Last Updated on December 30, 2020 by Talium
The International Token Standardization Association aims to bring more clarity to the definition and classification of cryptographic tokens. Some members, such as Talium, may participate in working groups to contribute to this very important work.
What is ITSA?
ITSA is an acronym for International Token Standardization Association. As its name suggests, it is an association whose goal is to standardize cryptographic tokens with a global reach, as they reside on blockchains or DLTs (decentralized registers).
The board of directors is composed of 7 professionals from the cryptocurrency and finance industry.
Created at the end of 2018, the association was born out of the desire to standardize the identification and classification of tokens, and also to improve trading and market analysis, which is difficult without precise identification. The president’s seat is held by Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center of the Frankfurt School of Economics, member of the Fintech (FinTechRat) Council of the German Federal Ministry of Finance and member of the EU Blockchain Forum and Observatory. He is joined by Andranik Tumasjan, Professor of Management and Digital Transformation at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and Constantin Ketz of Cadeia Capital.
What is ITSA working on?
Figure 1: The different works of ITSA, diagram available on the ITSA website
In an article written by ITSA, you will find details of each of the different works carried out by the association, here we provide you with a summary.
The International Token Identification Number (ITIN)
Its purpose is to give a unique ID number to each token. Currently, token identifiers (mnemonic) are chosen arbitrarily by their issuers. As a result, some symbols can be used several times to represent different cryptocurrencies, and different symbols can be used to represent a cryptocurrency. The best known and most meaningful example is Bitcoin, which has the symbol BTC, XBT or BTX.
It is obvious that this free nomenclature creates confusion that can lead to risk for investors. ITSA’s work is therefore to reduce this risk by bringing transparency.
Figure 2: Rule for assigning the token’s unique identification number. Chart available on the ITSA website.
The International Token Classification (ITC)
The international classification of tokens is a work still under construction which aims to order the tokens in different categories according to several dimensions, four currently: economic, technological, legal and regulatory.
To date, more than 800 different tokens are already inventoried in the ITC.
Figure 3: Token classification chart. Available on the ITSA website.
The international datable token (TOKENBASE)
Thanks to ITC and ITIN, the TOKENBASE provides a history of the 800 tokens already identified. The data included comprises, for example, daily prices and transaction volumes from 30 different exchange platforms. Social presences and changes in the Github accounts associated with the tokens are also part of this data.
Only ITSA members can access these databases.
What does Talium bring to ITSA?
As a member of ITSA, members have the opportunity to participate in working groups. The groups all have different topics and the same goal of advancing standardization efforts in the token world.
Talium is contributing to the topic of “Uniform Token Locator” (UTL). Like a URL, the UTL is designed to identify and locate tokens, regardless of the underlying protocol. The challenge, implied by standardization, is to find a single model for all technologies.
We will update this article to tell you about the progress of this research.
Resources and complements
https://www.linkedin.com/company/itsa-global/about/
https://cryptoticker.io/en/itsa-international-token-standard/
