Consumers have embraced the opportunities of e-commerce and now a new model is being heralded as the 4th information revolution. Consumers Federation of Australia has appointed a representative to the technical committee developing the new blockchain standard.
Blockchain is a ground breaking technology for peer to peer transition platforms that uses decentralised storage to record all transaction data. It changes the way we transact, shifting away from a centralised structure such as banks towards a decentralised system such as end users. Each transaction is added to the dataset as a new block, which results in a full record of all transactions made between two parties. No one person or company owns or controls this data set.
Currently Bitcoin happens on the blockchain, stays on the blockchain, and everyone in the world can see it. The technology behind bitcoin could for example unlock the full potential of Australia’s distributed energy resources. Blockchain is already creating new energy markets by giving customers the ability to buy and sell energy from each another. Read more here.
Blockchain will remove the need for third-party ‘middlemen’ in many transactions.
Standards Australia recently held an International Blockchain Conference and was appointed Secretariat to the new ISO TC 307 Blockchain committee. The Federal Government has provided funding to Standards Australia over the next four years to support this initiative. Consumers Federation of Australia nominated Paul Loney to IT-041 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies which contributes to the work of ISO TC 307. Presentations at the conference can be viewed here.
As consumers continue to embrace e-commerce the higher complexity of the online environment and related risks for consumers is raised in Consumer protection in e-commerce, OECD recommendation (2016).
Consumers Federation of Australia nominates representatives to Standards Australia Technical Committees as part of the CFA Standards Project.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Project and/or becoming a volunteer CFA Standards Representative please contact the Standards Coordinator at standards@consumeraction.org.au