# Comparing Blockchain Standards and Recommendations
## 5 Comparison and Interdependencies
### Comparison of Content Criteria  
While the document criteria from Section 5.1 can provide a general overview of the direction of a document, the content criteria are equally as important. Table 2 shows the standards in relation to selected topics. What becomes clearly visible is that the financial sector seems to be one of the most interested in this technology. Besides the general domain of Blockchain/DLT, finance and cryptocurrency, especially with regards to often stated legal requirements (i.e. AML/KYC), is often a driving force behind publications. Security Management is of special interest for us. While some of the standards mention certain elements of security management, it is far from being substantial enough for proper guidance. As for technical security, there are many references to traditional IT security practices and guidelines. Nonetheless, privacy remains a major concern when dealing with blockchains and distributed ledgers. Especially where there are many legal and moral obligations about personal data, a normative reference could be highly beneficial. Another insight is that the majority of the published standards cover Blockchains/DLT in general without being too specific about their implementation or direction. Specialized work regarding the many varying forms of Blockchain, possibly according to the plethora of presented use cases and fields of applications could help in catering to sectors other than finance that might not be fully aware of the capabilities of this technology.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Standard** & **Type** & **Document Objective** &
\begin{tabular}{l} **Issuing** \\ **Organization** \\ \end{tabular} & **Certifiable** & **Latest Revision** & **Accessibility Pages** \\ \hline NISTIR 8202 & Report & Topic overview & National & No & October 2018 & Free & 68 \\ ASC X3 [19] & Report & Research Directions & National & No & April 2018 & Free & 39 \\ ISO/TR 23455.2019 & Recommendation & Topic Overview & International & No & September 2019 & CHF 158.- & 42 \\ DIN SPEC 1697 & Recommendation & Definitions & National & No & February 2018 & Free & 15 \\ DIN SPEC 3103 & Recommendation & Decision Support & National & No & June 2019 & Free & 26 \\ DIN SPEC 3104 & Recommendation & Recommendations & National & No & April 2018 & Free & 14 \\ DIN SPEC 4996 & Recommendation & Recommendations & National & No & April 2020 & Free & 26 \\ DIN SPEC 4997 & Recommendation & Recommendations & National & No & April 2020 & Free & 58 \\ ENISA [27] & Best Practices & Decision Support & International & No & January 2018 & Free & 36 \\ BSI [28] & Report & Recommendations & National & No & May 2019 & Free & 92 \\ BSI/ANSSI [29] & Report & Topic Overview & National & No & May 2019 & Free & 17 \\ ITU DLT 1.1 & Report & Definitions & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 18 \\ ITU DLT 1.2 & Report & Topic Overview & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 13 \\ ITU DLT 2.1 & Report & Use Cases & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 112 \\ ITU DLT 3.1 & Report & Best Practices & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 42 \\ ITU DLT 3.3 & Report & Best Practices & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 22 \\ ITU DLT 4.1 & Report & Recommendations & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 43 \\ ITU DLT 5.1 & Report & Research Directions & International & No & August 2019 & Free & 60 \\ CENELEC [36] & Report & Recommendations & International & No & September 2018 & Free & 87 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Comparison of Document Criteria of Standards.