The United States White House just released a 14 page National Standards Strategy that targets 8 key emerging technologies that it intends to push to have national standards. The blockchain news has grabbed the attention of industry leaders and the overall crypto community. The inclusion of blockchain technology means a more open and accepting attitude may result from the standardization.
Blockchain Makes the List Under DLT
While not specifically mentioned, this is hailed as an encouraging blockchain technology news by many.
One of the technologies mentioned by the report is DLT, or Decentralized Ledger Technology. Blockchain falls under this category, being the most successful and the most widely applied DLT to date.
DLTs like blockchain have brought about a massive change in data integrity and transmission, thanks to their decentralized nature. With ease of access to data, validation of records and updating the network without relying on any single entity, DLTs empower the public. The transparent nature also ensures auditing and reliability.
In the White House report, DLT has been paired with Digital Identity Infrastructure, which shows the government’s interest in building decentralized technologies that also bring about a safe way to implement identity storage and verification without comprising data breaches. Over the years, blockchain tech news has also occasionally included different KYC and ID management platforms and projects, which essentially encrypt personal IDs.
These encrypted IDs can then be used in several KYC cases, where the requesting institution can request the ID management platform to verify the person in question, without ever needing to view the personal identification documents (including financial records), thus preventing the chance of any breach of data or privacy.
All of this is made secure with advanced encryption so that there is respect for privacy and yet, transparency to verify users.
Eight Emerging Technologies
Apart from mentioning DLTs and digital ID infrastructure as one area, there are seven other categories the White House has listed:
- Communication and Networking Technologies
- Semiconductors and Microelectronics
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Biotechnologies
- Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services
- Clean Energy Generation and Storage
- Quantum Information Technologies
It is interesting to note that many of the other emerging technologies have been linked closely with blockchain, with several projects out there which are integrating AI or using blockchain to ensure secure communications (with USAAF even dabbling into blockchain based communications in the past).
Increasing US Leadership in Emerging Technologies
The national strategy, published from time to time, is one of the key major policies that comes from the White House that pushes lawmakers and authorities to collaborate with technical innovators to build standards.
With the standards that can be implemented globally, this ensures that the country retains its leadership role in different areas of technology.
One such notable example is 3G and LTE – both coming from the collaboration between the telecom sector and the US government.
3G mobile communication and data transfer technology was developed by Qualcomm in the 90s. With the right objective and push for standardization, the United States was able to make it a global standard for (then) high-speed wireless communication. Today, the LTE standard is also a result of the same commitment for ensuring standards for emerging technologies remain the domain of the US.
What the Strategy Report Means for Blockchain Industry
Many US lawmakers and industry leaders have spoken out on the lack of direction by the US in the past few years on blockchain and its adoption. This is increasingly apparent in the crypto sector.
Developing standards for the blockchain technology and therefore, its implementation will have a lasting impact on the industry in a positive manner. Though complying with any standards will have its ups and down as authorities and the private sector may differ on different aspects of any proposed standards.
But once the standard is agreed upon and implemented, it may help smoothen out the current wrinkles – from technical implementation to fintech. A DLT standard, for example, could have saved a lot of time and effort in one of the most notorious crypto legal cases in the United States.
Ripple Labs’ XRP has been involved in a years’ long court battle with SEC, where the latter sees it as a case of sale of unregistered securities. While the case does seem to be going in favor of XRP, a standard would have saved SEC, the courts and the government a lot of expensive time.
