Hyperledger to Address International Trade Standards Body

Update: IBM vice president of global financial markets, Keith Bear, confirmed with CoinDesk that he and an IBM blockchain developer will address ISITC about current activities of Hyperledger Fabric, use cases, and deployment in wholesale markets.

Leading members of the Hyperledger blockchain project are scheduled to address the European branch of the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) next week.

To be held at London Metropolitan University on Thursday, the public event is the latest effort by ISITC's newly formed Blockchain DLT Working Group to lay the foundation for a global effort to standardize distributed ledger technology.

Co-chair of the ISITC Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Working Group, Gary Wright, told CoinDesk the academic lecture is intended to give his group's membership an idea of what differentiates Hyperledger from other blockchain projects.

More than just an informational event, Write expects an active conversation built around Hyperledger's actual "success stories" and the possible benefits of standardization.

He said:

"It is a workshop and therefore the questions will come quick and fast. They're not going to broadcast their message, they're going to answer real questions."

The ISITC Blockchain DLT Working group emerged earlier this year when Wright, who sits on the European executive board of ISITC and co-founded London-based Block Asset Technologies, was invited to create a list of 10 blockchain standards for future development.

Since then, the working group has invited multiple third party organizations including London-based blockchain framework Credits and settlements platform Setl to address the groups. Following the Hyperledger discussion, the director of Block Asset Technologies, Scott Riley, will lead the discussion on DLT standards and the progress being made.

As a result of the series, the working group has changed its tact slightly to focus on what Wright calls a cross-industry "framework" from which a slightly modified list of benchmarks might eventually emerge.

Following our report on the working group earlier this year, Wright says his organization was contacted by standards organizations on "both sides of the Atlantic", and he's been invited by the British Standards Institute to present what they've learned so far.

Work ahead

As part of ISITC's work, Wright says he's prioritized working with other standards bodies and consortia like Hyperledger to minimize overlap.

Later this month, for example, Wright said he's scheduled a conference call with the North America branch of ISITC to discuss working together.

Further, during ISITC’s general meeting at Standard Chartered Bank in October, he expects to moderate a panel with chairman Michael Mainali of the Z/Yen Group, a risk management think tank working with PwC to explore the potential impact of blockchain on insurance.

The work, he hopes, will culminate in cooperation with international standards organization IEEE.

He concluded:

"None of the vendors who are out there should be selling as a vendor. This is about the benefit of the community. Even if you're going to use an internal blockchain, you have to focus on the community first."

Image of London Metropolitan University via Wikipedia