Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies the application of blockchain technology only to those components of the TCP System that require a trust function — including the independent proof of the originality of the electronic document exchanged within that communication; it does not introduce blockchain technology into the transmission mechanism of electronic documents itself.

For these blockchain-applied components, this document specifies the federated system architecture, information model, processes, and blockchain system functions, thereby providing blockchain-based implementation guidelines for the TTPID (TTP Identity Directory) DLT System and the TCER (TCE Repository) DLT System. Each of these two components is thus anchored by a distinct organizing principle — trust equivalence for TTPID, and evidentiary permanence for TCER — and together they federate heterogeneous, cross-border identity systems into a common basis of trust while generating legal evidence of the integrity of each electronic communication. As a result, even where the electronic document is subsequently circulated after, and beyond, the original communication, its originality can still be proven — thereby realizing paperless trading, or dematerialization, in substance and not merely in form. In this way, the technical mechanisms specified in this document together complete both the proof of a trusted communication and the legal admissibility of the originality of the electronic document transferred during that communication. As an implementation guideline, this document focuses on implementation details; governance for system deployment lies outside its scope, and only the related decision items are identified.

This document establishes the methods and procedures by which the system implements technology-neutral trust equivalence and evidentiary validity, as required under applicable international legal frameworks. In this regard, this document does not itself constitute a legal determination; rather, its objective is to provide a trust service whose verification results are valid for, and may be relied upon in, such legal determination.

In terms of technical layering, this document specifies the application of DLT within the OSI application layer only, independent of the underlying transport protocol or the specific permissioned blockchain technology employed. This includes the means by which the on-ledger hash may be represented on, or attached to, the electronic document itself — for example, in machine-readable code — so that the document remains independently verifiable wherever it is subsequently presented( see Annex H); matters of network infrastructure and platform selection remain outside its scope.