ConsesSys and XBRL US to develop blockchain token standards
Non-profit consortium XBRL US and blockchain technology firm ConsenSys have created a working group aimed at creating standards for blockchain tokens. The group's aim is to eliminate friction, allow automation and tracking, reduce costs and "interoperability of transactions"; it hopes to have goals established by early next year. It has called on representatives from across the financial sector to offer their ideas and expertise. Campbell Pryde, CEO of XBRL US, said: "Without standardisation… the blockchain simply will not happen".

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--XBRL US, the nonprofit consortium for the business reporting standard, together with ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company, announced the formation of a working group dedicated to developing standards for tokenization of assets on the blockchain. XBRL is a free and open financial data standard, widely used around the world by public and private companies and governments to reduce the cost of reporting and collecting data, and to improve the quality of reported financial information.

A token is a digital representation of an asset which could be debt, equity, cash or a physical asset (i.e. a vehicle or a piece of artwork). The blockchain is a digital distributed ledger that records and facilitates transactions. Tokens, which are representational units of an asset, provide the mapping of an account to an asset and maintain a record of ownership. They are used on a blockchain to assign ownership and rights of underlying assets that are transacted through smart contracts (digital contractual agreements) on the blockchain.

The goal of the working group is to establish a standardized method to represent a token across all blockchain networks in order to eliminate transactional friction and reduce processing costs; enable automation and provenance tracking; and allow interoperability of transactions on a global scale.

“We envision a future where all asset classes are tokenized, and act as bearer instruments that are facilitated and recorded on the blockchain,” expressed Griffin Anderson, Director for Blockchain Accounting at ConsenSys and founding member of the Accounting Blockchain Coalition.

The working group will establish goals and action steps by early 2017, and is requesting participation from individuals representing technology, finance, and accounting to provide their expertise in developing tokenization standards that can be used worldwide, for all asset classes.

“Blockchain is the future for financial products and financial transactions,” said Campbell Pryde, President and CEO of XBRL US. “Creating a standard method to tokenize transacted assets is necessary to communicate ownership and value. Without standardization, the speed, accuracy and automation promised by smart contracts on the blockchain, simply will not happen.”

About ConsenSys

ConsenSys is a venture production studio building decentralized applications and various developer and end-user tools for blockchain ecosystems, primarily focused on Ethereum. The ConsenSys “hub” coordinates, incubates, accelerates and spawns “spoke” ventures through development, resource sharing, acquisitions, investments and the formation of joint ventures. These spokes benefit from foundational components built by ConsenSys that enable new services and business models to be built on the blockchain. About ConsenSys: http://www.consensys.net

About XBRL

XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XBRL business reporting standards in the U.S. and it represents the business information supply chain. Its mission is to support the implementation of XBRL business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration. XBRL US has developed taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, credit rating and mutual fund reporting under contract with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has developed a taxonomy for corporate actions. About XBRL US: http://xbrl.us