- The IOTA Foundation is currently working with the Object Management Group (OMG) on the standardization of the IOTA protocol and IOTA Streams.
- Furthermore, the standardization of IOTA Access, Smart Contracts, Self-Sovereign Identities and Streams in the field of mobility is being investigated.
In a blog post published yesterday, Mike Bennett, Coordinator of Standardization, outlined how the IOTA Foundation wants to become the de facto standard for the DLT and IoT industry. As Bennett discussed, the vision of the IOTA Foundation (IF) is to have formal standards defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) and other bodies, while the IF itself publishes software libraries through the Eclipse Foundation and makes them “known to the wider public” through the Tangle EE.
We will continue to develop IOTA standards internally, liaise with the OMG and other standards bodies, and pilot these through from IOTA de facto standards into internationally recognized standards as we launch IOTA 2.0.
The current IOTA standardization initiatives are mainly pursued within the OMG. The current next step is to submit it as a formal international standard through the OMG, which will introduce a formal level of control and governance, while giving users confidence that the standard can be used consistently across industries.
At the OMG, the IOTA Foundation is currently pursuing two projects: the IOTA protocol as RFC (Request for Information) and a standard for IOTA Streams in response to the LETS (Linked Encrypted Transaction Streams) RFP (Request for Proposals). On the former, Bennett explained:
The IOTA Protocol defines what a piece of software needs in order to run it on the IOTA Tangle. This de facto standard already exists and anyone who refers to it may build a Tangle node.
In order to make it easier to refer to the IOTA Protocol specification, and so that the whole community can have confidence that they are referring to the most up to date version of the Protocol, we are submitting this to become a formal OMG standard. The IOTA Protocol is following the OMG Request for Comments (RFC) process since it is a de facto standard specific to the Tangle.
The basis for the RFC of the IOTA protocol will be IOTA 2.0. However, formal submission requires that IOTA 2.0 is used as a stable version in production. For this reason, the submission will probably be made at the OMG quarterly conference in March 2021. Processing normally takes nine months and cannot be completed in less than six months. Accordingly, Bennett expects the completion “for the quarterly meeting cycle in September or December”.
The LETS RFP is developed by the OMG Blockchain platform SIG, and is based on the ideas set out in the IOTA Streams protocol. The draft RFP was finalized and submitted to the OMG in November and will be formally submitted to the quarterly meeting in December for voting. Assuming it is adopted, the RFP will be formally issued by the OMG. Bennett further said:
Unless the dates are altered by the relevant OMG committees, this will have a response due date in February 2021, so that responses (the Streams-based proposed standard) may be reviewed at the March OMG Quarterly Meeting. The current progression from alpha through beta to the final status of the IOTA Streams protocol itself is expected to be completed within that same time frame.
With respect to the LETS RFP, the IOTA Foundation is also in contact with the IOTA-based Skaly project in the Netherlands, who are developing the Freighter protocol. As Bennett explained, the LETS RFP document has been updated to include some specific features of Freighter.
Moreover, the IOTA Foundation also participates in several working groups and special interest groups of the OMG, including the Blockchain Platform SIG (Blockchain PSIG). As a member of the OMG ecosystem, the IF, according to Bennett, “has already played an active role for PSIG,” of which it is co-chair. The following other IOTA-related topics were discussed with the PSIG:
- Blockchain ecosystem interoperability RFI
- IOTA Foundation response to the interoperability RFI
- Potential RFPs for aspects of Interoperability coming out of the Interoperability RFI
- Semantics for Smart Contracts
- Self-sovereign identity — Disposable SSIDs RFI and future RFP
- Linked Encrypted Transaction Streams (LETS) RFP
- IOTA Streams practical demonstrations in mobility
In addition, IOTA Access is also a topic at PSIG. “In the near future, the OMG Blockchain PSIG will also look at the recently-released IOTA Access work and determine whether there is potential for an RFP in that area, or as a deployment scenario for Disposable SSIDs,” said Bennett.
You can find the complete article by Mike Bennett under this link.
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