The World Economic Forum has teamed up with the Global Blockchain Business Council, an advocacy group, to assess the current state of blockchain technology.
- The Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI), released Wednesday, is the most "comprehensive" attempt so far to survey blockchain technical standards, according to the organizations.
- The GSMI mapped data from over 30 technical standard-setting entities, 185 jurisdictions, and almost 400 industry groups.
- The report attempts to provide a snapshot of the current blockchain landscape by mapping current technical standardization efforts, identifying gaps and recognizing "next steps" for the industry.
- The initiative is designed to serve as a resource to move the industry forward by combining industry trends and provide "action-orientated guidance" for the public and private sectors.
- "The ecosystem is moving forward with designing and building for scale," the report reads. "However, several questions critical to the success or failure of blockchain remain."
- Those questions relate to issues such as a need for increased education for regulators, fragmentation of approaches across different jurisdictions and premature standardizations.
- The findings of the report also included concerns regarding terminology and technical design choices for distributed ledger technology (DLT), as well as clarity and guidance for global actors.
- The initiative also comes in collaboration with notable entities working in blockchain, including MIT Media Lab, Accenture and the Linux Foundation.
- Other collaborators include Hyperledger, ESG Intelligence, Global Digital Finance, ING Group, Six Digital Exchange, the Milken Institute, among others.