The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is to hold a conference from October 17 to October 19 in Geneva, Switzerland on the issue of establishing standards for distributed ledger technologies. The conference, dubbed the ITU-T Focus Group on Application of Distributed Ledger Technology, will convene with the aim of “identifying the standardized frameworks needed to support the scaling up of applications and services based on DLT globally.”
Distributed ledger technology is the technology that underpins Bitcoin.
The conference follows considerations by the European Commission to set up a blockchain observatory, showing how fashionable the topic is becoming. Other groups that have considered and are working on standards relating to distributed ledger technology include groups such as Hyperledger and the W3C’s Blockchain Community Group.
The conference demonstrates the ITU’s determination to break into standards-setting for information technologies, rather than remain limited to low-level traditional telecommunications standards. However, nimbler and more inclusive groups, led by industry and the technical community rather than governments, continue to lead the way.
More about the conference can be read here.