Australia to lead ISO Blockchain standards endeavor

Standards Australia recently announced that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is supporting its proposal to develop a set of international standards for blockchain technology.

Standards Australia is the country’s highest non-government, not-for-profit Standards organization. They cover everything from consumer products and services, construction, engineering, business, information technology, human services to energy and water utilities, the environment and much more. However, they do not enforce, regulate or certify compliance.

The organization submitted it’s proposal for ISO review last April. It’s designed to establish new international standards on blockchain technology and electronic distributed ledger technologies. The bulk of the work excludes legal obligations and regulatory matters addressed by government jurisdictions.

At the same time that Standards Australia submitted their proposal, they also released a four-page document, “Blockchain & Electronic Distributed Ledger Technologies.” The report states that proposed international standards for blockchain will focus on technical solutions that promote interoperability, and compatibility between existing systems, “This will allow the technology to be more widely used and deployed,” states the paper.

“Leveraging existing work, a proposed approach can be similar to the SWIFT ISO 20022 Standard,” states the documentation. The SWIFT standards define the fields and controls within messages and transactions between entities, allowing interoperability.”
— – ISO Proposal by Standards Australia

The proposal also includes a new technical committee, the “ISO Blockchain Committee,” which Standards Australia will lead. Joining them are 35 other ISO member countries, including Germany, USA, Canada, Estonia, France, Japan, UK, and Korea, according to ISO’s announcement.

Australia’s Minister of the Treasury, Scott Morrison MP, issued a media release on Thursday that “warmly welcomed” ISO support. It makes Australia “a leading global player in this new area,” he said.

Morrison pointed out that there is growing global recognition of blockchain technology’s potential, noting major blockchain-based projects in the land down under, including the Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) initiative to use a blockchain as a replacement for their existing clearing and settlement system.  “Leading the committee will cement Australia’s position at the forefront of blockchain technology,” the MP said.

While the new standards have yet to be outlined, Bitcoin alone involves a number of different standards. Bitcoin developer Eric Lombrozo explains that, “some standards are absolute requirements for interoperability while others can be considered optional, giving implementors a choice of whether to support them.” The greater subject of blockchain technology, being investigated by numerous institutions like the ASX, has no set standards.

“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.”
— – Hon. Scott Morrison MP, Australia’s Treasurer

ISO last tackled Blockchain technology in late 2014, when the Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation at the time, Jon Matonis, proposed changes to ISO 4217. He proposed adding a symbol and currency code for bitcoin to the international standard matrix of currencies.

The ISO currency standard designates currency symbols, links them to countries and their codes, and references the minor units of the currency in separate tables. While Wikipedia lists bitcoin’s symbol ‘XBT’ as an unofficial currency code for now, it readily appears in charting and trading platforms across the finance industry, including Yahoo! finance and Bloomberg.

“BTC” cannot be used as bitcoin’s ISO currency code because the starting letters “BT” are reserved under the ISO system for the country of Bhutan. That leaves XBT as the next best option since the starting letter X means that it is a non-national-issued ‘exception’ of a currency, like gold, which has the currency code ‘XAU.’ Making the change has proven a difficult task as requests for official inclusion into ISO 4217 must originate from banks and payment processors.

Australia’s treasurer made Bitcoin news headlines several times this year. Before he took office, Australia taxed bitcoin when earned and spent, creating a “double tax” situation. Morrison has since resolved the situation, with a call for public comments on how Bitcoin and other digital currencies should be defined and taxed.

The Minister of the Treasury then created a landmark budget, and plans for a “strong and vibrant FinTech industry.” Initiatives reformed the treatment of digital currencies, and generated a strong commitment to researching blockchain applications for the government and private sector.