain will be established in Turkey. This initiative will analyze different use cases such as land registration, academic certificates and customs to determine potential public sector applications. The Ministry of Industry and Technology plans to work with Turkish regulators to create a regulatory sandbox for blockchain applications.

UNLOCK interviewed Mr. Ayşe Şenünver Director of Blockchain Turkey Platform BCTR. Mr. Senunver discussed the work that is being done to develop the Blockchain ecosystem in Turkey. As he stated, “Turkey is one of the countries which is involved in blockchain ecosystem at an early stage. Individuals, companies and public institutions are interested in this technology. It would not be right to emphasize the number of blockchain companies or projects that are taking place, as the number of projects is increasing day by day. Considering all the demands we are constantly updating a Turkish Blockchain Ecosystem map on our website.”

The Blockchain Turkey Platform (BCTR) was established on the initiative of the Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) and is an independent, non-profit organization. BCTR vision is “Securing Turkey’s regional leadership in a decentralized system” and establishing a sharing platform for building a sustainable blockchain ecosystem in Turkey aimed at removing all obstacles to new modes of business that this technology will give rise to in the period ahead.”

Şenünver stressed the importance of Education in developing the blockchain ecosystem. He explained, “Education is an essential component of almost every modern topics, not only for blockchain. As BCTR, we are sharing several training programs with our followers and ecosystem. This is one of our principles. We have managed this process with various meetups and training activities until today and we will continue our way by increasing these works in the future.

He added, The Turkish government is taking much interest in blockchain technology. In this context, we have established collaboration agreements with Republic of Turkey Ministry of Trade and TÜBİTAK BİLGEM (Informatics and Information Security Research Center). The Republic of Turkey Ministry of Trade has joined as well as members of Blockchain Turkey Platform (BCTR) with the purpose of contributing BCTR's mission via reciprocal information exchange between the executive members of both platforms, working together on new ideas and possible working subjects, giving training on joint working subjects, organizing workshops and events together, carrying out joint R&D activities and co-organizing events and seminars that foster joint R&D activities.”

Even TÜBİTAK-BİLGEM has joined the members of Blockchain Turkey Platform (BCTR) with the purpose of contributing BCTR's mission via providing training, conducting seminars, participating to the BCTR project group meetings, and advising and contributing to the proof of concepts (PoC) that are in the scope of BCTR.