New York-based blockchain advocacy group the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA) recently announced the unveiling of the WSBA Certification Framework (WCF)  in partnership with Positrust LLC, a blockchain technology company. 

Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, WSBA Chairman Ron Quaranta said that the WCF will serve as a platform to educate and increase the availability of distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain expertise and talent in financial markets. 

“The WCF will serve as an educational platform to expand blockchain knowledge within financial markets, across all segments of financial services and within all disciplines,” Quaranta said. “This includes technology, product and project management, business analysis, strategy and more.” 

He further adds that besides serving as a framework for future knowledge, the WCF will evolve and adopt new technologies and use cases that come to the fore in the marketplace. 

According to Quaranta, the growing inquiries from WSBA members about the future of DLT or blockchain in the financial markets and how they might have access to the growing pool of knowledge and talent required to stay competitive in the future led to the creation of WCF.

Quaranta said that there is currently a lack of blockchain or distributed ledger technology expertise in the financial markets adding that a platform to train and maintain knowledge in this field will become a necessity as adoption and use case of distributed ledger technology increases. 

“As we have often noted throughout the financial markets, one of the industry’s greatest challenges is the lack of a large pool of technical and business expertise regarding blockchain or distributed ledger technology,” Quaranta said.

“As this technology expands into greater use cases in financial markets, the ability to train and maintain knowledge in this evolving field will continue to become ever more important. We are very pleased to partner with Positrust to launch the WCF, and look forward to collaboratively contributing to the growth of blockchain usage in the future.”

Commenting on the industry interest, Andrew B. Kasaija, a managing partner at Positrust, said that beyond the hype and theoretical use cases, there is a dire need for technologists who understand the product side of implementation, integration and migration. 

“The right skills mix will deliver the anticipated deployment saves attributed to DLT in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” Kasaija said. The WCF proof-of-concept aims to mature the delivery models required for implementations in the industry and ideally help pave the way for practical approaches to the adoption of DLT in capital markets.”

Speaking on the partnership, Quaranta said that the WSBA decided to partner with Positrust as they share the same vision and commitment in expanding the adoption and knowledge of blockchain tech across financial markets. 

“The Positrust partnership was developed in conjunction with industry colleagues, particularly Mr. Andrew Kasaija, managing partner at Positrust,” Quaranta said. “Andrew and his team share not only the WSBA’s deep commitment to expanding blockchain tech across financial markets, but also share the passion to educate our colleagues and train this and coming generations of financial markets participants, so that we might benefit from all that blockchain technology can offer.”

Applicants for the pilot program are currently being sought and enrolled, with the first full cohort targeted for launch in the fourth quarter of 2016.

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