InterWork Alliance (IWA)
The InterWork Alliance (IWA), an initiative of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), empowers 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.
Founded in 2020, and merged in 2021 with the GBBC, the leading global industry association for the blockchain ecosystem, IWA is a key rallying point for organizations to collaborate on market-driven interwork standards and taxonomy to transform digital interchanges of value.
GBBC members or non-members interested in joining an IWA Working Group, please send your request to [email protected]
FRAMEWORKS
Token Taxonomy Framework - For Token Definition
Tokens will disrupt global economics and radically change how commerce will be transacted. While various implementations exist today for tokens specific to numerous blockchain platforms, the industry lacks a venue for all participants to collaborate on a shared description and approach – resulting in a lack of interoperability, reuse, and common ground to address regulatory issues. The IWA is this venue, developing a clear definition and scope of the token concept including use cases, taxonomy, and terminology, and a specification neutral to underlying technology.
The Token Taxonomy Framework bridges the gap between developers, line of business executives, and regulators, allowing them to work together to model existing and define new business models based on tokens.
Learn more about the Token Taxonomy Framework
InterWork Framework - For Contractual Definition
Many organizations are looking to transform their business processes through a class of multi-party distributed applications where tokenized value is exchanged point-to-point across a shared medium platform. Unfortunately, the platform is usually picked first and then business processes are modeled around technical implementations that may or may not meet business needs – requiring those processes to be adjusted so that they can be mapped onto the chosen platform. Over time this disconnect leads to tremendous inefficiencies because core business is compromised to suit the needs of a technology.
In contrast, a ‘business first’ approach shifts the focus to describing business processes in a neutral way, a way that is not limited to individual platform options and eliminates any sort of hard dependencies so that organizations have freedom of choice. The IWA is enabling this shift towards a business first approach by developing a clear definition and scope of the token concept including use cases, taxonomy, and terminology, and a specification neutral to underlying technology. The InterWork Framework will set the next level of IWA standards, standards that allow those contracts to be composed from a palette of agreed-to contractual clauses that match the placeholders set out in the token definition.
Analytics Framework - For Analysis Definition
The shift of organizations from traditional transactional applications to multi-party distributed applications is causing a new pattern to emerge around analytical workloads. The large amounts of ‘linked’ data generated by these multi-party contracts presents a new opportunity to share this data (subject to any contractual restrictions) among contractual parties and perform value-added multi-party analytics on top of the core trusted contracts. This could provide insights that would ordinarily be left undiscovered and enable a future for highly efficient contracts that can use the shared data to further streamline and optimize business processes across organizations. The Analytics Framework will set the standards for how multiple parties can agree on shared schema for building these multi-party analytical workloads.
IWA WORKING GROUPS
Business Working Groups (BWGs)
Are aligned by use case or industry vertical, under the umbrella of a broad business concept (e.g., sustainability, supply chain, trade-finance). All Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) members are eligible to participate upon approval into a BWG.
In BWGs, members work together at a business-need level to define their scenario and specific market requirements into a pre-framework draft, then liaison with the Technical Working Groups to input their findings using relevant technical frameworks to define their specifications. BWGs provide important touchpoints for program managers, business professionals, architects, and other roles within member companies to define their unique use case, exchange information, collaborate, and remain state-of-the-art within their companies and industries.
Technical Working Groups (TWGs)
Are focused topical groups that collaborate to develop open, standards-based specifications, frameworks, and tooling to accelerate the acceptance and deployment of multi-party solutions within the global marketplace. All Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) members are eligible to participate upon approval into a TWG.
In TWGs, members work together at a technical level to ensure that their frameworks, tooling, and certification support scenario and specific market requirements received from the Business Working Groups.
Get involved by participating in one of the IWA taskforces exploring tokenization in Voluntary Carbon Markets or Carbon Emissions.
If you are interested, please contact Paul Rapino about GBBC/IWA membership.
IWA Leadership Council
Marley Gray
Leadership Council Chair | Principal Architect – Azure Multiparty Engineering, Microsoft
Michael Klein
Managing Director, Accenture Blockchain Technology
Sandra Ro
CEO, Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)
Eric Saraniecki
Co-Founder & Head of Strategic Initiatives, Digital Asset