Turkey’s Central Bank Reports First Payment Transactions On Digital Turkish Lira Network

Turkey’s monetary authority has successfully carried out the first payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira Network, as per a recent announcement. Interestingly, the aforementioned operations were executed as part of studies during the 1st phase of the central bank digital currency project.

The CBRT also mentioned that it will continue to perform pilot tests with technology stakeholders in the 1st quarter of next year, on a bounded scale and in a closed-circuit environment. It further ensured that the findings from these tests will be divulged to the public in a detailed evaluation report.

The bank also said that examination of the legal aspects of the central bank digital currencies have shown that “digital identification is of critical importance for the project.” For this reason, the CBRT aims to prioritize studies on the legal and economic framework of the digital lira as well as its technological necessities.

It is to be noted that the prospective issuing of a “blockchain-based” version of the Turkish lira was originally mentioned in President Recep Erdogan’s Annual Program in the month of November, 2019. Two years later, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey intensified research into the matter by establishing the Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform to assist the development and testing of the central bank digital currency with tech stakeholders.