The InterWork Alliance is a non-profit organization developing a standardized framework to help companies adapt more quickly to a token-enabled ecosystem.
The InterWork Alliance (IWA) has formally launched as a neutral, non-profit platform organization focused on creating the standards and reference frameworks needed to foster innovation within token-enabled ecosystems.
The IWA already counts 36 members, including many prominent companies from the technology, banking, and blockchain sectors. Notable members include IBM, Accenture, Microsoft, ING, SDX, UBS, Nasdaq, Digital Asset, Neo Global Development, Hedera Hashgraph, and R3.
Marley Gray, IWA’s board chair and a lead architect at Microsoft, discussed the organization’s future and its aims in an interview with Forbes contributor Jason Brett.
When asked about the “interworking” aspect of the alliance, Gray explained that it refers to “a state or an instance of two or more things operating or being made to operate together.” Accordingly, the IWA’s mission is to establish the kind of interworking companies will need to drive broad adoption of tokenization.
To advance tokenization in the enterprise, the IWA is working to enable organizations to describe their core business processes in a neutral way without being forced to commit to a specific technology platform as a first step. According to Gray, developing a technology-agnostic approach allows participants to address tokenization challenges at the business-process level, while developers focus on platform-specific needs.
The main challenge the IWA faces today is the lack of a standardized set of terms, definitions, and common business specifications.
Over the long term, the IWA plans to concentrate on areas such as sustainability, commercial finance, derivatives, security, and supply chain. In the coming years, the organization expects tokens to be used to buy, sell, and exchange a wide range of goods and services.
Ron Resnick, president of the IWA, emphasized that companies are eager to create token-based business models without first committing to a particular platform technology.
“For this approach to work, standards are urgently needed to define what a ‘token’ is and how its contractual behaviors will function,” he said.
Gray noted that while the idea of tokenized value originated in the blockchain space, its usefulness extends beyond cryptocurrencies.
“It was clear to us that there is no need to tie ‘tokens’ exclusively to ‘blockchains,’ and that ‘blockchain’ is really just the first step in a much broader and more ambitious approach to how organizations collaborate,” Gray explained.