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Turkish Bank Launches Blockchain Platform for Digital Gold Transfers

By   ·  1 minute read

Turkey's Takasbank announced the release of its blockchain-based gold-backed transfer system Dec. 30th. Developed by the Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank, the BiGA Digital Gold trading platform provides banks with a blockchain-based system for the issuance, repayment, and transfer of digitized gold.

First announced to the public in September, the BiGA system allows banks to use blockchain technology to transfer digital assets representing a quantity of physical gold. Each asset traded on the platform represents a gram of gold that's physically stored in vaults at the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Turkish stock exchange.

According to the official website, the BiGA project aims to, "establish an infrastructure that will allow for the execution of the transfer of dematerialized gold at certain standards with their physical equivalents kept in safe custody using blockchain technology".

Turkey has been building a strong relationship with blockchain and cryptocurrencies for some time now. A recent survey conducted by ING found Turks were helping drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies, with a second survey showing that 20 percent of the population use or own cryptocurrency.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, noted that the states' efforts on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology would allow the cryptocurrency market to grow further in the near future.

While blockchain and crypto-based markets continue to expand, both companies and governments are working on blockchain technology and digital currencies, which constitute the technological infrastructure of cryptocurrencies. That's more than three times the percentage of the UK population who use or own cryptocurrencies and over double the percentage of Germans.

Many international banks are now also developing their own forms of sovereign digital currencies and the banking sector as a whole is experiencing a shift from paper-based transactions to more secure lower-cost digital transactions.

Like Turkey, more and more investors are turning to the tokenization of digital assets, and now it's more clear than ever that there’s no stopping the inevitable rise of digital currencies worldwide.