Technical Blockchain Standards

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on technical standards. These standards typically feed off the governance standards discussed in the previous chapter. We will commence by highlighting why technical standards matter, and then give a high-level overview of the most important technical standards that currently work on embedding blockchains into their technologies (i.e., ETSI, 3GPP, the IEEE, and the IETF). It is interesting to note already here that technical standards bodies – which are recognized by governments around the world as SDOs – do not exist for blockchains themselves. That is clearly a disadvantage and has repercussions in applications, like the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrency, but also with respect to regulation, oversight, and business ethics.