Daniel Conway, a teaching professor in the Department of Information Systems at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, was appointed chair of the U.S. Blockchain Technical Committee under the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). In this capacity, Conway will lead his committee to promote national and international blockchain standards. Their work will focus on blockchain’s:
- Vocabulary and architecture
- Security, privacy and identity
- Interoperability
- Smart contracts
- Governance
- Use cases and more
“Standards start locally, then go to industry – then if they are useful, they might want to go internationally,” Conway said. “INCITS represents the U.S. in the international standards efforts. We promote our standards and vote on those standards suggested by other countries. INCITS is the group that represents the U.S. position.”
Global industries widely use blockchain – a digital ledger with a decentralized database stored in numerous computers in a secure and transparent chain – to track goods or services throughout the supply chain, from manufacturing to retail, farm to table.
Blockchain is everywhere. With its huge influence on transactions and the tracking of assets, it is imperative that the chains can talk to each other in a universal language in a safe, secure and legible manner.
One group tackling that problem is the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards or INCITS. Located in Washington, D.C., near U.S. legislators, INCITS works to create technology standards for blockchain and other technologies like AI, biometrics, cloud computing, cybersecurity and more.
