China Takes Lead on Global Blockchain Standard for Vendor-Lockin

China has taken on a new project to develop an international standard for Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), aiming to address the vendor lock-in problem faced by companies using cloud-delivered blockchain platforms. The ISO/TC 307 technical committee, which governs blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, approved the project to establish a common technical framework and functional requirements for BaaS.

The standard will cover three areas: infrastructure and networking, service management and smart contracts, and data interaction and security. This would allow companies to deploy applications on different BaaS providers without requiring a full rewrite, and evaluate providers against a common compliance framework.

The project is led by an expert from China's Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), which has been involved in blockchain standards engagement at the international level since 2017. Germany, the UK, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, and Uganda have committed to participate in the drafting of the standard.

This is not China's first ISO/TC 307 project lead; it previously led a project on Web3.0 Reference Architecture, which was approved in February 2026. The CESI has been playing an increasingly significant role in international blockchain standardization efforts, with its institutional alignment seen as a key factor in China's broader push to shape international technical rules.