Welcome to the Bitcoin SV technical standards programme. In this document, you will find key information to get you started in your role as a working group participant. Please contact the TSC project coordinator at [email protected] for any administrative queries.
| We have produced video explaining the standardisation processes and your role in the working group. We encourage you to watch the onboarding video provided below, prior to your first working group meeting: – Your role as an author – Your role as a reviewer |
Workgroup participants are required to sign a mutual multi-party NDA to ensure that information exchanged between parties is kept confidential. The purpose of the NDA is to ensure that participants are clear about their own protected data and the other parties’ undisclosable data. This would enable all participants to be comfortable enough to have open discussions with other parties for developing a standard.
The multi-party NDA can be signed as a company or as an individual. If you represent particular company at the working group, it should be that company to sign the NDA (through its legal, duly authorised representatives). Please ensure which category you represent and provide the correct details to be included in the NDA. We recommend that you read the mutual multi-party NDA guidance for more details.
We ask that you notify the TSC project coordinator within a week of receiving the welcome email if you would like to sign as a company. We will need your company name, the company director’s name and email address where we should send the NDA if different from yours. Please ensure that you notify the contact person that they would receive the NDA from the TSC. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you wish to sign as an individual and will send you the multi-party NDA by DocuSign.
You will also receive via DocuSign a conditional copyright assignment to transfer your copyrights to all works which you create while participating in the working group to the Bitcoin Association. As copyright owner, Bitcoin association will be responsible for managing the copyright, thus allowing contributors to focus on the technical standard itself. It simplifies downstream licensing, since third parties need only seek a licence from a single Licensor. It also helps to safeguard the interests of all other participants of the working group, so that no member of the working group could block the publication of the standard. We invite you to read our Conditional copyright assignment explainer for more details and list of conditions.
The signatory of the Copyright Assignment must be the same as for the NDA. An employer usually owns the copyright for any work created by their employees. As a result, you may need to obtain a signature from someone who can sign on behalf of your company, for the copyright to be validly assigned from your company to Bitcoin Association. As for the NDA, we ask that you notify the TSC project coordinator within a week of reception of the welcome email who should be the copyright assignment signatory.
The TSC, working group members, and all parties engaged in the development of Bitcoin SV Technical Standards must commit to the highest ethical and professional conduct, and agree to be bound by the code of ethics and professional conduct while they are engaged in the development of the standard. They are also expected to attend the standards working group meetings regularly. If they are not able to attend, they will be expected to submit written feedback on the standard content. Acting contrary to the code of ethics and professional conduct may result in being removed from the working group. You can download a copy of the code of ethics and professional conduct in the TSC Resources space.
The time commitment will vary by role in the working group based on the complexity of the problem to be solved and of the proposed solution. As a guideline, your commitment to the working group is expected to be in the range of 2-3 months and would typically require 5-10 hours review work split across 2-3 iterations of a draft standard. If you have concerns you cannot meet this minimum requirement, we invite you to discuss this with your Sponsor.
Working groups are assigned a TSC sponsor to support you throughout the standardisation process. Your sponsor’s name and contact email is included in your welcome email. You can contact them at any point if you have questions that are not covered in the resources documents or require support for any aspect of your participation in the working group.
The TSC provides each working group with a dedicated space on Confluence where they will collaborate for the standard drafting and review process. You will shortly receive an email from Atlassian inviting you to join the TSC Confluence space. If you are not already an Atlassian user, you can simply sign up to Atlassian using the email address you were invited to sign up from. Once signed up, you will have access to the working groups resources space where you will find the working group documentation and required guidance. Once we have received your signed NDA, you will be given access to your working group space. Links to the resources and working group spaces are included in your welcome email.
Each working group is invited to join a dedicated Telegram group. This channel will be used to coordinate meetings and share reminders for activities deadlines. Please note that the drafting and review of the standard should be done entirely in your Confluence space. You will find the link to join your telegram group in your welcome email. If you don’t have telegram yet, you can join here and follow to link to join the group once registered.
