Turkey’s Web3 Scorecard Is Not So Bright

Buğra Ayan, President of the Web3 Technologies Association, which provides free training and develops projects for the spread of blockchain technologies in Turkey, spoke exclusively to Kriptokoin.com. “The issue is constantly being dealt with on the axis of monetization or a technology. However, the real issue is to build a world with completely different values ​​and culture in this new state of the internet when you read the texts written since 1985,” Ayan says, and makes a clear distinction between Web3 technologies for the purpose of making money from cryptocurrencies.

When was the Web3 Technologies Association founded? How many members do you have? What is your mission?

It’s been about a year and a half since it was established. The task of the association is a kind of lego. Satoshi announced Bitcoin as a decentralized technology but posted it on Bitcoin.org. Therefore, the association does not aim to include too many members or to go to a hierarchical structure. The purpose of the association is to act as a lego, just like Bitcoin.org. It is somewhat paradoxical that an association operates in decentralized technology anyway. But if you have to put it on Bitcoin.org when you invent Bitcoin, sometimes there is a need for such lego pieces. The Web3 Foundation in Switzerland does just that. Therefore, the Association has the power to reach everyone in the ecosystem in Turkey and to partner with everyone. At all the events we do, even the stairs are filled. But we do not have a vicious policy on increasing the number of members.

What was your first purpose in founding the association?

Here we realized that the issue was taken on the wrong axis. The issue is constantly being dealt with on the axis of making money or a technology. However, the real issue is to build a world with completely different values ​​and culture in this new version of the internet when you read the texts written since 1985. Therefore, we realized that in order for Turkey and the Turkish informatics community to take a strong place in this equation, the issue should be approached from a different angle. We got our inspiration from Polkadot founder Gavin Wood and the Web3 Foundation in Switzerland. We established this association to normalize Web3 and draw attention to this area. Otherwise, we could have named it Cryptocurrency Association.

Can you talk about the activities of the association?

We are an NGO operating in Turkey in terms of creating manpower, increasing employment, and creating free educational resources on Web3 technologies. Considering that this issue is a social and societal layer on top of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, we brought the issue to the Web3 focus. Our work is actually differentiated in this way: For example, how can blockchain be used for the sustainable development goals of the United Nations? How can we address global problems such as hunger and climate crisis with blockchain? We held a summit on this subject and its output became a book. It will be published in the coming months. Apart from that, we held a high school Web3 summit and about a thousand people attended. There, we also conducted studies on how to handle these technologies starting from high school years. In the coming period, Web3 Association will focus on two things: Increasing employment and free education. We are working to develop resources, we opened web3ogren.com on this occasion. This is a free, subscription-free, ad-free platform.

We will now start a new project that will unite the community in Turkey with those in the world and serve as a bridge. We will make a project focusing especially on foreigners living in Turkey and Turks living abroad, and we will ensure that these people act as a bridge for the Turkish crypto ecosystem.

“Looking at Bitcoin as just money is a poor adoption indicator”

We know that crypto adoption is quite high in Turkey and we are among the first in the world. How does the Web3 Technologies Association differentiate between cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies? What approach do you take?

Very good question, thank you. We need to understand what we mean by not being adopted. If adoption here means ‘there is a cryptocurrency here and I’m going to double my money’, then this is not a full adoption. It is a very dangerous adoption. If I can solve my day-to-day problems with that technology, that’s a slightly better approach. But still the bottom is a little empty. If we are talking about social adoption, that is, if a technology emerges that makes my life easier, reduces the borders between societies in the world and enables those societies to empathize with each other, this is a strong adoption. So if we look at Bitcoin as money, it’s poor adoption. If we look at Bitcoin as a technology, it’s moderate adoption. If we look at Bitcoin as a digital human rights manifesto, it’s irreversible adoption. Therefore, I see that the adoption in Turkey is at the level of crypto money. The efforts of the association are also in the direction of shifting to the strong adoption I mentioned in blockchain technology. We keep the two separate, clearly.

“Crypto adoption cannot be explained only by inflation and high exchange rate”

What do you think are the reasons behind this? Are only high inflation and the increase in the exchange rate sufficient to explain this picture?

Satoshi answers this question in a small note on Genesis Block: “Whatever happens, physical assets will depreciate in all countries as time goes on. We are producing a digital asset whose supply is protected.” Therefore, both titles have a reality all over the world: In other words, inflation in countries or people’s greed to make quick money. But even if it is both, what determines the score of the match at the end of the day is the pluses of the technology that is produced to the society. If we are asking how we lived without Google or mobile phones, it is because of the powerful benefits these technologies offer to our daily lives. Unless you create those strong benefits, we cannot ensure strong adoption of this technology, whether there is no inflation or not.

It is known that the interest in Web3 technologies in the private sector has increased. However, most of them cannot go beyond investing in Metaverse with marketing motives. How do you evaluate the private sector’s approach to Web3 technologies?

We watched this movie twice. I just got to the end of the first one, Web1. I’ve lived through Web2 a lot. In 2009, I wrote the book on social networks in my second year of university. While writing about social networks and its history, I studied networks around the world and saw at the time: Authorities come first in technological adoption. In your mind, it is necessary not to position the authority only as a state. I see it as hollow for companies to be included in this field through the metaverse. If it can strengthen the brand bond with the consumer by using technology, we can talk about a strong adoption. But companies haven’t gotten very close to that yet. If I were in their place, I would establish an interdisciplinary R&D team as much as possible and look at the outputs of the team. I was thinking about the transformation of the brand from Web2 to Web3. However, managers need to know that this path is experimental and can often result in frustration. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think the private sector adoption is full of gold.

“Financial literacy is going slowly”

How do you see the approach of public institutions to Web3 technologies?

We work with public institutions that focus on informatics. Blockchain trainings were held at the academy of the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK). Likewise, BTK held the Web3 Summit and 17 universities participated in it. I see the works in the public sector a bit better than in the private sector. It was important that the Digital Transformation Office organized the hackathon and gave the awards in crypto money for the first time. Again, I find it very reasonable that the Digital Transformation Office publishes a dictionary on this subject and the BTK provides training. Actually, engineers here are trying to do something well in the technological layer. There are very positive developments in the technological layer. I teach NFT at Ankara University and I find it very positive that blockchain technologies are brought to academia and taught in many universities. The next obstacle in social adoption is the slow pace of financial literacy. Here’s what we see: The project, which is not full, is trying to defraud people by sticking three local shopkeepers on their windows and saying, ‘There is X cryptocurrencies here’. When we compare it with the examples in the world, but I see Turkey a little better, especially in the technological layer. Likewise, the President’s participation in two blockchain-related summits is also very positive.

Statements were made that we will see blockchain technologies in e-government applications in the near future. Do you think we will see the benefits of blockchain, at least when doing business with the government?

E-government is a huge project, so blockchain can be used somewhere. But there is this: When we look at such academic studies in the world, such technologies usually come to this stage last. First we need to use the blockchain to buy cheese. Then the land registry records are passed. The issue that provides the technological break is not the use of such official sites. It is the ability to include those who are far from technology with a motivation.