BTRIC Institute

BTRIC Institute is our advocacy, education, and policy development initiative.  BTRIC recognizes that parts of the emerging technology industry are extremely competitive with each other, while at the same time, there is a strong community bond that binds many of the participants.  Both competition and collaboration are important.  Competition helps ensure that products and services are continually improved and held accountable to users for their strengths and weaknesses.  At the same time, collaboration in areas of agreement or common cause build consensus, meet advocacy and educational goals in a pooled manner, and helps promote best practices industry wide.  BTRIC Institute will facilitate industry-wide collaboration among business partners and competitors alike to benefit the industry as a whole.

BTRIC believes that it is clear that the emerging technology industry, and in particular crypto assets, is going to face significant regulation globally in the coming years.  Other emerging technologies, including Personal Data Store, Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML/DL) are also likely to come under the scrutiny of governments and regulators.  Some of this has already begun.  While some argue that the nature of blockchain distributed ledger is inherently unable to be regulated, it is not practical to conclude that attempts at regulation will be made and some of these attempts will be successful.  Frankly, global adoption of crypto assets requires some regulation.  In the future, the vast majority of users of crypto assets will not have a deep understanding of the intricate technologies that underlie the medium of exchange.  In certain circumstances, practical, common-sense regulation will help speed adoption by instilling some measure of reassurance.  Working with other organizations around the world, BTRIC will advocate in support of regulations that enable—and not stifle—innovation.  Some regulators are friendly, others are not.  Their existing constituents are mostly large financial institutions, some of the most powerful interests in the world.  But in the end, we are confident that the technology will overcome any serious impediments and will work tirelessly to make the best possible climate for emerging technology businesses.

Across the emerging technology industry, there are some entities that have well-developed plans for security, code integrity, project management, governance (including, in cases, policies of non-governance), and financial management.  These well-developed plans are what we consider best practices, and BTRIC will standardize them, keep them agile and adapted to a quickly changing field, and coordinate participation across the industry and with the public on improving them.

For each project or organization that is diligent about implementing best practices, there are just as many, if not more, organizations that lack these essential components.  Every time there is a “hack” on a cryptocurrency exchange, not only do those customers suffer, but the crypto asset industry as whole suffers some reputational loss.  An effective way to combat this is through the development, standardization, and proliferation of best practices that cover key areas in the industry.

There is already much extensive work that has been done on an individual and small group basis into some of this work.  In those areas, BTRIC is going to build on what has been done, drive it forward, and keep it maintained and adapted to the latest developments.  In other areas, not much work has yet been done, and BTRIC will launch those efforts.  We will work with all interested members of the industry and the public to make best practices truly reflective of current requirements, which means that standards will evolve over time.

Like open software, open frameworks are standards, such as best practices standards, that are open for use by any person or business in any way.  In some cases, they might be copyrighted, but they are always open licensed (such as with a Creative Commons license).

Open frameworks are important because they serve as resources for any project or business that wants to be a part of the emerging technology industry.  They help the industry interoperate in a standardized way.  They are revised as technology progresses.  They are open to public scrutiny and often are improved and modified as a result of their open nature and a wide audience.  Well designed and maintained open frameworks will make it easier for new projects to get involved in the industry by providing model guidance in certain areas.

Not exactly, but we strongly support both.  Open source is computer software that is published with the source code.  By making the source code available, people are free to review and audit the software.  In addition, truly open source software permits people to adapt or modify the software to meet their specific needs, and often is developed by a community of contributors, rather than a single entity.  Open frameworks are non-software materials, such as policies, guidance, legal documents, specifications, and white papers.  These are also openly usable and adaptable and open to improvement by anyone, but they are not actual software code.  BTRIC contributes both to open source software projects as well as open frameworks.  We believe in the open sharing of non-confidential information, promoting transparency, outside review, and continuous improvement.

Part of the reason that BTRIC’s Founding Trustees chose to form BTRIC as a non-profit organization instead of forming a for-profit ICO or ITO solely focused on business incubation is because they recognized that improvements in industry wide collabative efforts would be beneficial.  We believe there is a need for advocacy that ensures that our views are considered by government regulators globally as we create and expand on new paradigms.  We also believe there is a great opportunity for collaboration across the industry through a standards development process, similar to ISO and ICANN have performed in their fields, and possibly in collaboration with those organizations.  Some areas of standardization and best-practices fall outside of the typical scope of those organizations, such as rating criteria for cryptocurrencies, tokens, and ICO/ITO offerings, which each require similar, but class-specific, best practices standards.

The leaders in the industry can play a role through collaboration, and BTRIC is focused on bringing that to fruition.  Finally, educating the public, as well as lawmakers and policymakers, about emerging technology is vitally important to speed adoption.  BTRIC Institute was created to facilitate progress in these key areas.  In some areas, and by careful coordination, the whole can be and will be greater than the sum of the parts.

BTRIC is eager to begin working on BTRIC Institute’s mission as well as our other initiatives.  If you believe in what we’re doing and want to participate in the work (or just keep apprised of it) of BTRIC Institute, please contact us or subscribe to our newsletter.  As we move past our launch phase and into operations, we will also be reaching out across the ecosystem as we work on BTRIC Institute’s projects.  We look forward to working with everyone interested in making a difference.

If you have more questions about BTRIC Institute you can check out our launch white paper, reach out on Twitter or Telegram (or any of our other social media profiles), or just fill out our trusty contact form.  We will get back to you as soon as possible!