ASAP: A Conceptual Model for Digital Asset Platforms

IMF Working Papers, February 2, 2024

Source details

Inaugural paper of the "Technology Fundamentals for Digital Finance" series, focusing on technical aspects of financial Digital Assets.
Aims to facilitate use of clear terminology in a nascent platform-oriented paradigm of financial infrastructures and to lay groundwork for technical discussions on digital asset standards.
Introduces the ASAP conceptual model (Access, Service, Asset, Platform) for Digital Asset Platforms (DAP), drawing on IT industry practices and central bank experiments.

Four-layer structure: Access, Service, Asset, Platform.
Intended role: provide a common model to represent Digital Asset Platforms and their components, similar in purpose to the seven-layer model (often referred to as TCP/IP) for the internet.
Design intent: promote cross-platform interoperability, including across jurisdictions, and foster a more cohesive digital asset ecosystem.

The paper illustrates the ASAP model using examples and use cases of tokenized assets to demonstrate:
- Possible usage of the four-layer model.
- Merits of modeling Digital Asset Platforms with the Access, Service, Asset, and Platform layers.
Leverages insights from IT industry practices and central bank experiments to ground examples.

Expected to promote cross-platform interoperability across various jurisdictions.
Aims to support technical standardization and clearer terminology in digital asset architectures.
Seeks to enable a more cohesive ecosystem for tokenization and platform-enabled finance.

Subject: Blockchain and DLT, Central Bank digital currencies, Economic sectors, Financial sector, Financial services, Technology
Keywords: Access layer, asset ecosystem, asset layer, asset platform, asset standard, asset type mapping, Blockchain and DLT, CBDC, Central Bank digital currencies, conceptual model, digital asset, Financial sector, fintech, Global, interoperability, open banking, platform, platform-enabled finance, service, technical standards, tokenization, tokenized asset, Tokenized asset concept, unbundling