An Investigative CIRAS Magazine Conversation Led by Thorsten Schmitt with Mahmoud Abu Taleb, Jason R. Cooner, Timo Schnölzer and Lothar Hartmann
Leira City is being conceived as a multicultural peace, research and development city on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast. Could it also become the first full-stack research-city pilot on Parisii QFS connecting legally verified assets, regenerative infrastructure, digital identity and programmable Turkish-lira settlement in one government-authorised environment?
CIRAS Magazine brings together the leaders responsible for the city, its financial architecture, its physical systems and its scientific governance. Thorsten Schmitt leads the discussion from his combined perspective as a CIRAS director and investigative journalist, testing the proposal against the requirements of evidence, accountability and public interest.
Interview Participants
- Thorsten Schmitt — Deputy Secretary-General for Administration, CIRAS–IIGO; Director for Holistic Cognitive Science, CIRAS Directorate for Scientific Integration; investigative journalist and media professional; moderator and interview partner
- Mahmoud Abu Taleb — Project Leader, Leira City; Chairman, Leira Holding–Kuwait; Chief Executive Officer, Leira Link–UAE
- Jason R. Cooner — Founder, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parisii; programme lead for the Parisii QFS financial architecture
- Timo Schnölzer — Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HYVEN; CIRAS–HYVEN Project Leader
- Lothar Hartmann — Secretary General, Chief Scientific Coordinator and Director of the CIRAS Center for Science
Terminology: “QFS” in this article means the proprietary Parisii Quantum Financial System described in the Parisii QFS–CIRAS programme. It does not refer to a secret or already adopted global financial system. Parisii QFS remains a proposed platform undergoing institutional, technical and regulatory validation; it is not a central-bank system, legal tender or government-approved financial network.
Five Perspectives, One City
Thorsten Schmitt, CIRAS Magazine: Mahmoud, Leira City is already an ambitious development. Why add tokenisation to the vision—and what concrete problem would it solve that conventional project finance cannot?
Mahmoud Abu Taleb: Because Leira City is not being planned as a collection of disconnected buildings. It is intended to operate as one living system linking research, education, healthcare, industry, energy, water, mobility, commerce, culture and residential life. If we design only the physical city and leave its economic systems fragmented, we lose much of the opportunity.
Tokenisation can give eligible assets and rights a trusted digital counterpart from the beginning. A power system can carry verified information about ownership, financing, output, maintenance and environmental performance. A construction package can connect contracts, milestones, inspections and payments. Research equipment can have transparent access and financing rules. Intellectual property can distribute royalties according to approved agreements.
For Leira City, the goal is not a fashionable digital label. It is a more investable, more measurable and more accountable city. For Türkiye, the opportunity is to create an authorised national demonstrator that links urban development with regulated financial innovation and industrial growth.
Schmitt: That distinction matters. Investigative reporting has repeatedly shown that grand technology claims can conceal unclear ownership, weak accountability or unrealistic financing. In this interview, I want to separate what is already agreed, what is technically proposed, what still requires proof and what only public authorities can authorise.
How do the four organisations divide responsibility, and who remains accountable when their functions overlap?
Abu Taleb: Leira Holding provides the city vision, development leadership, investment coordination, master-developer functions and international commercial relationships. Our responsibility is to turn the concept into a feasible, financed and operational city that delivers lasting value to Türkiye and the region.
Lothar Hartmann: CIRAS provides the research-city architecture, scientific coordination, interdisciplinary assessment, governance design and public-interest framework. We connect finance and technology to education, health, environment, economics, justice, culture and international cooperation. Our task is to ensure that technological ambition remains accountable to evidence and society.
Timo Schnölzer: HYVEN contributes the integrated physical systems: energy-active surfaces, distributed storage, intelligent mobility, circular construction and related urban infrastructure. We turn buildings, vehicles and public spaces into measurable components of a regenerative habitat. Physical performance is what gives many digital instruments their underlying evidence.
Jason R. Cooner: Parisii QFS provides the proposed financial operating architecture: asset admission, digital representation, programmable compliance, accounts, trading where authorised, settlement coordination, risk management and audit. The architecture is intended to connect legally verified assets with regulated financial activity—not to bypass public institutions or licensed intermediaries.
Schmitt: My CIRAS responsibility is to examine the administrative, ethical and information architecture around those functions. From an investigative-journalism perspective, that means following ownership, money, evidence, conflicts of interest and public claims. No organisation should validate its own most important assertions. Independent review must be built into the programme from the beginning.
Together, the five perspectives form a complete development and scrutiny chain: city vision and delivery; scientific governance; productive physical infrastructure; regulated digital-financial architecture; and independent public accountability.
What a “Fully Tokenised City” Actually Means
Schmitt: The phrase “fully tokenised” can sound as if everything including residents and public space—would become tradable. What do you mean by it, and what will never be tokenised?
Cooner: Full tokenisation does not mean universal financialisation. It means that every eligible asset, right, obligation, credential or verified outcome can receive a governed digital representation when there is a clear legal, economic, operational or public benefit.
The legal and economic reality comes first. Before an instrument enters QFS, the parties must establish ownership, valuation, custody, contractual rights, restrictions, insurance, encumbrances, expected cash flows and dispute procedures. A token cannot create ownership merely by declaring it. It must remain connected to enforceable evidence throughout its lifecycle.
We also need a strict taxonomy. An investment instrument is not the same as a digital identity credential. A property-related economic right is not the same as an official land title. An energy certificate is not money. A mobility pass is not necessarily a security. A construction milestone may be an operational record rather than a tradable asset. QFS must preserve those differences in both law and code.
Hartmann: There must also be clear limits. Residents are not assets and must never be tokenised. Personal data should not be exposed on a shared ledger. Essential services cannot depend on speculative markets. Public authority cannot be delegated to software. No digital instrument may weaken labour rights, consumer protection, public procurement, tax obligations, land law or democratic oversight.
Schnölzer: Nor should every physical object become a financial product. Sometimes the correct digital counterpart is a non-transferable equipment passport, a maintenance history or a signed performance certificate. Tokenisation is justified only when it reduces cost, improves accountability, unlocks appropriate capital or strengthens scientific evidence.
Abu Taleb: From the development side, “fully tokenised” therefore means complete readiness, not indiscriminate issuance. The city should have a common method for digitally representing every eligible class of asset or right, but each use case must pass legal, financial, technical and public-interest review before activation.
The experience must also remain inclusive. A resident who does not want a digital wallet, does not have a smartphone or needs assisted access must still be able to use essential services. Technology should widen participation—not create a new barrier to living in the city.
Schmitt: The public language should therefore avoid implying that the entire city has already been placed “on-chain.” A defensible claim would be that Leira City is designed to become tokenisation-ready and could activate approved use cases in phases. Every public statement should identify the underlying right, the regulator, the issuer, the custodian, the verification method and the risk bearer.
What Leira City Could Tokenise First
Schmitt: Which parts of Leira City would be suitable for an initial pilot and which tempting use cases should be excluded until their risks are understood?
Cooner: We should begin with assets that have clear ownership, measurable performance and predictable contractual rights. The first pilot should avoid legally ambiguous or socially sensitive categories.
| Urban system | Possible regulated digital representation | Potential advantage | Required safeguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar, storage and microgrids | Project debt, lease receivables, equipment records and verified energy certificates | Mobilise infrastructure capital; automate performance-based settlement; strengthen maintenance and insurance evidence | Independent metering; licensed issuance and custody; no guaranteed-return claims |
| Construction and real estate | Regulated interests in approved project vehicles, construction claims, lease receivables and milestone certificates | Release capital against verified progress; improve procurement visibility; widen lawful investor access | Official land title remains with Türkiye’s authorised registry unless legislation expressly provides otherwise |
| Mobility fleets and charging | Equipment leases, usage rights, maintenance histories and authorised revenue-linked instruments | Improve fleet finance, utilisation, residual-value analysis and service planning | Safety certification, consumer protection, cybersecurity and equal access |
| Research equipment and intellectual property | Equipment-use rights, grant milestones, licensing and royalty rights | Share expensive infrastructure; accelerate commercialisation; distribute royalties transparently | Protection of university and inventor rights; export controls; independent valuation |
| Turkish SME supply chains | Verified invoices, purchase orders, inventory and delivery milestones | Shorten cash-conversion cycles; reduce duplicate financing; strengthen local procurement | Buyer confirmation, fraud controls, dispute resolution and regulated financing partners |
| Energy, water and circularity outcomes | Non-financial certificates or regulated environmental instruments | Support outcome-based contracts, green-finance reporting and auditable sustainability claims | Accredited methods, independent verification and protection against double counting |
| Civic credentials and entitlements | Non-transferable digital credentials, qualifications and service permissions | Faster administration, portable qualifications and targeted benefits | Data minimisation, appeal rights and accessible offline alternatives |
Schnölzer: The HYVEN systems create a strong measurement environment. An energy-active façade can be associated with its technical specification, installation record, commissioning date, output, maintenance events and warranty status. A storage unit can retain its safety and performance history. A vehicle can report authorised operating data while personal travel data remains protected. A construction component can retain information about material origin, performance and reuse potential.
This enables lifecycle finance. Capital can be released after verified construction milestones. Service contracts can settle when independent evidence confirms performance. Equipment finance can use better condition and utilisation data. Circular materials can preserve provenance across several uses. But the rule is non-negotiable: a token cannot make poor data reliable. Measurement, calibration and independent validation come first.
Abu Taleb: The first portfolio should create visible value for Türkiye. I would prioritise renewable-energy equipment, local supplier receivables, research infrastructure, industrial machinery and verified construction milestones. These categories connect investment directly to physical development, Turkish companies, skilled employment and future export capacity.
We should not begin with speculative residential sales or a public retail token. Trust will be built by showing that the system finances productive assets, pays verified suppliers and produces independently audited results.
Schmitt: I would add a publication rule: the pilot register should disclose, subject to legitimate privacy and security limits, who issued each instrument, what right it represents, where the underlying asset is recorded, who valued it, who verified performance, who holds client assets, which fees apply and how disputes are resolved. Transparency must be usable by citizens and journalists, not only by technical specialists.
The Economic Opportunity for Türkiye
Schmitt: What are the principal economic advantages and how do we prevent projected benefits from being presented as established results
Abu Taleb: The first is stronger capital formation. A development of this scale requires long-term capital for energy, mobility, construction, laboratories, healthcare and industrial facilities. Properly structured digital instruments can make approved investment packages easier to understand, monitor and administer. International investors can see the verified asset, contractual rights, use of proceeds, delivery milestones and ongoing performance through a common evidence framework.
The second is local economic participation. Leira City should be a growth platform for Turkish contractors, manufacturers, technology companies, universities and SMEs. Verified purchase orders, invoices and delivery records can improve access to supplier finance. Smaller firms can participate in large development programmes without waiting months for disconnected approval and reconciliation processes.
The third is more disciplined project delivery. Funds can be released against certified milestones rather than vague progress claims. Delays, cost changes and performance exceptions become visible earlier. That can improve the relationship between investors, contractors, insurers and public authorities.
Cooner: The fourth advantage is capital efficiency. Traditional infrastructure finance frequently separates contracts, banking, custody, payments, collateral, compliance, settlement and reporting. A unified, permissioned transaction model can reduce repeated data entry, manual reconciliation and settlement delays—provided that it integrates with licensed institutions rather than bypassing them.
The fifth is programmable settlement. A payment or asset transfer can be conditional on lawful, verified criteria: delivery, inspection, a construction milestone, an energy-output threshold or another contractual event. Delivery-versus-payment can coordinate the asset and payment legs, potentially reducing principal risk.
The sixth is better financing and risk information. A complete asset lifecycle can help lenders, investors and insurers assess condition, revenue, maintenance, warranties and contractual restrictions. Better evidence can support more accurate pricing. It does not guarantee liquidity, a lower financing cost or investment returns; those depend on enforceable rights, market demand, sound governance and investor protection.
Schnölzer: The seventh advantage is industrial scaling. Leira City can serve as a customer, research environment and validation platform for energy, mobility, construction, materials and digital infrastructure. When technology is independently tested, manufactured to recognised standards and supported by traceable lifecycle data, it becomes easier to regulate, insure, finance and export.
The eighth is performance-based sustainability. Investors and authorities can evaluate measured energy output, storage availability, water recovery, fleet utilisation, equipment longevity and construction circularity. That replaces broad environmental promises with auditable evidence.
Hartmann: The ninth advantage is standards leadership. Many countries are discussing smart cities, tokenised assets, programmable payments and green infrastructure as separate subjects. Türkiye can demonstrate how they fit together under national law and monetary sovereignty. If Leira City publishes transparent rules and independently measured results, Türkiye can export not only technology but also a credible governance model.
The tenth is research and intellectual-property value. Laboratories and universities can connect grants, equipment, research milestones, patents, licences and royalty distributions. Scientific work can move more efficiently into Turkish companies and international markets while preserving academic integrity.
The measure of success is not token price. It is productive investment, Turkish jobs, SME participation, reduced administrative cost, research commercialisation, infrastructure performance, public trust and export capacity.
Schmitt: Every claimed advantage should be tied to a baseline. If the programme says settlement is faster, it must publish the previous and new settlement times. If it says SME finance is cheaper, it must disclose total financing cost and eligibility. If it says procurement is more transparent, independent reviewers should be able to trace a sample transaction from tender to final payment.
Investigation is not an obstacle to investment. Credible scrutiny lowers the risk of exaggerated claims and protects serious partners.
Turkish Lira First , No Private Leira Currency
Schmitt: Would residents buy food, pay rent or settle taxes with a “Leira token”? And can the project publicly call itself a QFS city before regulators have approved any financial operation?
Cooner: No. That is not part of this proposal. Türkiye’s current rules prohibit the direct or indirect use of crypto assets in payments. Everyday payments must remain denominated and settled in Turkish lira through authorised banks and payment infrastructure.
If the Digital Turkish Lira enters circulation and the competent authorities permit an integration, it could become an especially strong settlement asset. Until then, established Turkish-lira rails remain the foundation.
The distinction is essential: a tokenised asset represents a legally verified asset or right; Turkish lira settles the payment. QFS coordinates identity, compliance, delivery, settlement evidence, risk and audit. It does not create a competing currency.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye has already published research on programmable payments, digital identity, offline capability and interoperability with tokenised assets. Its architecture places the Central Bank in control of issuance while authorised financial intermediaries provide user access.
This creates a valuable national policy direction, but it is not permission for Parisii QFS. Any connection would require a formal regulatory process, technical testing and authorised integration.
Nor should the project describe itself as an operational QFS city before those approvals and tests exist. During preparation, the accurate language is “proposed pilot,” “candidate demonstrator” or “designed for controlled deployment.” Production claims begin only after the competent authority and independent evidence support them.
Abu Taleb: This model is also better for the city. Leira City should strengthen confidence in Türkiye and the Turkish lira. Investors can finance eligible assets through lawful instruments, companies can receive Turkish-lira payments, and residents can use familiar regulated services. We do not need a private currency to create an advanced digital economy.
Hartmann: The proposal must therefore be developed with, not around the Government of Türkiye, the Treasury and Finance Ministry, the Central Bank, the Capital Markets Board, relevant ministries and agencies, municipal and provincial authorities, TÜBİTAK, licensed financial institutions, universities and the competent data-protection and cybersecurity bodies.
The state defines the mandate. Regulators determine classifications and permissions. Licensed institutions perform regulated functions. Independent bodies verify claims. Citizens and investors retain legal rights and access to appeal.
A Sovereign Technical Architecture
Schmitt: Technically, how could the city operate on QFS without surrendering control to a private platform—or creating a system so complex that only its vendor can audit it?
Cooner: We propose seven connected layers.
1. Legal and Asset Layer
Every admitted asset must have an identified owner or issuer, a defined legal right, valuation method, custody arrangement, restrictions, insurance status and dispute forum. Official Turkish records remain authoritative wherever law provides them. QFS links to evidence; it does not unilaterally replace the land registry, company registry or another sovereign register.
2. Digital Identity and Permissions
Individuals, companies, public institutions, devices and authorised AI agents receive verifiable credentials appropriate to their roles. Only the minimum information required for a transaction should be disclosed. Personal data should generally remain off the shared ledger with authorised custodians, while cryptographic proofs confirm eligibility.
3. Token and Digital-Twin Registry
Every approved representation receives a unique identifier and lifecycle record covering issuance, ownership or control, restrictions, valuation, transfers, maintenance, corporate actions and retirement.
4. Unified Transaction Layer
Each economic event generates a structured record connecting the parties, asset, amount, status, compliance decision, risk controls, settlement rail, fees, external references and audit evidence. This creates a common source of transaction truth without requiring every institution to abandon its own systems.
5. Payment and Settlement Layer
Turkish-lira settlement moves through authorised rails and, if approved in the future, could interoperate with the Digital Turkish Lira. Delivery-versus-payment, escrow, scheduled payments and condition-based releases can be coordinated without treating a crypto asset as money.
6. Trusted-Data Layer
Sensors, laboratories, auditors, valuers and public registries provide digitally signed evidence. Critical financial events require independent confirmation or several trusted sources. An unverified sensor reading must never automatically release public or investor funds.
7. Governance and Resilience Layer
This covers regulator access, segregation of duties, code review, model-risk controls, incident response, business continuity, key recovery, audit, complaints and controlled upgrades. Software updates cannot silently alter citizen or investor rights.
Schnölzer: The physical city must be interoperable as well. Building-management systems, energy controls, mobility platforms, safety systems and research databases should not be locked into one financial provider. Leira City should require documented interfaces, exportable data, open schemas and clear separation between safety-critical control systems and financial applications.
The city must continue operating when a digital component is unavailable. Local control, safe manual modes, resilient communications, offline procedures and disaster recovery are part of the architecture.
Abu Taleb: Data and operational sovereignty must be written into every contract. Türkiye and the authorised city operator need control over critical data, infrastructure, permissions and continuity plans. The government must be able to inspect the system, require changes, replace a provider and migrate records without interrupting the city.
Vendor lock-in is incompatible with a hundred-year city. Technology partners should compete on performance while the city retains control of its data and operating future.
Schmitt: Auditability also requires more than an immutable log. Investigators and regulators need intelligible records, source attribution, change histories, access logs, disclosed assumptions and a way to connect digital events to contracts and real-world evidence. A permanent record of an unverified claim is still an unverified claim.
Security, Privacy and Post-Quantum Resilience
Schmitt: Parisii describes QFS as quantum-tolerant. What can responsibly be promised, and which claims would cross the line into marketing?
Cooner: No responsible provider should promise absolute “quantum-proof” security. The correct commitment is cryptographic agility: maintain an inventory of cryptographic dependencies, follow recognised standards, protect keys in certified hardware, combine classical and post-quantum methods where appropriate, test independently, and migrate as standards and threats evolve.
NIST has published the first principal post-quantum cryptography standards. Leira City should use standards recognised by Turkish authorities as a migration baseline, not a marketing label.
Long-lived records—property-related evidence, infrastructure contracts, identity credentials, health permissions and government documents—deserve particular protection because they may remain sensitive for decades.
Hartmann: Privacy must be designed into the system. Public transparency does not mean publishing residents’ lives. The public should be able to see how funds are allocated, whether milestones were achieved and whether conflicts were managed without exposing personal identities, health information, commercial secrets or security-sensitive infrastructure.
The pilot should therefore apply permissioned access, data minimisation, purpose limitation, retention rules, role-based disclosure, privacy-impact assessments and auditable consent where legally required.
Residents need plain-language explanations of what is collected, why it is collected, who can access it, how long it is retained and how a decision can be challenged.
Abu Taleb: Trust is an operating asset for Leira City. International families, researchers, companies and institutions will not come to a city that treats privacy as an afterthought. Security and dignity must be part of the development promise from the first district onward.
Schmitt: Security reporting should include limitations and incidents, not only certifications. The programme needs a protected channel for employees, suppliers, researchers and residents to report misconduct or vulnerabilities. Responsible disclosure, whistleblower protection and correction of false public claims belong in the governance system.
Risks That Must Be Designed Out
Schmitt: Let us state the failure cases plainly. What could go wrong, who could be harmed, and who would answer for it?
Hartmann: Legal rights could be mapped poorly. Assets could be overvalued. Digital instruments could be marketed as guaranteed investments. Technical complexity could hide weak procurement. Residents could be excluded by digital-only services. Data could enable surveillance. A private provider could create dependency.
These are not minor concerns. They are the core of the pilot’s research and governance agenda. Every risk needs an accountable owner, a control, an independent test and a remedy.
Cooner: Financial controls should include a formal asset-admission committee, independent legal opinions, audited valuations, licensed custody, strong wallet and key management, transaction limits, market-abuse monitoring, sanctions and AML screening, conflict-of-interest rules, reconciliation of underlying assets, and procedures for suspension, correction and court-ordered action.
Smart contracts must have accountable human owners, versioned code, tested emergency procedures and lawful dispute resolution. “Code is law” is not acceptable for a sovereign city. Turkish law is law.
Schnölzer: Physical data introduces another risk. Sensors drift. Equipment fails. Weather changes output. Maintenance histories can be incomplete. The pilot needs calibration, redundancy, certified testing and transparent uncertainty ranges. Financial settlement must never rely blindly on a device feed.
Abu Taleb: Development risk must also be controlled. Tokenisation cannot replace feasibility studies, planning permission, environmental assessment, engineering, procurement discipline or sufficient capital. Digital finance should follow verified project readiness. It must never be used to sell a future city before the underlying development obligations are clear and achievable.
Schmitt: Investigative oversight should test five questions continuously:
- Who benefits?
- Who bears the downside?
- Who supplied the evidence?
- Who can change the rules?
- Who can obtain a remedy?
The programme should publish failures and corrective actions as well as successes. Selective transparency is public relations, not accountability.
What Residents and Businesses Should Experience
Schmitt: What would this system change for an ordinary resident or business and how would they know when an automated decision affects them?
Abu Taleb: Ideally, the resident should experience better services not more complexity. A professional qualification could be verified without repeatedly submitting documents. A household could see clear energy use and participate in an approved efficiency programme. A business could receive payment faster after verified delivery. A researcher could reserve specialised equipment under transparent conditions. A resident could challenge an automated decision through a human process.
No one should need to understand blockchain terminology to live in Leira City. The interfaces should use ordinary language: Turkish-lira balance, contract, invoice, certificate, permission, service request and appeal.
Schnölzer: For urban operations, residents could benefit from more reliable distributed energy, better-maintained mobility fleets, responsive building systems and infrastructure whose performance is measured continuously. Digital records can help the operator intervene before a component fails rather than after service is interrupted.
Cooner: Businesses should see one authorised workflow connecting identity, contract, compliance, delivery, invoice, settlement and audit. That can reduce administrative friction. But users must retain clear legal documentation outside the technical interface and access to normal courts, regulators and complaints processes.
Hartmann: Inclusiveness must be measured. We should monitor affordability, digital access, accessibility for people with disabilities, language availability, complaint outcomes and the distribution of economic benefit. A technically efficient system that excludes part of the population is not successful.
Schmitt: Every consequential automated decision should generate an understandable notice: what happened, what information was used, which institution is responsible, whether a human reviewed it and how to appeal. A resident should never be told simply that “the system decided.”
A Six-Gate Proposal to the Government of Türkiye
Schmitt: If the Government of Türkiye invited a formal concept note, what would you propose—and where would independent scrutiny sit in the decision process?
Hartmann: We would propose designation of Leira City as a National Tokenised Research City Pilot, subject to feasibility studies and explicit public approval. It would advance through six decision gates.
Gate 1 — Sovereign Mandate and Turkish-Led Steering Group
Establish a Turkish-led structure including the competent national and local authorities, regulators, research institutions and licensed financial-sector participants. Define the objectives, prohibited uses, decision rights, data sovereignty, public-interest tests and exit rights before deploying technology.
Schmitt: The steering structure should include independent legal, technical, financial, privacy and public-interest reviewers. It should publish conflicts of interest, material funding relationships, pilot rules, evaluation methods and redacted decision records. No participant should investigate or certify itself.
Abu Taleb: At this gate, Leira Holding and the city-development team would present the master-development logic, priority districts, capital requirements, local-industry plan and implementation responsibilities. The financial pilot must be linked to a real and feasible delivery programme.
Gate 2 — Legal Taxonomy and Regulatory Perimeter
Classify every proposed instrument as a capital-market instrument, crypto asset, payment instrument, electronic money, contractual record, environmental certificate, credential or another legal category.
Determine which activities and entities require authorisation. Publish plain-language rules for investors, suppliers and residents.
Gate 3 — Closed Technical and Digital-Twin Sandbox
Build a sovereign test environment using synthetic data and mock assets. Test identity, permissions, asset admission, transaction logic, interoperability, cybersecurity, privacy, recovery and regulatory reporting.
Use no retail funds and make no public claim of production readiness.
Cooner: This gate should include independent code review, penetration testing, transaction simulation, key-recovery exercises, failure scenarios and regulator-visible audit outputs.
Gate 4 — Limited Real-Asset Pilot
Admit a small set of legally clear, independently valued assets such as renewable-energy equipment leases, verified Turkish SME receivables, research-equipment usage rights and non-financial performance certificates.
Use Turkish-lira settlement through licensed institutions. Cap the number of participants, transaction value and pilot duration.
Schnölzer: The physical pilot should use calibrated measurement, documented baselines and third-party validation. Performance claims must be assessed under real operating conditions.
Gate 5 — National Interoperability Research Track
If invited and authorised by the competent authorities, test technical interoperability with relevant Turkish digital-identity, financial-market and Digital Turkish Lira initiatives.
This gate depends entirely on public-sector approval and must never be presented as an existing integration.
Gate 6 — Independent Evaluation and Controlled Scale-Up
Publish the legal, technical, economic, environmental and social results. Scale only use cases that meet predefined thresholds.
Preserve the government’s ability to pause the system, replace a provider, migrate data and retire instruments safely.
How Success Should Be Measured
Schmitt: What evidence would justify expansion, and what result would require the pilot to stop?
Cooner: Financial and technical measures should include settlement time, failure rate, reconciliation effort, compliance cost, liquidity where relevant, financing time, audit exceptions, cybersecurity events, system availability, recovery performance and the percentage of assets with current legal, valuation and technical evidence.
Abu Taleb: Development measures should include capital mobilised for productive assets, construction milestones delivered, Turkish supplier participation, SME payment time, local jobs, training, investment retained in Türkiye, occupancy, operating cost and export contracts created through the project.
Schnölzer: Urban measures should include locally generated energy, storage availability, peak-load reduction, water recovery, fleet utilisation, equipment uptime, construction waste, local material use, maintenance efficiency and verified lifecycle performance.
Hartmann: Social and governance measures should include affordability, accessibility, resident trust, complaint resolution, privacy incidents, distribution of benefits, research publications, patents, licences, public procurement transparency and independent-review findings.
Schmitt: Transparency measures should include the completeness of beneficial-ownership disclosures, corrections to public claims, unresolved conflicts, whistleblower cases, public-record availability, audit-response time and whether independent researchers can reproduce headline results.
Stop conditions should include unresolved legal defects, material misrepresentation, loss of asset backing, serious privacy violations, critical security failures or repeated inability to reconcile digital records with real assets.
The pilot should define its thresholds before it begins. Success cannot be declared afterward by selecting only favourable statistics.
Why Türkiye Could Become the Standard-Setting Nation
Schmitt: What would make Türkiye a global leader in tokenised urban development rather than simply the source of another ambitious announcement?
Cooner: Leadership would not come from announcing the largest token issuance. It would come from proving that a sovereign state can connect legally verified digital assets with regulated finance, programmable Turkish-lira settlement, privacy-preserving identity and international interoperability without sacrificing monetary control or investor protection.
Türkiye’s Digital Turkish Lira research already addresses programmable payments, digital identity, offline capability and tokenised-asset interoperability. A carefully governed Leira City pilot could provide a real urban use-case environment while fully respecting the Central Bank’s authority and two-tier financial architecture.
Schnölzer: Türkiye can also connect financial innovation to industrial capacity. Energy systems, mobility, construction technologies, advanced materials, software and scientific services can be tested together. The desired result is factories, suppliers, technicians, engineers and exportable standards—not merely digital trading activity.
Abu Taleb: Türkiye has the opportunity to become the home of a new development model. Leira City can attract international institutions and responsible capital while creating value locally. Its position on the Mediterranean and its connection to Europe, Asia and Africa give it cross-continental relevance.
But leadership begins with service to the host country: Turkish law, Turkish institutions, Turkish-lira settlement, Turkish companies and measurable benefits for society.
Hartmann: Leira City also has a peace and cooperation mission. A Turkish-led pilot can later connect research cities and institutions across borders while every country retains its own law, currency and authority.
Türkiye would lead through discipline: law before code, evidence before valuation, citizens before platforms, and public benefit before speculation.
Schmitt: A leading nation invites scrutiny because it is confident in its institutions. Türkiye could distinguish the pilot by publishing verifiable evidence, correcting errors promptly, protecting critical journalism and allowing independent experts to test both technology and economic claims.
Credibility is not created by eliminating difficult questions; it is created by answering them.
The Proposal in One Sentence
Schmitt: What is each participant asking Türkiye to consider?
Abu Taleb: Authorise Leira City to develop a controlled national pilot that turns responsible investment into real infrastructure, Turkish industrial opportunity and a multicultural research city built for generations.
Cooner: Build the first full-stack research-city pilot on Parisii QFS in which every admitted instrument is anchored to an enforceable right, every transaction is accountable and every payment respects Turkish monetary sovereignty.
Schnölzer: Connect digital value to measured energy, mobility, construction and environmental performance so that finance accelerates real regenerative and industrial outcomes.
Hartmann: Govern and independently test a model that can become a Turkish national standard and an international contribution—without claiming success before the evidence exists.
Schmitt: Subject every material claim, financial flow, algorithmic decision and public-interest outcome to evidence that regulators, researchers, citizens and journalists can independently examine.
Leira City’s ambition is not to escape the established economy into a virtual one. It is to make the real economy more visible, more investable, more efficient and more accountable.
If developed through Turkish law, licensed institutions, independent science, disciplined city development and democratic oversight, Leira City could become the first fully integrated research-city pilot on Parisii QFS and Türkiye could establish the benchmark by which future tokenised cities are judged.
Proposed Policy Summary
The interview proposes that Türkiye consider a government-led, time-limited and independently evaluated Leira City pilot with these non-negotiable conditions:
- Turkish lira remains the payment and settlement currency; no private “Leira currency” is proposed.
- QFS functions as a regulated asset, transaction and compliance layer, not as a sovereign monetary system.
- Every token or digital record receives a formal legal classification before use.
- Official Turkish registries remain authoritative unless Turkish law expressly provides otherwise.
- Capital-market and crypto-asset activities occur only with the required Capital Markets Board permissions and licensed entities.
- Payment activity follows Central Bank rules and uses authorised intermediaries.
- Personal data is minimised, protected under Turkish law and kept off shared ledgers wherever possible.
- The technology is permissioned, interoperable, independently tested, cryptographically agile and portable to avoid vendor lock-in.
- Residents retain access to essential services without mandatory participation in a token system.
- Retail participation begins only after legal approval, suitability rules, disclosures and redress mechanisms are in place.
- Scale-up depends on published economic, technical, environmental and social evidence.
Source and Regulatory Context
This proposed interview draws on the following published materials:
- CIRAS, “Leira City–CIRAS: A Signed Partnership for Peace, Research and Multicultural Development”, 23 August 2026.
- CIRAS, “Mahmoud Abu Taleb”, accessed August 2026.
- CIRAS, “Thorsten Schmitt”, accessed August 2026.
- CIRAS, “Lothar Hartmann”, accessed August 2026.
- CIRAS, “Jason R. Cooner”, accessed August 2026.
- CIRAS, “Timo Schnoelzer”, accessed August 2026.
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- NIST, Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardisation Project, including FIPS 203, FIPS 204 and FIPS 205.
