ISITC Europe’s 10 blockchain standards initiatives

Rage Review : The European organization of the International Securities Institutional Trading Communications Association (ISITC) has proposed ten blockchain standard recommendations, which are divided into two categories: technical standards and regulatory standards. It is currently preparing for the formulation of relevant standards, and will then submit them to the ISO standards organization for review. However, even if the standards are formulated, it will take a long time to obtain ISO approval. In addition, the W3C World Wide Web Consortium is also formulating relevant standards.

Translation: Annie_Xu

The European arm of the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) has proposed ten blockchain standards that it believes will help standardize the many blockchain tools currently available in the market.

The recommendations, made this month by the ISITC’s Blockchain DLT Working Group, are the latest in a series of global blockchain developments aimed at ensuring that blockchain enables new decentralized and efficient data sharing without rebuilding existing isolated centralized database infrastructure.

Gary Wright, deputy director of the ISITC’s blockchain distributed ledger technology working group, said creating reliable cross-industry, cross-border standards is not just about achieving interoperability; it is also an important step in improving the bottom line for distributed ledger technology companies.

Wright is also executive director of ISITC Europe and co-founder of Block Asset Technologies in London. "We can only sell things if people know what we are selling and what they want to buy. Standardization is in our interest and drives investment."

These recommendations cover blockchain flexibility, scalability, latency, data architecture, auditability, regulation, justice, management, and software version control.

Management and Technology

Wright further breaks down these suggestions into two categories.

The core of the overall recommendations is to explore how blockchain and distributed ledgers can be integrated into other fields. This part of the recommendations covers management, legal and regulatory issues; the remaining seven are more inclined towards technical standards.

The standards were developed by Wright’s colleagues on the technical working group, including Scott Riley, director of Block Asset Technologies, and Hermann Rapp, a data standards researcher at Lord Ashcroft International Business School at Cambridge Business School.

ISITC Europe invites industry players, academic and technical experts to participate in the formulation of relevant standards.

Once the standards are finalized, they will be submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the global standards body in Geneva, Wright and Rapp said.

However, it will take a long time to achieve this goal.

Going global

Another internet standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium, has also just begun creating standards. The organization, founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994 to prevent competing interests from fragmenting the fledgling World Wide Web, is beginning to persuade its members to include distributed ledgers in its work.

Blockchain industry leaders gathered at a W3C standards-setting meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last month; while many attendees were keen to see commercial applications for blockchain standards, others expressed concerns about the limits of early technology trials.

Although the W3C has not formally committed to developing international blockchain standards, conference organizer Doug Schepers said that developing standards is more important than any standards body.

Even if ISITC eventually submits the standard to ISO, it will still take a long time to get it passed.

“Usually anything involving ISO is something that requires government attention,” Schepers said .

“ISO is often used by industries to signal to governments and other enforcement agencies what is important and certain.”

Building partnerships

Wright personally believes that the formulation of blockchain standards requires more support and investment.

Eric Benz, COO of Credits, a UK blockchain platform provider, also expressed his willingness to lead the ISITC blockchain working group and participate in more standard-setting meetings.

Rapp said he plans to present the blockchain standard at the ISITC conference in October and then discuss related technical support in detail.

Currently, the working group has about 100 members. Rapp said that if all goes well, formal planning will be carried out next. "The working group is mainly in the form of an open network, while the alliance has a fixed schedule. But our working group may also be upgraded to the alliance form."