Industry leaders today released the Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI), the first and most comprehensive effort to assess the current state of blockchain. Based on input from over 30 technical standard-setting entities, 185 jurisdictions and nearly 400 industry groups, the reports are accessible to the public and intended to serve as a resource for the blockchain community to develop thoughtful frameworks and standards to propel the industry forward.
The reports, released by the World Economic Forum and the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), map and assess the current blockchain and digital asset landscape across three distinct areas: technical standards; legislation and guidance by sovereign and international bodies; and industry best practices and standards.
Key insights highlighted in the reports include the technology’s fragmentation both worldwide and within jurisdictions, overlaps, gaps and conflicts in standard-setting – and where these activities may be premature – a lack of dynamic guidance for new uses of the technology, the need for proactive strategies from organizations, and the important role regulators will play in shaping the future of the technology. The reports also provide action-oriented guidance for public and private sector stakeholders and include an interactive world map of blockchain legislation and guidance.
The initiative is led by the World Economic Forum and the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), with core collaborators: Accenture; Digital Currency Initiative, MIT Media Lab; ESG Intelligence; Global Digital Finance (GDF); Hyperledger, The Linux Foundation; ING; the Milken Institute; SIX Digital Exchange (SDX); and other global entities. For a full list of partners and collaborators, please see here.
Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain at the World Economic Forum, said: “There has been a strong demand signal for a catalogue of standards-related activity that could serve as a cornerstone for facilitating responsible deployment and interoperability. We were excited to collaborate with the Global Blockchain Business Council and members of our Blockchain Council to create this open resource that can be used by the ecosystem, policy-makers, and beyond, to inform their approaches to the technology and standards moving forward.”
Sandra Ro, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Blockchain Business Council, said: “GSMI partners and collaborators are a diverse group of stakeholders across industries, governments and academia who represent a range of perspectives and ideologies. Their coming together to lay the foundation towards greater harmonization and clarity surrounding standard-setting exemplifies the unique ethos of the blockchain community rooted in collective progress and collaboration. The Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), is proud to have incubated this initiative alongside the World Economic Forum and looks forward to continued collaboration as the GSMI evolves and develops beyond this initial release. We invite new partners to join us as we build upon this initial body of work, GSMI version 1.0.”
David Treat, GBBC Board Chair and Senior Managing Director and Head of Accenture’s Blockchain Business, said: “The next wave of innovation will be driven by collaborative ecosystems, underpinned by blockchain and multiparty systems. The technology is advancing quickly, but the complexities of the standards, frameworks and policies necessary to align to best practices have risked slowing progress to broad-based adoption. At Accenture, we believe this important initiative offers a significant leap forward as we help our clients to drive business transformation and shape the future with more resilient, transparent and secure infrastructures.”
Mariana Gomez de la Villa, Distributed Ledger Technology Program Director at ING, said:“We all know DLT is a network technology and for it to reach mass scale adoption you need strong synergies where every single participant on the value chain experiences the value. As an ecosystem, we won’t be able to deliver value without developing clear standards. This is why ING decided to contribute to this technical report together with the World Economic Forum.”
Benjamin Nadareski, Global Corporate and Business Development at SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), said: “The digital asset industry has seen exceptional growth in 2020 yet has continued to lack the global standards required to unlock the true value behind this emerging asset class. We are excited to be involved with an effort that unifies academia, industry and regulatory efforts to provide a non-biased foundation for the required standards that companies around the world need for their digital asset businesses. With the first launch of phase one for the GSMI initiative, we are excited to open up the effort to additional global leaders and experts in the digital asset industry.”
Carole Biau, Director for Global Market Development at the Milken Institute, said: “We are proud to have participated in such an important endeavour. GSMI provided an opportunity for two scholars of our IFC-Milken Institute Capital Markets Program to thoroughly research the blockchain and digital asset landscape in a wide range of countries and to learn from varying regulatory perspectives. Going forward, GSMI can be an important addition to the regulatory toolkit for our scholars and alumni as they work to modernize and strengthen capital markets across developing and emerging economies.”
Lawrence Wintermeyer, Executive Co-Chair, Global Digital Finance, said: “The GSMI project was ambitious in its goal of mapping out the global regulatory and association landscape for crypto and digital assets. For the first time, business leaders and policy-makers can now access the (fragmented) landscape of jurisdictional regulatory intelligence and better understand which of the agencies and associations is best positioned to support their needs.”
Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger, said:”The GSMI reports will be key resources for adding critical structure to the fast-evolving blockchain industry. The broad-based effort behind this important mapping project shows the inherently collaborative nature of the blockchain ecosystem. As champions of openness and standards, Hyperledger applauds this important work and we look forward to continuing to contribute to this initiative.”
Sumit Kumar, Co-Founder of ESG Intelligence, said: “The GSMI project is a timely initiative that will help expand the blockchain ecosystem. It will provide an opportunity for organizations that are still watching from the sidelines to assess the regulatory and business landscape and contribute to the ecosystem. We are proud to have joined this important project as it shares our goal of expanding enterprise blockchain adoption.”
As blockchain continues to evolve and scale, clarity on its technical, regulatory and governance models will be paramount in shaping the trajectory and potential of the technology. The GSMI is an ongoing effort that will continue to grow. If you are interested in collaborating, please get in touch.