GBCS26 | From Innovation to Infrastructure: The Role of Standards in Blockchain’s Next Phase

Alastair Marke delivers a closing keynote address at the Global Blockchain & Crypto Symposium 2026 reflecting on how international standards, multi-stakeholder collaboration and governance frameworks play a critical role in building trust and resilience across the crypto sector. Marke discusses the importance of developing interoperable and cross-border infrastructure that is resilient by design, how standards serve as the bridge transforming isolated experiments into an interconnected, tradable global market, approaches to the ‘architecture dilemma’ and the ongoing work of the British Standards Institution, alongside European and international standards bodies. Alastair Marke, Chair, National Committee on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT/1), British Standards Institution (BSI)