BBVA backed Garanti Bank, in cooperation with Turkish Central Bank and TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, has sponsored the first Blockchain Workshop in Turkey.
The event held in the Turkish capital of Ankara on April 2-3, is designed to accelerate and build out the country´s overall blockchain strategy.
The workshop was organized by TUBITAK BILGEM Blockchain Research Laboratory, in reaction to a growing trend in Distributed Ledger Technology being seen in Turkey and beyond.
The workshop focussed on sharing recent information about the continued evolution of blockchain technology and on the future shaping of Turkey’s DLT strategy.
Amongst those speakers who participated in the workshop were academics and financial sector professionals representing both national and international communities.
One of the key focusses of the two-day workshop centred around the potential impact of blockchain on the Turkish economy and wider financial environment. Panels sessions were also held to discuss topics like the past, present, and future of cryptocurrencies in Turkey, and understanding the technology from a legal and regulatory perspective with a focus on the stock exchange.
In addition, the experts taking part shared a wealth of information about blockchain technology and its applications.
Didem Dinçer Başer, Executive Vice President of Garanti Bank, said: “We believe that the 1st Blockchain Workshop was a crucial event aimed at addressing blockchain, and the future this technology holds for payment systems. We were glad to meet local and foreign experts in the workshop where the topics of discussion included legal regulations, safety, opportunities and threats as they pertain to this technology.
“One of the best banking examples of blockchain technology use was demonstrated by the BBVA Group, which in collaboration with Wave conducted the first pilot that uses blockchain to automate the electronic submission of documents in an import-export transaction between Europe and Latin America.
“Thanks to Wave’s solution, which uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the blockchain system, BBVA was able to reduce the time required to send, verify, and authorize an international trade transaction, from between seven and ten days to just 2.5 hours. BBVA also completed the first real-life implementation of an international money transfer using Ripple’s new distributed ledger technology (DLT).
“The transaction, running on BBVA infrastructure and using real money, successfully completed transfers between Spain and Mexico in a matter of seconds. At Garanti Bank, we are eagerly following the developments that will be widely used to create value in this field and will contribute to Turkey’s blockchain strategy.”