Task Force on Distributed Ledger Technologies

GÉANT Task Forces (TFs) are established under the auspices of GÉANT in order to create an open forum where experts from its community exchange information, knowledge, ideas and best practices about specific technical or other areas of business relevant to the research and education networking community.

The GÉANT TF-DLT, Distributed Ledger Technologies, is a forum to explore the usage of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) as well as distributed identity and Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) in the context of the research and the education community.

Mailing list: dlt@lists.geant.org

AIM of the Task Force

To provide a forum for gathering and exchanging experiences, ideas, and knowledge on the development, deployment, testing, and best practices related to Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), distributed identity and SSI. To explore related technology such as software and hardware wallets as well as protocols and standards.
To engage the NRENs and other interested parties in the R&E community that are deploying DLT infrastructures and services that use distributed ledger technologies; and to offer them a forum to exchange experiences.
To promote collaboration between research and education networking organisations in Europe engaged with identifying specific use-cases and demonstrators to validate the usage of distributed ledgers, distributed identities, and SSI, both as an alternative technology to those currently deployed as well as in support of novel use cases.
To provide inputs, ideas and feedback that help participants in gathering information not only on the technology but also on business and GDPR aspects related to distributed ledgers.
To liaise with other relevant groups and stakeholders outside the NRENs that are adopting distributed ledger technologies, distributed identities and SSI.

This Task Force is chaired by Niels van Dijk (SURF), Gert De Braekeleer (BELNET) and Robert Ott (SWITCH), with the support of Licia Florio (GÉANT) and Michelle Williams (GÉANT).

TF- DLT was created in May 2021 (but it will start after the summer) and will run for a period of 18 Months. Please refer to the charter for more information.

Planned Activities	KPIs	Due Date
Collect and share information on DLT/ SSI initiatives in which SIG participants are involved or plan to engage with.	Online material (i.e. documents, infoshare, links to webpages) on the SIG wiki	M2 and ongoing work
Identify use-cases relevant for the group that involve distributed ledgers, distributed identity and SSI	3 use-cases gathered	M2 - first use-case M4 - other 2 use-cases
Collect more information on the diploma use case that is being investigate within the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI).	Online Material on the wiki	M4 and ongoing work
Define demonstrators to run on the EBSI network that is being deployed at member state level and operated by different NRENs	2 Demonstrators Identified	M5 -1st demonstrator identified and plan defined to execute that M6 - 2nd demonstrator identified
Review plans and KPIs for the SIG	New Plan	M12
Recommendations for future work and for suitable areas that could be further explored in the context of the GEANT project	TF Recommendations for future work	M17