Australian Government Commits $350k to Blockchain Standards Effort

Australia’s government has committed funding to develop blockchain standards in the country, while a new roadmap for the initiative has also been released.

Standards Australia, which signaled last autumn that it would play a significant role in the development of international standards around blockchain tech, said in its new report that "there is a broad community expectation that an appropriate legal and standards framework will be developed in order to establish market confidence".

To get the process started, international standards drafters are expected to meet in Sydney next month to begin deliberations, the body said in a statement.

Australian Treasurer, Scott Morrison, has formally backed the initiative, revealing that the government has committed $350,000 in public funds over a four-year period to support the development of blockchain standards.

Morrison said of the effort:

“Australia’s leadership in developing blockchain standards promotes our position as a global centre for distributed ledger technologies. That is why the Turnbull Government announced in the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook 2016-17 that it would provide $350,000 to Standards Australia over four years to support the blockchain standards initiative.”

According to the roadmap, Standards Australia intends to prioritize standards related to terminology, governance, security and identity, among others. Standards should center around use cases including digital currency, trade finance and the exchange of commodities, it adds.

Craig Dunn, chair of the country's International Organization for Standardization committee, elaborated on the scope of the work in a statement.

“We’re going to take a close look at relevant industry sectors like financial services, technology, logistics, and government services to assess what international blockchain standards are required to generate growth and to build efficiencies in these sectors,” he said.

Sydney image via Shutterstock