Why is it important?

Decentralisation and resilience of Cardano is based on the inclusion of different locations including those communities not involved.

What does success look like?

Motivated community of developers, SPOs, stakers, voters, challange teams collaborating for the growth of Cardano from Turkey in 2023.

Key Metrics to measure

We will track and publish measurement of the challenge based on following metrics

• A number of proposals under this challenge.
• A number of funded proposals under this challenge.
• Average CA scores on proposals.
• A number of accounts under on proposal under this challenge.

Proposals aim at achieving the success of this challenge will be measured throughout the following metrics

• Number of stake pools running in Turkey,

• The number of Project Catalyst proposals from Turkey,

• Number of developers participating in the Cardano Developer Program from Turkey,

• Increased number of educational tools about the Cardano in Turkish,

• Increased awareness about the Cardano blockchain in Turkish speaking communities,

• The number of roles taken in Project Catalyst as CA, general voters, challenge team members, members of the catalyst circle by Turkish individuals.

  Challenge brief

Turkey is a bridge between Asia and Europe including increased connection with countries in Africa. It has a large and young population of more than 80M people. It is the home of one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges, BTCTurk, which was founded in 2013. As such, Turkish people have been some of the earliest adopters of cryptocurrencies.

According to Triple A research, ~2.4M of the populace own cryptocurrencies. This makes it the nation with the 19th most cryptocurrency users [1]. This however does not capture the entire picture as the growth of this number has been 10 fold in the past year [2]. This massive growth can most directly be attributed to rising prices of cryptocurrencies and to the speedy devaluation of the Turkish Lira (around ~40% against the US Dollar in 2021).

Devaluation of the currency has gotten exceedingly worse and is set to continue in the near future. The negative effects are felt throughout the country as wages tumble on a USD basis. Minimum wage is around $220 as of the time of this proposal (nearly half the working population earn min. wage), meaning any funds put to work in Turkey can get lots of involvement from the local population.

Despite this growth, Cardano adoption is very low. Although there is an ADA trading community of around 2853 people just in the telegram group, there is currently no broader Cardano community. Majority of the investors in the trading group were drawn to ADA by the performance of the cryptocurrency. As a result, trader emotions like fear and greed dominate the conversation within cryptocurrency communities, resulting in misinformation about the broader Cardano community. As such, a Turkish Cardano community is sorely needed to raise awareness of the vision of Cardano beyond the token price.

We the proposers of this challenge are trying to do so and bring more qualified Turkish people into the Cardano community. However, we are just a group of three within Project Catalyst with a broader network of around 20 that are involved in cryptocurrencies in Turkey. If the real value of Cardano can be demonstrated in Turkey, this number will dramatically increase. This is especially true given that the majority of young people are interested in participating in international projects. However, they face language obstacles and lack some of the relevant competencies. Therefore more initiatives are needed to realize the potential of Turkey and to aid the global adoption of Cardano.

Given these points, what could Turkey offer the Cardano community back in return? Turkey has great potential in its qualified IT and cybersecurity personnel built thanks in part to a solid financial services sector. It also has a large pool of young, active and forward looking individuals, looking to contribute to their communities. This challenge aims to bring this potential to the Cardano ecosystem.

Guiding questions

• How can we involve general ADA holders in project Catalyst in Turkey?
• How can we increase number of SPOs from Turkey?
• How can we increase more meaningful participation from Turkey?
• How can we encourage new members to utilize the tools and services available for onboarding?
• How can we localize the existing materials?

Challange Team

Cem Karaca

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckaraca>

Özgür Yaşar Akyar

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozguryasarakyar/>

Çağkan Acarbay

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/%C3%A7a%C4%9Fkan-acarbay-b2210b136/>

References

[1] https://triple-a.io/crypto-ownership-turkey/.

[2] <https://www.paribu.com/blog/en/news/paribu-has-published-the-results-of-the-most-comprehensive-cryptocurrency-survey-cryptocurrency-use-in-turkey-has-increased-by-10-times/>