In recent years, Turkey has seen a 20% increase in crypto adoption with some of the world’s highest numbers of traders as well as a huge gaming community with 79% of adults participating. As crypto proliferates the Middle East from Europe, Turkey took it upon itself to host one of the biggest blockchain events of the year—Istanbul Blockchain Week (IBW).
More than 2,000 attendees from all over the world attended Turkey’s first-ever blockchain week. From 14 to 17 Nov, various events celebrating blockchain and web3 were held.
- IstanBlock: the flagship event and premier blockchain conference
- IstanDAO: where DAOs come together to shape web3 future
- IstanHack: participants building innovative products and tech solutions
- W3E Gaming: showing the future of web3 gaming
- NFT Day: celebrating NFT content within various industries
MRHB’s Cecilia Wong (Head of PR) attended the inaugural event and shared the following highlights:
Turkey’s Stance on Blockchain Technology
According to Ziya Altunyaldız (President of the Republic of Turkey Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Industry, Trade, Energy, Natural Resources, Information and Technology Commission), Turkey sees blockchain technology as more than a digital money transfer system.
“[It] is an epoch-making development in digitalization which enhances trust, security, transparency, and traceability,” said Altunyaldız. “The years ahead will be reshaped by blockchain technology.”
It is clear that Turkey wants to be “one of the pioneers of the transformation, give directions and benefit from it”. They aim to realize these goals in “a way that prioritizes human rights”.
Steps Important for Mass Adoption
Turkey recognizes the importance of mass adoption and the work that needs to be done in order to attract more people to web3.
The following are a few suggestions made during IBW 2022 on the actions to be taken for mass adoption in crypto:
1. More players in the crypto industry
“The crypto industry is still very small, we are trying to create a core ecosystem. I think it is very good for more layer 1 and layer 2 to come in so they can attract new attention with the new resources.” – Zoe Wei, Senior Business Director at BNB Chain.
“It’s going to be a multichain future. The more good players are out there, that are working with integrity and are committed to improving the technology… That means the gospel will reach more ears.” – Selim Kender, Head of Turkish Business Development at Ava Labs.
2. Have better crypto custody solutions
“Not everybody is so clever to… move money from different blockchains. The typical investor has no clue, and also the typical investor doesn’t want to take care of any kind of keys.” – Alireza Dorfard, Head of Market Data and Services, Deutsche Borse.
3. VCs willing to take smart risks
“Nowadays everyone thinks we had a huge advantage from being a first mover. But the truth is that, at the time, we looked pretty crazy. Our first investment was Chainlink, and this was even before smart contracts became popularized by dapps.” – Brandon Potts, Investor at Framework Ventures.
4. More education and awareness
What most speakers pointed out was that there needs to be more education in general with regards to cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and the web3 space. The role of DAOs (member-owned communities without centralized leaderships) need to be made clearer. DAOs have the potential to provide safe ways for collaborations and commit funds to specific causes.
MRHB: An Ethical, Empowering, and Easy SuperDApp for Halal Web3 Access
IBW 2022 proved that despite the crypto bear market and failures of FTX and Terra, the interest and enthusiasm in blockchain technology and decentralized finance (DeFi) remains high. Crypto projects continue to be built and the crypto community gets stronger every day.
Mass adoption will take time and MRHB is one of the web3 pioneers focused on DeFi and digital asset solutions for communities looking for a safer, more ethical and easier approach to the crypto universe that will also empower them to participate.
MRHB is the world’s first ethical DeFi ecosystem that operates based on halal financial ethics and principles that put the commuity first. Many of the current DeFi protocols available are lending and interest-based, this excludes over 1.7 billion plus of the faith-based communities around the world. More generally there have been a series of events in the industry that epitomize much of the greed and corruption inherent in the industry – thus many consumers are looking for safer and more trusted means to access the sector.
To encourage mass adoption, the crypto industry has to include and consider the needs of ethically conscious people.
MRHB is proud to be the pioneer of ethical DeFi. Within the first two years of operation, we have released three halal DeFi products:
- Sahal wallet: self-custodial crypto wallet that lists only halal crypto assets and protocols
- TijarX: decentralized commodity exchange listing real-world assets – initially physical backed and regulated gold and silver.
- Souq NFT: marketplace for the minting and selling of NFTs and the home of their B2B NFT solutions business.
Get started with investing in halal crypto assets by downloading Sahal wallet from the app store – the gateway to the entire MRHB ethical DeFi ecosystem.