Turkey's University Center to Develop Blockchain Projects on Cornell Prof’s Ava Platform

In advance of its mainnet launch, Ava Labs has partnered with BlockchainIST Center in Turkey to create blockchain-based products for daily use.

BlockchainIST, Turkey’s first university blockchain center, partnered with Cornell University’s Emin Gün Sirer's Ava Labs to develop DeFi products on the Ava Platform. The press event took place on Jan. 6 at Bahcesehir University in İstanbul, Turkey.

BlockchainIST Founder and Director Bora Erdamar told Cointelegraph that Bahçeşehir University postgraduates and Istanbul Blockchain School students needed a solid consensus architecture  to develop DeFi and other blockchain-based products, and Ava Platform is the perfect fit for them:

"Our partnership with Ava Labs enables us to develop projects like CertifyIST at a faster pace, and to create and support a robust environment where people can use these products as part of their daily life."

BlockchainIST revealed several blockchain projects during the press meeting. One of them was CertifyIST, "an open-source blockchain infrastructure for issuing, verifying, and sharing documents of achievements such as school degrees." Ava Labs' platform offers a faster, more accessible, and scalable way to complete blockchain-based projects, Erdamar added.

All money will be digital in 10 years

Speaking at the press event, Ava Labs Founder Emin Gün Sirer noted Turkey's young and tech-savvy population gives the country a competitive edge in the global blockchain race. "The recent announcement of a digital lira is a critical step. I have no doubts that all money will become digital in the next ten years. So, if the central bank plays its cards right, Turkey has no obstacles to becoming a global pioneer in the digitization of money."

After raising $6 million from major investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, and MetaStable, Sirer’s team launched a testnet for the Ava platform in May 2019, Cointelegraph reported. Ava mainnet will have its launch in 2020, according to Sirer.