Much has been said about the need for blockchain networks to be able to work with each other seamlessly --- and yet, more progress has yet to be made. Enter the InterWork Alliance (IWA), a platform-neutral, non-profit organization launched in June 2020 to address this problem.
What's especially unique about the IWA is that it does not promote the use of any one platform but instead seeks to promote the advancement of all platform technologies - like the United Nations, but for blockchain networks and token technologies.
The goal of the alliance? To empower "all organizations to adopt and use token-powered services in their day-to-day operations, across use cases and networks, bringing inclusivity to globally distributed applications."
In this article, we'll learn more about the InterWork Alliance, covering what it is, why it's essential, and what the alliance's most prominent project is all about so far- the Token Taxonomy Framework.
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What is the InterWork Alliance?
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The InterWork Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating the frameworks and standards needed to enable token-based ecosystems further to work together, thereby increasing innovation across such ecosystems --- especially at the business level.
More concretely, the alliance aims to do this by:
- Developing standards-based interworking specifications
- Addressing market requirements and performance metrics
- Supporting advances across all platform technologies
- Enabling multi-party interchanges agreed-to representation of value regardless of infrastructure
By bringing companies together and giving them a space first to discuss and agree on what standards and frameworks are needed for enterprise blockchain applications all over the world, companies can then develop applications that work within their ecosystem or business and with and across multiple blockchain or token ecosystems.
Yes, but... who cares?
Many do, it seems. What's especially interesting about the InterWork Alliance is that it is a member-led industry organization where every member has an equal voice in driving the organization's objectives forward.
The alliance's membership includes:
- Major technology conglomerates such as Microsoft, IBM, and Accenture;
- Global business enterprises such as UBS, ING, and Nasdaq; and
- Blockchain leaders such as R3, Hyperledger, and various global blockchain associations.
The memberships of Neo Global Development (Sponsor Member) and Chainlink (Launch Member) are most exciting to us.
About Neo Global Development Blockchain:
- NEO Global Development is a community-driven blockchain network founded in 2014 that aims to realize a "smart economy" i.e. an economy that leverages the combined benefits of digital assets, digital identities, and smart contracts.
- The NEO (NEO), popularly known as the oriental version of Ethereum (ETH), powered the network.
- Indeed, the company's investment arm NEO Global Capital also became the number one investor in the cryptocurrency space in 2019.
About Chainlink:
- Chainlink is a decentralized network that connects smart contracts with real-world data. Put simply, Chainlink helps blockchain applications do more by providing secure and reliable access to real-world data feeds, APIs, and payment data that are not easily available to blockchain-enabled applications.
- The Chainlink (LINK) token, which raised US$32 million during its initial coin offering in 2017, powers the network.
How does the InterWork Alliance help Enterprise Blockchain?
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The InterWork Alliance has three key objectives:
- Standards and specifications: Achieve a commercially viable global ecosystem for all by publishing an open standards-based architecture and market-driven technical specifications.
- Testing and certification processes: Build trust in services and solutions credentialed by IWA through cost-effective and timely testing and certification processes.
- Promotion: Establish worldwide market leadership for IWA-certified solutions by heavily promoting our members' brands and technologies.
And their focus areas include:
- Token Taxonomy Framework: Enable multiple parties to define a common language for implementing a token of value that can be exchanged or used by providing token definitions.
- InterWork Framework: Allow multi-party contracts to be composed from clauses that directly correlate to the tokenization standards by providing contractual definitions and defining communication protocols that connect to framework components, regardless of their technology implementation.
- Analytics Framework: Provide analysis definitions to help deliver the ability to build privacy-preserving multi-party contracts and shared data schema for value-add AI services and market-driven data reporting.
What is the Token Taxonomy Framework?
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The Token Taxonomy Framework is the InterWork Alliance's most prominent initiative. The framework aims to enable businesses to create blockchain-neutral tokens, i.e. tokens that can run on any blockchain.
According to the draft framework, its objectives are to
- Educate: take a step back and clearly define a token in non-technical and cross-industry terms using real-world, everyday analogies so anyone can understand them using properties and behaviors to describe and define them
- Establish a common set of terms and definitions that can be used by business and technical participants to speak the same language
- Create: implementation neutral token definitions with clear requirements that developers can follow and standards validate following a composition framework
- Define meta-data using the Token Taxonomy Framework syntax and grammar to be able to generate visual representations of classifications, used by modeling tools to view and create token definitions mapped to the taxonomy and can also support taxonomy to implementation or source code mapping
Cryptocurrencies mentioned in this article:
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