The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA), a non-profit advocacy group for blockchain technology, in partnership with Positrust LLC, an industry leading technology company, has unveiled the WSBA Certification Framework (WCF).

The WSBA aims to guide and promote comprehensive adoption of digital currency technology across financial markets. It said that the WCF is creating an “educational structure” to increase the availability of expert Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) or blockchain talent in financial markets, across disciplines such as business analysis, systems architecture, coding, cyber security, operational management, system migrations and many more.

“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. 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”, said Ron Quaranta, Chairman of the WSBA. “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”.

The WSBA noted that there has been a rise in inquires from its members about the future of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies 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. The certification programme has been created to address these issues.

“…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”, said Commenting on the industry interest, Andrew B Kasaija, a Managing Partner at Positrust. “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.”

Currently, the applicants for the pilot program are being sought and enrolled, and the first full cohort is expected to launch in Q4 2016.