Yesterday the Chamber of Digital Commerce announced that the Blockchain Association of Canada (BAC) would become the Chamber of Digital Commerce Canada. Additionally, the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance partnered with the R3 enterprise blockchain platform.
The right response from legislators
The Chamber has been active in encouraging appropriate government responses to blockchain. For example, in some cases, there have been well intended States in the U.S. that have proposed legislation to recognize smart contracts. However, smart contracts are just one application of electronic signature legislation. Hence they don’t need separate laws, and creating additional legislation adds unnecessary complexity and uncertainty. The Chamber’s legal committee comprised of more than 30 law firms helps to drive the agenda.
The trade association which has more than 200 corporate members, recently published a document entitled the “Legislator’s toolkit for blockchain technology“. A 30+ strong executive committee leads a membership that’s a mix of high profile startups, significant consultancies and Fortune 500 companies.
Both the Chamber and BAC have goals of promoting the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain technologies.
“It has been such an honor to see the evolution of the Blockchain Association of Canada,” said Kyle Kemper, chairman of the board for the Blockchain Association of Canada. “Earlier this year it became clear that we need to elevate representation for Canada’s blockchain stakeholders to ensure that Canada can continue to succeed as a leading blockchain hub.”
Wall Street meets blockchain
The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA) positions itself as a “neutral, unbiased steward of education and cooperation between global financial firms” with the aim of promoting blockchain adoption and crypto assets. Yesterday it announced a tie-up with R3, the company behind enterprise blockchain Corda.
“We are pleased to partner with R3 and introduce our trade association to the wide range of use cases that Corda enables throughout global financial services,” said Ron Quaranta, CEO of the WSBA. “We are certain that our members will benefit from our close collaboration with this leading industry body.”
Last September, another financial blockchain initiative, the Post-Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group merged with the Global Blockchain Business Council. At the time the PTDL Group organizing committee was made up of CLS, HSBC, Janus Henderson, London Stock Exchange, State Street and GBBC.
