ISO Blockchain and Electronic Distributed Ledger Technologies - Update
The group’s membership has significantly expanded since the inaugural meeting in Sydney.
Earlier this month, I took part in the second meeting of the ISO/TC 307 blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in Tokyo, Japan.
The group’s membership has significantly expanded since the inaugural meeting in Sydney. There were some 150 delegates, across 41 participating and observing members, present. Standards Australia, once again, provided skilled secretariat support.
The meeting was a success, creating three formal working groups, in keeping with the primary structure ISO uses for standards development. These working groups will focus on the following key areas:
- Fundamentals: defining standards around reference architecture, taxonomy and ontology.
- Security, Privacy and Identity: developing several informative reports initially, before moving on to standards development.
- Smart Contracts and their applications: developing an informative report around smart contracts, with a stretch goal of standardising how smart contracts relate to the law.
Three study groups will run in parallel with the above working groups, producing reports and recommendations to the parent technical committee. The activities of the study groups include:
- Use Cases: investigating the range of applications of blockchain, to make sure the standards incorporate each vertical. (This study group was formed at the first meeting in Sydney).
- Governance: providing a scope recommendation for standards around governance.
- Interoperability: scoping recommendations along with interoperability requirements.
The third meeting will be held in London in mid-2018. Details from the first meeting, in April 2017, can be viewed on our blog post. Please get in touch if you would like more information about our contribution to the Security, Privacy and Identity working group.
Written by Nick Cliff, our Emerging Technology Lead
