IETF Secure Asset Transfer Protocol

Industry Initiatives

Overview

Initiative Name	Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (satp)
Organization	Internet Engineering Task Force
Type	Standard
Description	The goal of the Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) working group is to develop a standard protocol that operates between two peer gateways for the purpose of transferring digital assets between an originator in the origin network to a beneficiary in a destination network. The protocol is agnostic with respect to the type of asset being transferred, and the type of networks.
Ecosystem	Agnostic
Public Participants	MIT Quant Network Blockdaemon Aiven IBM Other confirmed confidential participants
Date Started	2020
Status	Draft - Under development
Link	https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/satp/about/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-satp-core/

The IETF Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) specification was initiated by IBM and Quant Network in 2020. It utilizes a burn-and-mint paradigm to move assets between origin and destination networks and ensures properties like atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability. The specification covers architectural aspects like APIs, flows, identifiers and resource descriptors. It also defines protocols for identity verification, transfer initiation, asset locking, and commitment finalization. Transfer resumption, errors, and security considerations are addressed.

It is important to note that the SATP is still in the development phase. Nevertheless, in its current state, SATP provides a concrete asset transfer protocol that can be implemented for production systems. It is intended to be blockchain-agnostic and focuses narrowly on the gateway-to-gateway transmission aspects. As such, it stands as a robust standard for how regulated digital asset transfers can be achieved securely using a coordinated burn-and-mint mechanism.

Organizations and projects interested in ensuring secure and standardized asset transfers across multiple DLTs should consider staying up to date on the IETF SATP's development and updates.

Analysis

Scope and Purpose
Target Audience	DLT developers, Researchers, Product Managers and technical stakeholders interested in secure asset transfers across multiple opaque distributed networks.
Coverage	Defines architecture, messaging flows, and cryptographic methods for atomic transfers of digital assets between distributed networks.
Technical Aspects
Architecture	Gateway-to-gateway protocol operating between two endpoints. Uses asset burn-and-mint paradigm.
Interoperability	Provides standardized APIs.
Security Measures	Cryptographic signatures, proofs, and hashes to ensure integrity and non-repudiation.
Adoption and Implementation
Vendor-agnostic Reference implementation	SATP-Core (ODAP): https://github.com/hyperledger/cacti/tree/main/packages/cactus-plugin-odap-hermes
Current Adopters/Vendor Implementations	Is there a quant implementation?
Case Studies	None
Ease of Implementation
Governance and Update Mechanism
Oversight Body	Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - SATP WG
Update Mechanism	IETF update processes, which typically involve community feedback, working group discussions, and iterative draft versions.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Advantages
Challenges
Compatibility and Integration
Inter-standard Compatibility
Extensibility	Given its design, SATP is likely to be extensible to accommodate future changes or additions,
Community and Support
Community Engagement
Support Channels	IETF community forums, mailing lists, and working group meetings.
Future Roadmap
Next Step
Long-term Vision
Comparative Analysis
Comparative Analysis

Reviewer

We have contacted or we will contact the proposed reviewer.

Proposed reviewer: Dr Thomas Hardjono, CTO of Connection Science and Technical Director of the MIT Trust-Data Consortium at MIT

Review status: Not started.