Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Plans to Launch New Token Taxonomi Initiative - Blockchain News (the-blockchain.com)
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is kicking off a new Token Taxonomy Initiative to tackle the nomenclature problems of the industry as well as set out a language framework for implementation to interchangeably occur across all token-enabled blockchain platforms.

“The Token Taxonomy Initiative is the next step in creating a thriving tokenization ecosystem. By defining a common taxonomy for universal use, the Initiative will examine ways tokens can be applied across a wide variety of markets and any industry that values some collaboration among competing entities.

The broad coalition of organizations that are part of this Initiative signals the strong commitment of the global enterprise community to come together around tokenization,” said Jeremy Millar, a founding EEA member and chief of staff, ConsenSys.

The purpose of this initiative is to clearly define a token in non-technical and cross-industry terms using real-world, everyday analogies so that anyone can understand them.

“This initiative is just what the industry needs. Cryptocurrencies are only one of many types of tokens. Enterprises, governments, entrepreneurs and regulators urgently need a common language to understand the digitization of assets if we are to realize the new promise of the digital economy,” said Don Tapscott, co-author of Blockchain Revolution and executive chairman of The Blockchain Research Institute, and chair of Blockchain Revolution Global, April 24-25, Toronto.

The group’s mission will be to develop a clear definition and scope of the token concept, including use cases, taxonomy and terminology, and a specification. Marley Gray, EEA board Member and principal architect, Microsoft, will be the Token Taxonomy Initiative Chair.

Members of the initiative include Accenture, Banco Santander, Blockchain Research Institute, Clearmatics, ConsenSys, Digital Asset, EY, IBM, ING, Intel, J.P. Morgan, Komgo, Microsoft, R3, and Web3 Labs, among others.

“As blockchain adoption accelerates, it’s important to work together to develop a common understanding of the token model, provide a common set of definitions, and assure interoperability through best practices and standards,” said Gray.

“With a standardized global approach, the Token Taxonomy Initiative will form the foundation of critical standards in tokenization that could streamline the way entire industries and ecosystems work on a blockchain.

”The Token Taxonomy Initiative will lay the important groundwork, based on real-world customer use cases and requirements, working to create a common set of tokens and control capabilities, including:

  • Clearly define a token in non-technical and cross-industry terms
  • Establish a common set of terms and definitions for use by business and technical participants
  • Create a Token Taxonomy Framework (TTF) that is simple to understand; educate and collaborate with structured Token Definition Workshops (TDW) to define new or existing tokens
  • Define meta-data using the TTF syntax and grammar to be able to generate visual representations, such as a token hierarchy or token design in tools that understand the taxonomy and be extensible for mapping TTF definitions to token solutions, implementations or source code for any platform

The Token Taxonomy Initiative will address the need to develop common definitions and scope for a business-grade standard for tokens with interchangeable currency-like properties or unique assets such as plane tickets.

Also, the group will explore ways a standard business application may need to manage multiple token types, including any combination of fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens or other hybrid configurations.

The Initiative’s work will be independent of the ongoing EEA standards work, which enables the EEA’s global member base to work together to produce informational specifications for use in the EEA’s standards-based testing and certification process. For additional information about joining the Token Taxonomy Initiative, please reach out to [email protected].

The EEA is a member-driven standards organization whose charter is to develop open blockchain specifications that drive harmonization and interoperability for businesses and consumers worldwide.

Our global community of members is made up of leaders, adopters, innovators, developers, and businesses who collaborate to create an open, decentralized web for the benefit of everyone.

To learn more about the EEA-hosted Token Taxonomy Initiative, please reach out to [email protected]. For additional information about joining the EEA, please reach out to [email protected].

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About Richard Kastelein


Founder and publisher of industry publication Blockchain News (EST 2015), a partner at ICO services collective Token.Agency($750m+ and 90+ ICOs and STOs), director of education company Blockchain Partners (Oracle Partner) – Vancouver native Richard Kastelein is an award-winning publisher, innovation executive and entrepreneur.

He sits on the advisory boards of some two dozen Blockchain startups and has written over 1500 articles on Blockchain technology and startups at Blockchain News and has also published pioneering articles on ICOs in Harvard Business Review and Venturebeat. Irish Tech News put him in the top 10 Token Architects in Europe.
Kastelein has an Ad Honorem - Honorary Ph.D. and is Chair Professor of Blockchain at China's first Blockchain University in Nanchang at the Jiangxi Ahead Institute of Software and Technology.

In 2018 he was invited to and attended University of Oxford's Saïd Business School for Business Automation 4.0 programme.  Over a half a decade experience judging and rewarding some 1000+ innovation projects as an EU expert for the European Commission's SME Instrument programme as a startup assessor and as a startup judge for the UK government's Innovate UK division.

Kastelein has spoken (keynotes & panels) on Blockchain technology in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Beijing, Brussels, Bucharest, Dubai, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Groningen, the Hague, Helsinki, London (5x), Manchester, Minsk, Nairobi, Nanchang, Prague, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara (2x), Shanghai, Singapore (3x), Tel Aviv, Utrecht, Venice, Visakhapatnam, Zwolle and Zurich.

He is a Canadian (Dutch/Irish/English/Métis) whose writing career has ranged from the Canadian Native Press (Arctic) to the Caribbean & Europe. He's written occasionally for Harvard Business Review, Wired, Venturebeat, The Guardian and Virgin.com, and his work and ideas have been translated into Dutch, Greek, Polish, German and French.

A journalist by trade, an entrepreneur and adventurer at heart, Kastelein's professional career has ranged from political publishing to TV technology, boatbuilding to judging startups, skippering yachts to marketing and more as he's travelled for nearly 30 years as a Canadian expatriate living around the world.

In his 20s, he sailed around the world on small yachts and wrote a series of travel articles called, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Seas' travelling by hitching rides on yachts (1989) in major travel and yachting publications.

He currently lives in Groningen, Netherlands where he's raising three teenage daughters with his wife and sailing partner, Wieke Beenen.

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