Australia will take the driver’s seat in setting a uniform approach for the development of blockchain standards globally. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), widely regarded as the primary global standards authority has approved an earlier proposal [PDF] put forth by Standards Australia – the country’s national standards authority – that sought to develop uniform global standards for blockchain technology. The ISO agreed to appoint Australia to lead an international technical committee that will now build a uniform approach to the technology. In its initial proposal, Standards Australia opined that the committee’s work will focus on key facets such as: Permission models – public and private Smart contracts Application programming interfaces and more. The committee banded together will see 35 ISO members from countries including the US, UK, Germany, and Japan among others who will now create common standards for the “interoperability among systems, privacy, security and terminology.” The proposal sought to leverage the existing SWIFT ISO 20222 standard for developing blockchain standards. The standard fundamentally applies for electronic data interchange between financial institutions and is widely used in the financial services sector. Following today’s approval, Australia’s Treasurer Scott Morrison stated : Establishing standards around this emerging technology will provide a common language for industry, policy makers, regulators and technology developers. This will provide a basis for ensuring interoperability as this technology becomes more widely used. A report from The Australian reveals that the decision was taken by the ISO at a Beijing meeting which will see Australia manage the secretariat for the new international committee. Standards Australia is one of over 160 national standards organizations recognized by the ISO as its Australian member. The national authority made its case to the latter for the need to have an ISO standard certification for blockchain technology earlier this year in […]
