Turkey carries out digital currency studies

By Vugar Khalilov

The Turkish Central Bank is studying the potential contributions of the digital Turkish lira circulation as a complement to the existing payments infrastructure, Yeni Shafak newspaper reported on September 15.

After the completion of the proof of concept work under the Central Bank Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development (R&D) project, the process is being carried to the next stage in close cooperation with the technology stakeholders, the bank said in a statement.

Thus, the Central Bank signed bilateral memorandums of understanding with ASELSAN, HAVELSAN and TUBITAK-BILGEM to establish the Digital Turkish Lira Cooperation Platform.

The bank stated that new partners will be involved in the platform depending on the findings of the first phase, which envisages the pre-application tests of the strategic and critical technologies under the project.

As a part of the first phase pilot implementation studies, the prototype Digital Turkish Lira Network will be established at the Central Bank, and narrow-scope and closed-circuit pilot implementation tests will be carried out with technology stakeholders.

In line with the results obtained, further phases will be initiated where more widespread and broad participation pilot tests will be made, the report added.

Furthermore, the bank plans to carry out tests on topics such as blockchain technology, the use of distributed structures in payment systems, integration with instant payment systems under the research and development project.

Since the process is in the experimental research and development phase, there is no final decision on the circulation of the digital Turkish lira, the bank stressed.

The bank said that the final decision will be made once the capacity measurements of different technological alternatives and the architectural setups are completed. This aims to ensure whether the existing technologies can meet the economic, legal and financial requirements of the digital Turkish lira.

The results of the first phase will be made public in 2022 after the tests are completed.

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