OpenVASP and the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) Join Forces
The OpenVASP Association and the Travel Rule Protocol Working Group (TRPWG) have announced they will join forces, proposing Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) as the one protocol for Travel Rule compliance by the two groups. This step aims to bring the groups even closer and continue their collaboration, leveraging the OpenVASP’s governance and TRPWG protocol developments.
OpenVASP board members have become active participants in the TRP meetings and discussions, while the already live working protocol takes part of the OpenVASP Association’s range of compliance solutions.
Our CEO, Lucas Betschart, an OpenVASP board member and early contributor to TRP, commented:
“We have worked as a key part of the TRP working group and are members of the OpenVASP association, so we saw a clear opportunity to bring them both together. It definitely makes them stronger and builds on the best of each. OpenVASP has been very successful in understanding new compliance needs and the development done by TRP is a great addition to the association.”
What is OpenVASP?
The OpenVASP Association is a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing compliance in the virtual asset industry. It has developed other tools for the growing compliance need of its members, like the recently launched InterVasp Messaging (IVMS) Validator. The OpenVASP Association has the objective to establish and maintain an open protocol for transmitting transaction information between virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and other parties. Its particular goal is to facilitate robust compliance with Recommendation 16 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), commonly referred to as the “Travel Rule”.
What is TRP?
The Travel Rule Protocol is developed by the Travel Rule Protocol Working Group, a global, open independent, non-profit industry body of more than 25 leading virtual asset service providers (VASPs) across more than 10 Financial Industry Task Force (FATF) member jurisdictions. The protocol builds on popular technologies, like LNURL, to allow fast and safe transaction information between parties.
The joint effort also aims to reduce a common concern for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) regarding the Travel Rule. Since there are several (and fragmented) market initiatives available to allow Travel Rule data exchange between companies, VASPs worry about interoperability: being able to communicate to any VASP they need. This move makes the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) reach a wider number of companies, facilitating adoption and their participation to develop the protocol further.
Anyone can participate in the discussions and collaborate with TRP. The TRP specifications are available on the OpenVASP association public GitLab organisation. The further development of the standard as well as its extensions happen through GitLab merge requests and issues, the OpenVASP Slack, and the weekly call of the TRP working group.
To learn more about TRP and the OpenVASP Association, you can contact us at info@21analytics.ch.
