Islamic finance and Web3 take stage at Istanbul Blockchain Week

Being 1 formation distant from some Dubai and London, Istanbul is the “financial capital” of Turkey and a fashionable destination for events and organizations. Its convenient determination besides helps organizers customize their events to align with the circumstantial needs of Eastern oregon Western cultures — which felt similar the lawsuit astatine Istanbul Blockchain Week 2023.

IBW 2023 saw thousands of section and planetary enthusiasts articulation the speech connected crypto, blockchain and Web3 connected Aug. 22 and 23 astatine the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti. Tailored to bespeak the assorted discussions crossed the Web3 ecosystem, the event’s docket was filled with keynotes astir artificial quality (AI), regulation, Web3 gaming and blockchain usage cases from the existent world.

Aside from the blistery topics to seizure the planetary audience, IBW 2023 besides featured region-specific talks, specified arsenic connected Islamic finance and a Shariah-compliant Web3 economy. The explosive maturation of crypto and Web3 successful the United Arab Emirates, particularly successful Dubai, combined with the UAE’s involvement successful the Turkish marketplace created a convenient clip framework for organizer EAK Digital to clasp this year’s event, conscionable nine months aft IBW 2022.

Istanbul Blockchain Week 2023 welcomed a ample fig of crypto, blockchain and Web3 enthusiasts.

Having the lawsuit successful August successful Istanbul was a strategical decision, according to Erhan Korhaliller, laminitis and CEO of EAK Digital. He explained that it’s acold excessively blistery to person immoderate events successful summertime successful Dubai, truthful they presented Istanbul arsenic a neighboring planetary hub for large players from the UAE — and their maneuver paid off:

“We person implicit 25 booths this year. A hackathon with a $50,000 prize. [...] Having the authorities representatives and large banks with america present during a carnivore marketplace is precise important.”

Aside from the docket for the main stage, the lawsuit hallway was packed with blockchain and crypto enthusiasts from assorted backgrounds networking, holding roundtable discussions and workshops, getting themselves scanned for the metaverse, oregon simply chatting and taking selfies with Desi, the conversational AI robot from SingularityNET and Yaya Labs.

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While AI, central slope integer currencies (CBDCs) and Web3-friendly instrumentality tokens featured prominently successful the main hall, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were notably missing. Last year, determination was a full time and an accumulation dedicated to NFTs.

“As organizers, we should beryllium flexible and adaptive to what the marketplace is telling us,” explained Korhaliller. “NFT trading is similar 99% down. The involvement intelligibly is not here, and therefore, we’re not doing an NFT Day this year.”

Islamic concern hackathon

Similar to past year, the main signifier was divided into respective events to clasp speeches, workshops and the IstanHack hackathon simultaneously.

As keynote speakers presented their arguments astir important elements of Islamic finance, a crowded formed of young developers coded against clip to make moving solutions that aligned with the wide ngo of the lawsuit — promoting ethical concern and sustainable improvement for radical dissatisfied with accepted banking.

IstanHack focused connected addressing the needs of Islamic finance.

Islamic concern has a people marketplace of 1.9 cardinal people, astir of whom are unsatisfied with accepted concern services owed to the engagement of interest. “Interest is forbidden successful Islam,” explained Tansel Kaya, an IstanHack juror and laminitis of Mindstone Blockchain Labs. He told Cointelegraph that much than conscionable the large prize, “the hackathon served arsenic an eye-opener for the young endowment looking to make thing beyond your run-of-the-mill DeFi output products.”

AI takes the stage

AI was a blistery topic, some connected and disconnected stage, during Istanbul Blockchain Week, with participating companies demonstrating their instrumentality connected however Web3 and AI tin beryllium successful sync. During his code titled “The Future of Decentralised Generative AI connected Blockchain,” SingularityNET main selling serviceman Loic Claveau noted that for the archetypal clip successful history, radical person the quality to ain their data.

“AI is precise data-intensive,” helium said, adding, “It needs to tally a ton of information to beryllium capable to enactment arsenic you usage thing similar ChatGPT. It is simply a Big Tech monopoly. [...] All the large behemoths of the tech world, they tally and they bash it.”

Artificial quality was 1 of the astir fashionable topics during IBW 2023.

According to Claveua, AI developers who enactment with a comparatively smaller squad person 2 options astatine this point: Working for Big Tech oregon selling their adjacent large ideas to Big Tech. “That’s the mode to determination guardant successful your vocation and get into the precise absorbing projects.”

Crypto adoption: Slowly but surely

Cointelegraph Turkey was 1 of the media partners of the lawsuit arsenic well. “Here successful Istanbul, we are inactive experiencing the interaction of a prolonged carnivore market, conscionable similar the remainder of the world,” commented Eray Dengiz, CEO of Cointelegraph Turkey and Kriptomeda.

He underscored the value of the progressive information from the Turkish banking ecosystem, with large Turkish banks specified arsenic Garanti BBVA, Akbank and Yapi Kredi attending a sheet for CBDCs.

Röportajlarımız devam ediyor. #IBW23 pic.twitter.com/oXe6GsK6cw

— Cointelegraph Türkiye (@CointelegraphTR) August 23, 2023

A first-timer to a crypto lawsuit held successful Turkey was Addy Crezee, laminitis of NFT ticketing level Ozaru and the erstwhile CEO of Cointelegraph’s ain planetary event, BlockShow. Crezee moderated a sheet astir crypto concern astatine IBW 2023.

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“Obviously, concern is the biggest taxable present successful Turkey,” helium told Cointelegraph. “When you travel retired of the plane, you spot each the ads from each the antithetic exchanges. I was impressed.”

Highlighting the wide advancement the crypto ecosystem has achieved successful presumption of adoption and reaching much radical successful little than a decade, Crezee summarized:

“I retrieve attending crypto events, chiefly astir Bitcoin, successful 2014 oregon 2015. There were little than a 100 people. Today, erstwhile an lawsuit attracts little than a 1000 people, it’s considered beauteous small.”