Bitcoin Association Announces Bitcoin SV Technical Standards Committee

ZUG, Switzerland, June 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organization that works to advance business with Bitcoin SV, today announces the establishment and eleven initial members of its Bitcoin SV Technical Standards Committee. The Committee represents a major step by the Bitcoin SV ecosystem to professionalise the development of Bitcoin in order to support major enterprise use and facilitate global adoption.

The Technical Standards Committee will be chaired by Steve Shadders, Chief Technology Officer of nChain – the globally leading blockchain research, development & advisory firm. One of the world's foremost Bitcoin experts, Shadders serves as Technical Director of the Bitcoin SV Node team, overseeing work on the Bitcoin SV Node software and infrastructure.

The other ten Committee members represent four continents, seven countries and diverse sectors of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem - including wallets, mining, applications, token solutions, venture investment and banking.

The mission statement of the Technical Standards Committee is:

To promote technical excellence and improve Bitcoin SV utility by enhancing interoperability through standardization by:

• Facilitating industry participation in the development of global standards
• Ensuring technical standards are maintained and freely available

Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen commented:

"Our Association is professionalising the Bitcoin industry, and that includes leading development of standards. Technology history has repeatedly demonstrated the value of seeking consensus on technical standards to fuel industry growth through compatibility and interoperability between different businesses. The Technical Standards Committee was formed now to ensure that Bitcoin SV grows to support a world where all business and online activity can be on-chain, like how the Internet grew with standards set to support a world where everything can be online."

The Bitcoin SV ecosystem has rapidly grown to over 400 known Bitcoin SV projects and ventures around the world, with new additions each month. Developers and businesses are discovering the value of a massively-scaled Bitcoin blockchain, capable of huge transaction volumes, micropayments, greater data capacity, and many advanced applications. 

Seeing this rapid expansion, in September 2019, Bitcoin Association published a global call for interest to serve on a Technical Standards Committee.  From numerous applications, top candidates were invited to a five-day formation workshop in London, United Kingdom in January 2020.  The workshop assessed final Committee selections, and evaluated the governance processes and resource requirements.

Steve Shadders, Chair of the Technical Standards Committee, said:

"I am honoured to lead the Technical Standards Committee and work with my fellow committee members towards global adoption of Bitcoin SV. Using organisations like the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as a model, our Committee will focus on governance of the standards process and provide an out-of-the-box toolset for use by specific technical workgroups. Substantial work for recommending standards will be carried out by designated workgroups for each of the different technical areas, meaning that there will be many opportunities for participation from the wider Bitcoin SV ecosystem."

Call for Participation in First Workgroup: Merkle Inclusion Proofs

In order to test and improve its process, the Technical Standard Committee's first workgroup has been formed to produce a standard data format for Merkle inclusion proofs. Merkle proofs are vital to all uses of Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) described in the original Bitcoin whitepaper, and form the foundation of most user interactions with the Bitcoin network. The Committee is calling for expressions of interest to join the internal review panel for this standard during the drafting process.  A public review process will follow this. To express interest in joining this pilot workgroup as an early stage reviewer, please email TSC@bitcoinassociation.net outlining your subject matter expertise in this area and how you are a stakeholder in the subject matter. Applications will close 3 July 2020.

More detail on the proposal for this standards workgroup is available here.

Bitcoin Association Leadership

As Bitcoin Association continues to expand its activities, including initiatives such as the Technical Standards Committee, Jimmy Nguyen and Steve Shadders will focus on their Association roles, respectively, as Founding President and as Chair of the Bitcoin SV Technical Standards Committee. 

The organization's Executive Committee is comprised of Calvin Ayre, Founder of Ayre Group and CoinGeek; Stefan Matthews, Chairman of TAAL; and Jodok Wicki,  partner at CMS von Erlach Poncet Ltd and legal counsel to the Association.

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organization which advances the Bitcoin SV digital currency and blockchain. Trading as BSV, Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) is the original Bitcoin protocol created by Dr. Craig S. Wright. The Association brings together enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem to support the growth of Bitcoin commerce. It seeks to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while encouraging technology innovation.