- Turkey’s first payment on the Central Bank Digital Currency were completed.
- Turkish Digital Lira will unroll advance stages in 2023
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) successfully completed the first phase payment transaction test of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on the “Digital Turkish Lira Network.”
On December 29th, 2022 CBRT released a report that stated that the central bank executed its initial payment transitions using the digital Lira network—the primary test phase before the final release.
In the first three months of 2023, the CBRT will continue its small-scale, closed-circuit application pilot tests with technological stakeholders—tests for legitimate architectural steps, configuration in fields like combining distributed ledger technologies in the payment through the instant payment system.
The test results will be shared with the public via a “comprehensive evaluation report” before moving to the next phase.
In October, Turkey’s Presidential Annual Program for 2023—- presented by the Turkish Presidental strategy and budget Directorate that included discussion on CBDC.
CBRT will expand the Digital Turkish Lira Network Platform to include selected banks and financial technology companies and will disclose an advanced form of the pilot study that will broaden the participation.
Research on the legal aspects of the Digital Turkish Lira shows that digital identification is critically important for the project. Therefore, studies on the economic and legal framework of the digital Turkish Lira, as well as its technological requirements, will be a priority for 2023.
In September 2021, The Turkish central bank first announced the groundwork for introducing a digital Turkish Lira in a research project called “Central Bank Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development.” The bank refused to take decision for the digitalization of the country’s currency.
Earlier this year, a report was published by the US Federal Reserve that provided a detailed analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of CBDCs. The European Central Bank is also investigating various options for incorporating decentralized ledger technology into their existing payment system.
Besides Turkey, several countries are researching the application of CBDC, such as China, England, Australia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Indonesia, and brazil.