National blockchain infrastructure coming to Turkey

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The Turkish government plans to integrate blockchain technology into the country’s public administration. The country’s Ministry of Industry and Technology made the announcement while presenting the Strategy 2023, its outlook and official plans for the next three years.

According to Strategy 2023, distributed ledger technology will play a huge role in the coming years in Turkey. The government intends on launching a national blockchain infrastructure that will analyze how the technology can be integrated into various sectors of the country’s economy. Some of the sectors that it will target include land registration, customs and the issuance of academic certificates.

Moreover, the ministry also intends to work with Turkish regulators to create a regulatory sandbox for blockchain startups in the country. The sandbox will “carry out regulatory compliance tests of the developed blockchain applications, and to support the investment by making the certifications of the enterprises that successfully complete the tests.”

Strategy 2023 also contained a definition of blockchain technology:

Blockchain, which became popular with virtual currencies like Bitcoin, delivers a distributed communication infrastructure to provide trust between parties on transactions without the need for a central authority. This feature enables many different use cases that address transparency and reliability issues, from smart contracts to supply chains. Because it removes any intermediaries, blockchain technology builds new business models that will shape the future.

The document claimed that Turkey is drawing inspiration from South Korea whose application of blockchain technology has been quite a success. It points to South Korea’s use of the technology in naval defense, customs and livestock traceability.

Two months ago, Turkey revealed that a central bank digital currency was a real possibility for the country in the near future. Announced during the unveiling of the country’s economic roadmap, the CBDC is set to be launched by 2023. The government also revealed at the time that it was working on the integration of blockchain technology in transport and customs as well as for the Internet of Things industry.