The Blockchain Turkey Summit, organized this year under the theme “Blockchain Usage Areas and Discovery of Potential,” has begun.
The event, organized by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, was attended by Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, and numerous domestic and foreign guests.
BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, who described blockchain technology as the "technology of the future," stated that it cannot be understood without blending the past and the future. Karagözoğlu said, “Imagine a chain. Each encrypted piece of information divides and combines to replicate itself. Thus, even the slightest change is detected, and no fraud can infiltrate the system. This system we are roughly describing is called Blockchain. Data stored centrally but distributed worldwide. Blockchain is actually the result of people losing trust in single-center systems due to past events and experiences. Although it is currently accepted as the ancestor of cryptocurrencies, there is another point to note. Bitcoin and similar financial values are neither the cause nor the result of Blockchain,” thus defining blockchain.
President Karagözoğlu: Blockchain Technology is the Most Sensitive Agenda Item in Information Technologies
Drawing attention to the fact that Blockchain is a system that makes everything trustworthy, Karagözoğlu stated, “No matter which field we adapt this secure chain to, it will progress quickly and lead us to the right result for sure.
Blockchain technology has begun to enter our lives more intensively with the digitization process of money. Due to its role in distributing the centralized structure in security systems based on a single center, one of the most important problems of information technologies, and making these systems work much more efficiently, blockchain technology is the most sensitive agenda item in today's and tomorrow's information technologies. Blockchain is a decentralized encryption ledger that names a brand-new technology that will reshape our entire lives by enabling the transfer of valuable assets in the existing internet environment that provides data transfer. Approximately 80% of academic research on blockchain has focused on cryptocurrencies,” he said.
Recording that the natural reason for research focusing so much on cryptocurrencies is related to market acceptance, President Karagözoğlu stated in his speech, “Since it was launched in 2009, Bitcoin has rapidly increased in both transaction volume and market value, becoming a phenomenal phenomenon of recent years. In 2017, it recorded more than a twenty-fold value increase, approaching 20 thousand dollar levels toward the end of the year. As of today, there are 2,081 cryptocurrencies, traded on 15,891 markets. Their total market value has dropped to 186 billion dollars, and their daily trading volume is around 15 billion dollars. Studies outside the 80% cryptocurrency research have focused on blockchain applications, including smart contracts. In addition, researchers have addressed blockchain's scalability issues, such as efficiency capacity and latency time, in the background.” President Karagözoğlu concluded his speech with the following words: “Intensive studies are being conducted by the academic community and private R&D centers on scalability and solutions it can offer, especially in the banking sector, one of the areas where blockchain has not yet fully proven itself, and it continues to be used in these sectors simultaneously. These studies use advanced cryptographic distributed systems and game theory as tools. We have organized this event to contribute to the studies conducted in our country in this field, where we will listen to national and international participants who can present a global vision on Blockchain.”Deputy Minister Sayan: Blockchain Technology is the Name of Trusting the System
Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, who spoke at the opening of the program, expressed that blockchain technology first entered our lives mysteriously with a cryptocurrency in 2008. Conveying that 2.1 billion dollars were spent in the blockchain industry in 2018, Sayan stated that the market value of the blockchain industry was 708 million dollars in 2017, and it is estimated to reach 20 billion dollars by 2024 with a great acceleration. “It is estimated that the savings provided to the banking sector alone by investments at this level is 8-12 billion dollars annually,” he said.
Deputy Minister Sayan: Blockchain is Too Important to Be Ignored. Also reminding that the first blockchain project was launched by Borsa İstanbul, Sayan stated that Blockchain is not just Bitcoin. Saying that blockchain technology is a result of humanity's desire to feel safe, Sayan said, “Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have become too important to be ignored.” “In the domestic and national campaign under the leadership of our President, without falling into the mistake of 'let's do the same,' I believe it will present a great opportunity for us to establish approaches, research, technologies, and innovative networks that we are not dependent on but others prefer to work with us. As Turkey, we have achieved significant gains in this field by closely following global developments. Under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, domestic and national initiatives that have gained momentum have inspired various studies in the Blockchain field. We believe that the only way to reach the 2023, 2053, 2071 targets shown by our President is to keep up with global changes and lead them." He concluded his speech with these words.Following the speeches, the conference proceeded to discuss the areas and sectors affected by Blockchain, technological barriers, and regulatory efforts regarding legislation and laws. Over the 2-day event, more than 40 expert speakers from 11 different countries will make presentations and hold workshops.