ISITC Europe proposes 10 blockchain standard benchmarks, which will be handed over to ISO to become international standards in the future

The European branch of the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communications (ISITC) has proposed 10 blockchain benchmarks it believes will help standardize the increasingly diverse blockchain tools currently available on the market.

The 10 blockchain benchmarks, created by ISITC’s Blockchain DLT Working Group at a meeting this month, are the latest in a series of global efforts to enable blockchain to usher in a new wave of efficient, decentralized data sharing without rebuilding today’s isolated, centralized database infrastructure.

But according to Gary Wright, co-chair of the ISITC Blockchain DLT Working Group, creating reliable standards that span industries and borders does more than just help ensure interoperability. Instead, the creation of blockchain standards is a critical step toward improving the bottom line of companies using distributed ledger technology.

“We can’t sell anything unless people understand what we are selling and what they want to buy,” said Wright, who is also a member of the European executive committee of ISITC and co-founder of London-based Block Asset Technologies. “It’s in our interest to standardize so people can invest.”

The benchmarks, presented at the Blockchain Working Group meeting, cover blockchain resilience, scalability, latency, data structure, auditing, governance, legal jurisdiction, regulation, software versioning and networking.

Governance and technology

Further, Wright divides these benchmarks into two categories.

These “holistic” benchmarks take a high-level look at how blockchain and distributed ledger technology integrate with the rest of the world. Three of these benchmarks are on governance, law, and regulation. The remaining seven benchmarks apply to more technical standards.

The standards were developed by Wright’s fellow ISITC blockchain working group member, Block Asset Technologies director Scott Riley, and Hermann Rapp, a data standards researcher at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School at the University of Cambridge.

ISITC Europe has invited participants from various industries, including academia and professional fields to participate in the development of these benchmarks.

If the benchmarks are successful, Wright and Rapp said the next step would be to submit them to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva.

However, this goal is still a long way to go.

Go Global

The global Internet standards body W3C is also in the early stages of standardizing blockchain technology. W3C was founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994 to prevent competing interests from tearing the World Wide Web apart in its early stages, but it is now seeking member support to expand its mission in distributed ledgers.

Last month, blockchain industry leaders attended a standards event hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). While many attendees were excited about the commercial applications of blockchain standards, others expressed concerns about potential limitations on early-stage experimentation with the technology.

While the W3C is not formally committed to helping create international blockchain standards, event organizer Doug Schepers said creating standards is more important than any single standards body.

If ISITC does eventually hand over their benchmarks to ISO, it will still take several years of back and forth before they are finally accepted.

“Typically when you go to an ISO you’re trying to say the government needs to pay attention,” Schepers said.

And: “ISOs are often used as a way for industry to signal to governments and other compliance bodies that something is stable and needs to be taken seriously.” Building partnerships

Wright himself agrees that the creation of blockchain standards requires investment and support.

Eric Benz, COO of UK blockchain platform provider Credits, has proposed hosting a meeting of the wider ISITC blockchain working group on standards.

As for the next steps for the ISITC working group, Rapp said they intend to present their work on blockchain benchmarks at the ISITC plenary meeting in October in an effort to gain more support for the standards organization.

If all goes well for the working group, which now has 100 members, Rapp said their next step could be a more formal arrangement.

“A working group is a more open network, whereas a coalition is a fixed agenda,” Rapp concluded. “But this working group could potentially turn into a coalition.”