ETSI GR PDL 001 V1.1.1 (2020-03)

ETSI GR PDL 001 V1.1.1 (2020-03)
GROUP REPORT
Permissioned Distributed Ledger (PDL);
Landscape of Standards and Technologies
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Intellectual Property Rights ................................................................................................................................ 4

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Modal verbs terminology .................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................ 6

2 References ................................................................................................................................................ 6

2.1 Normative references ......................................................................................................................................... 6

2.2 Informative references ........................................................................................................................................ 6

3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations ....................................................................................... 7

3.1 Terms .................................................................................................................................................................. 7

3.2 Symbols .............................................................................................................................................................. 7

3.3 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

4 Introduction to main areas of application of PDL technologies and role of standards ............................. 8

5 Current activities in standardization ....................................................................................................... 10

5.1 International Standards Organization (ISO TC-307) ........................................................................................ 10

5.2 CEN-CENELEC FGBDLT .............................................................................................................................. 10

5.3 ITU-T FG-DLT ................................................................................................................................................ 11

5.4 IEEE Standards Association ............................................................................................................................. 11

5.5 ETSI ................................................................................................................................................................. 11

6 Current activities in research .................................................................................................................. 12

7 Activities of professional initiatives and alliances ................................................................................. 12

7.1 Opentimestamps ............................................................................................................................................... 12

7.2 W3C ................................................................................................................................................................. 12

7.3 Alastria ............................................................................................................................................................. 12

7.4 Dutch Blockchain Coalition (Private Public Partnership Netherlands) ............................................................ 12

7.5 Hyperledger Project ...................................................................................................................................... 13

7.6 EEA .................................................................................................................................................................. 13

7.7 SEP: Common denominator with SEP (Standards Essential Patent) Landscape .............................................. 13

7.8 INATBA ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

7.9 Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation ....................................................................................................... 13

7.10 Industrial Internet Consortium ....................................................................................................................... 14

7.11 Internet Society (ISoc) IRTF ............................................................................................................................ 14

7.12 OASIS .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

7.13 SBS ................................................................................................................................................................... 14

7.14 OGC ............................................................................................................................................................... 14

7.15 FIG ................................................................................................................................................................... 14

7.16 oneM2M ....................................................................................................................................................... 15

7.17 OMA ............................................................................................................................................................. 15

8 Highlights of PDL solutions and needs .................................................................................................. 15

8.1 Regulatory Aspects........................................................................................................................................... 15

8.2 Ecosystem and EU-Market aspects .................................................................................................................. 16

9 Enhancements and recommendations for further collaboration ............................................................. 16

Annex A: Ledger Data Structures: ....................................................................................................... 17

Annex B: List of EU funded H2020 Research Projects on DLT ........................................................ 18

History .............................................................................................................................................................. 25

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Standards are everywhere and are playing a key role to protect consumers, workers and environment. Blockchain and

Distributed Ledger Technologies represent a key performance indicator for the Standardization Bodies and

Organizations worldwide. First initiative was launched by ISO in 2016, as an initiative from Australian mirror

Committee which conformed the Committee ISO/TC 307 [i.1] with the Scope "Standardisation of Blockchain

Following the aim of standardization at the European level, CEN-CENELEC conformed a Focus Group [i.2] for

Blockchain and Distributed ledger technologies in 2017 which is under liaison with ISO TC307 and a White Paper

"Recommendations for Successful Adoption in Europe of Emerging Technical Standards on Distributed

Ledger/Blockchain Technologies" [i.2] was approved and published by CEN-CENELEC in 2018.

At United Nations level, the International Telecommunication Union is working very efficient with various Study

Groups and related materials and it is relevant the Focus Group [i.5] on Application of Distributed Ledger Technology

There are also initiatives and programs which are focus on standardization like the Joint Initiative on Standardization

under the Single Market Strategy [i.3] which is a voluntary collaborative effort and does not establish any new legal

commitments whereby Standards are key for innovation and progress within the European competitiveness. Basically,

this Joint Initiative on Standardization sets out a shared vision for European standards in order to take steps to better

prioritize and to modernize the current European Standardization system, as well as to strive for the timely delivery of

standardization deliverables. It supports the relevant aspects of the ten European Commission's Priorities and other

policy objectives, while clearly respecting the distribution of different competences between the EU and the Member

The European Blockchain Observatory and Forum (https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/) is an open project to create

most comprehensive map of the European Blockchain ecosystem and as European Commission Initiative to accelerate

blockchain innovation and the development of blockchain ecosystem within the EU and so help cement Europe's

There are also other alternative efforts related to the standardization of some properties that DLTs can provide which

are considered within the present document like W3C (https://www.w3.org/) or https://opentimestamps.org/.

The present document will identify current activities in standardization and in research which are particularly relevant

to PDL, with the goal of identifying applicable solutions, required enhancements and recommendations for further

collaboration. As appropriate, activities of professional or non-profit initiatives will also be considered.

References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or

non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the

NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee

The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the

"Recommendations for Successful Adoption in Europe of Emerging Technical Standards on

ftp://ftp.cencenelec.eu/EN/EuropeanStandardization/Sectors/ICT/Blockchain%20+%20DLT/FG-BDLT-

[i.4] ISO/TR 23455:2019: "Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies -- Overview of and

interactions between smart contracts in blockchain and distributed ledger technology systems".

NOTE: Available at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dlt/Pages/default.aspx.

[i.6] W3C Recommendation 19 November 2019: "Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0".

[i.7] Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain

legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal

[i.8] European Commission JRC Science for Policy Report: "Licensing Terms of Standard Essential

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC104068/jrc104068%20online.pdf

[i.9] European Commission Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs: "Landscaping

NOTE: Available at http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/landscaping-study-standard-essential-patents-europe-

[i.10] Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012

on European standardisation, amending Council Directives 89/686/EEC and 93/15/EEC and

Directives 94/9/EC, 94/25/EC, 95/16/EC, 97/23/EC, 98/34/EC, 2004/22/EC, 2007/23/EC,

2009/23/EC and 2009/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing

Council Decision 87/95/EEC and Decision No 1673/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of

ITU-T International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunications standardization sector.

Distributed Ledgers Technology is categorized as a General Purpose Technology and as such can provide benefits to a

large number of applications across most industries. Applications that use PDL technologies will benefit from

distributed trusted databases with recorded verifiable transactions which can be automated to increase efficiency and

Typical applications, industrialized and emerging, may be divided into horizontal applications which provide common

functions, and vertical applications that serves a more specific industry application typically leveraging one or more

Identity Management: individuals, objects, legal entities eGovernment: Properties, benefits records

Crypto-structures and DAO Utilities: Share records and trading, Energy Sector, Smart-

Contract Management: Smart Contracts Media and Social Media: Intellectual Properties

Decision Management: A.I.-decision traceability Education: e-learning, Diplomas validation

Infrastructure Management ICT: Internet resource management, Trust infrastructure

The many initiatives have created a fragmented market and many reports states the lack of standards as a significant

barrier to adoption. Several initiatives are ongoing and examples of where standards can help include terminology,

AI- data traceability: AI is a number of technologies of data processing nature that may assist decision making. The use

of AI may be validated and enhanced by traceability. The traceability of a number of data management processes

involving machine, scripting and human processing may be enhanced with the use of AI and its functionality.

ISO/TC 307 [i.1] Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies since 2016 has 43 participating members and

13 observing members. It has liaisons committees to ISO/TC 307 and from ISO/ TC307. And it is relevant the Joint

Working Groups ISO/TC46/SC11/JWG1 with title Joint ISO/TC46/SC 11-ISO/TC 307 WG: Blockchain. There are also

organizations in liaison like European Commission, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Inc, Institute of Electrical and

Electronic Engineers Inc, ITU, OECD, SWIFT, UNECE and International Federation of Surveyors.

NOTE: ISO/TR 23455:2019 [i.4] overview of and interactions between Smart Contracts and DLT systems is

CEN-CENELEC: CEN (European Committee for Standardization) and CENELEC (European Committee for

Electrotechnical Standardization) are recognized by the EU and EFTA as European Standardization Organizations

responsible for developing standards at European level. These standards set out specifications and procedures in relation

to a wide range of materials, processes, products and services. The members of CEN-CENELEC are the National

Standardization Bodies and National Electrotechnical Committees of 34 European countries. European Standards and

other standardization deliverables adopted by CEN-CENELEC are accepted and recognized in all these countries. For

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies the Focus Group in 2019 will identify specific European needs and

release a new version of its technical white paper for the successful implementation of Blockchain and DLT in Europe.

There are numerous standards under development within CEN-CENELEC and the strategy which is public consider

between their pivotal highlights' Digital transformation, International cooperation like task force with Gulf, India,

Japan, China and Africa; seminars and workshops. Some of the interesting standards under development are: For

Digital Society, CEN/WS 084 Self-Sovereign Identifier for Personal Data Ownership and Usage Control,

CEN/CLC/WS SEP2 Industry Best Practices and Industry Code of Conduct for Licensing of Standard Essential Patents

in the field of 5G and Internet of Things, CLC/TC108X Safety of electronic equipment within the fields of

Audio/Video, Information Technology and Communication Technology, CLC/TC 209 Cable networks for television

signals, sound signals and interactive services. For Mechanical and machinery mainly focus for safety and segments

like entertainment technology and amusement park machinery and structures. For services CEN/TC 445 Digital

Information Interchange in the Insurance Industry, CEN/TC 278 Intelligent transport systems. Recently

CEN-CENELEC has approved liaison with ETSI ISG PDL and a new TC will act as mirror with ISO/TC 307 [i.1].

ITU The Focus Group for Distributed ledger technologies (DLT) was established in May 2017 and concluded

August 2019. A parent group is TSAG (Telecommunication Standardization Advisory group) the participation in

FG DLT is open. Deliverables of the FGDLT can be found at [i.5]. The deliverables have been transferred to SG16 and

NOTE: There are other Study Groups which are related to DLTs like SG 13 of ITU-T about Future Internet, the

Work Item is Decentralized Network Infrastructure. The interaction with the SG 16 about Multimedia has

IEEE Standards Association is doing prospection in some areas with some projects for Blockchain and Distributed

ledger with some report and documents that can be found herein https://blockchain.ieee.org/standards.

European Telecommunication Standards Institute: ETSI ISG PDL is the unique Working Group specifically working on

DLT however there are others standards from ETSI that are usefully elements for DLT considerations.

The research community is actively working on the evolution of PDLs and the list of on-going projects in this area is

exhaustive. Over the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (2014-2020), the EU has allocated an amount of funds (i.e.

€80 billion) for the over-all research and innovation through H2020 programme. Mainly because of the interest of the

research community more than €180 million is allocated to Research & Innovation is linked to blockchain. The H2020 -

a seven-year (2014-2020) programme is the EU's biggest Research and innovation programme ever, which involves

many projects related to PDLs; a list with information on some of these research projects can be found in annex B.

In order to strengthen the European commission strategy on blockchain, there has been additionally a H2020 Call ICT-

54-2020 - Blockchain for the next generation Internet (https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-