BIS Tests XRP Ledger to Verify Official Statistics On-Chain

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has tested the XRP Ledger as a proof-of-concept for verifying official statistics on-chain. The working paper, No 1374, explores how statistical agencies can provide users with an independent way to check the origin and integrity of published data without changing their existing dissemination systems.

The BIS relies on the SDMX standard to exchange official statistics, and the prototype binds each dataset to its source by hashing it and writing a single summary value to the ledger. Though only the fingerprints reach the chain, never the underlying numbers, so confidential data stays off-ledger.

The system normalizes each file with Canonical XML 1.1, hashes it with SHA3-512 at the whole-file and per-series level, and collapses those hashes into one Merkle root written to the Memos field of an XRPL Payment transaction.