World Wide Web Consortium Launches Bitcoin Working Group

     The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched a new Web Payments Working Group to study improvements to payment tools that are easier to adopt or new payment methods, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The working group will improve payment standards, expand the digital wallet market, and improve online testing processes.

     The working group recommends increasing interoperability between payer and payee systems in some regions. This will help make the checkout experience secure and easy for users and streamline the payment process, especially on mobile devices.

     The working group will also install a standardized application programming interface (API) to allow users to select the appropriate payment type through their browser, and make it easier for web developers to integrate existing and new payment processes into their applications.

     "We believe that one reason for this is that the digital wallet market is fragmented and vendors use incompatible programming interfaces," said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, CEO of W3C. "This W3C proposed standard will help ensure interoperability of different solutions by standardizing the programming interface. So when you buy something, you should have a standard way to match the payment instruments you and the merchant accept, in a way that integrates smoothly with the merchant's checkout process."

According to the W3C press release:

     “The proposed standard will support a wide range of existing and future payment methods, including debit, credit, mobile payment systems, escrow, and Bitcoin and other distributed ledger technologies.”

     Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Ripple Labs, recommended by W3C members:

     "The world needs an Internet of Value, where moving value is as easy as moving data today. We firmly believe that the Internet of Value will be built on open, neutral web standards that make the world's many ledgers and payment systems interoperable. W3C's Web Payments Working Group plays a critical role in developing these standards, and we are excited to be a key player in the industry helping to shape Web Payments."

     The new Web Payments working group is being run by the W3C Web Payments Interest Group, led by Erik Anderson, a visualization developer at Bloomberg, and David Ezell, a software architect at VeriFone and a representative of NACS.