The Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) of Istanbul, Turkey, has reportedly made its blockchain-powered platform for digital gold transfers officially available. 

Specifically, the new Turkish Takasbank-developed system – dubbed “BiGA Digital Gold” – was particularly designed to equip banks with a blockchain-powered tool, which can help handle the issuance, repayment and transfer of digitized gold. 

The BiGA system – initially announced in September this year – grants all associated banks the ability to utilize blockchain tech to transfer crypto assets, representing an amount of gold. 

Particularly, every asset will have the representative power of a gram of gold, which is kept safely in the vaults in the possession of the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Turkish stock exchange.

The BiGA system looks to “establish an infrastructure that will allow for the execution of the transfer of dematerialized gold at certain standards with their physical equivalents kept in safe custody using blockchain technology.”

Numerous big names in the banking industry and financial sector has joined aboard the new project, nominally state lenders Ziraat and Vakif, private lender Garanti BBVA, and private and state participation banks Albaraka Turk, Kuveyt Turk, and Ziraat Participation.

Recently, Turkey has witnessed an incline in the number of blockchain projects, both in the public and private sectors. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan disclosed that the testing phase for the nation’s “Digital Lira” would be completed in 2020.