Remitt has welcomed the recent announcement that Australia will lead the international development of standards governing blockchain distributed ledger technology after a proposal submitted by Standards Australia, and the idea incepted and developed by Remitt earlier this year received approval as ISO/TC 307.
Remitt identified a common problem in the industry, acted to help foster interoperability and to prevent a siloed approach to the technology. Currently a number of different blockchains are in use.
The blockchain is a distributed public ledger that allows individuals who don’t know and trust each other to transfer value. At present the public perception of the blockchain is associated with digital currencies.
Remitt is changing that thinking and developing an Enterprise platform for banking allowing for interoperability and providing visibility and assurance to regulators to help foster further adoption of blockchain while maintaining compliance.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is the responsible body that approved the standard and a copy of the proposal iso-tsp-258-blockchain-and-electronic-distributed-ledger-technologies
The committee – which includes 35 ISO members like the US, UK, Germany, Canada and Japan – will be tasked with creating a common language for “interoperability among systems, privacy, security and terminology”.
This is an important development as it will create both certainty in the market of the technology, and a common standard that platforms can adhere to which will ensure best practice in security and interoperability. It will also help support a regulatory framework.
We are yet to fully appreciate how blockchain technology can be leveraged. Everything from transferring stock on the stock exchange; trading ownership in online marketplace; digital voting; authentication; identity management; and many other uses other than crypto currencies.
Using blockchain is faster, cheaper and more transparent than some of the existing practices we have today, such as SWIFT, which provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized environment. Much of the payments we receive today is through this network.
A report co-authored by Santander estimated that blockchain technology could reduce banks’ infrastructure costs by up to USD20 billion a year.
Remitt will continue to be closely associated with work associated with the standard provided technical expertise and advice.
Sassoon Grigorian and Gilbert Verdian are cofounders of Remitt, a fintech startup