A study conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Blockchain Business Council revealed the reason why the blockchain industry still lacks well-defined standards on a global scale.
The study is called the “Global Standards Graph Initiative”, which points out that gaps, differences and overlaps in the development of blockchain industry standards are the biggest challenges the industry needs to overcome.
Most organizations involved in the development of industry standards have shown great interest in some specific areas, while completely neglecting other areas. This has caused overlap in some parts of the blockchain industry, while gaps have appeared in the standardization of other parts.
The amount of interest and activity surrounding the development of standards also changes with the hype of technology. Many organizations that started to develop standards during the peak of blockchain hype have either closed operations or have not yet produced any reasonable output.
According to the report, the five most common areas of overlap of interest include security, IoT, identity, DLT requirements and DLT terminology.
Even though people have great interest in formulating DLT terminology standards, the research report pointed out that there are still uncertainties in blockchain terminology worldwide. The report pointed out that the consistent definition and terminology of the blockchain industry is the key to the development of the industry.
The research shows that the blockchain industry still lacks standards that may formally define the applicability of blockchain technology to specific processes. The development of global standards for the same standards may help more participants assess the potential of the technology for their business and understand the benefits and possible risks associated with it.
There is currently no formal standard to define the procedures for testing blockchain platforms. The report pointed out that so far, most of the innovation in the industry has occurred through industry participants and technological evolution, rather than through formalization and standardization.
As the future direction of development, the report recommends that regulators should educate themselves on technology before setting national or global standards. The report mentioned that “the effectiveness of standards will ultimately be attributed to the level of understanding of technology.”
The isolated operation of organizations and regulatory agencies to develop blockchain standards has also caused a lot of confusion. The study emphasizes that it is crucial to break through these isolated organizations and that geographical barriers will “promote more functional frameworks.”
