INTERNET-DRAFT Walter Stanish
Intended status: Standards Track Payward Inc.
Category: Experimental November 2011
Expires: May 16, 2012
Internet Market Identification Code (IMIC)
draft-imic-00
Abstract
An Internet MIC (IMIC) identifies an internet-based financial market
in a manner that is superset-compatible with the ISO's existing
Market Identification Code (MIC) standard [ISO10383].
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any
kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 16, 2012.
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1. Introduction
An Internet MIC (IMIC) identifies an internet-based financial market.
No assumptions are made about settlement paths or the currencies or
commodities exchanged on the market. IMIC provides a building block
with which the internet community can develop viable, interoperable
alternatives to legacy financial systems.
Technically, IMIC is an unofficial superset of the ISO's existing
Market Identification Code standard [ISO10383] that is widely used
for global identification of conventional financial exchanges.
Against the ISO's MIC registry [MIC-REG], IANA assumes name space
management rights for codes beginning with the digits 0-9 in order to
obtain an adequate name space with which to provide a financial
market registrar service for the internet community.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119
[RFC2119].
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Requirement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. ISO10383 (MIC). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. IMIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. Namespace Prefix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. Identifier Issuing Paradigms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.1. Distributed Hash Table (DHT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.2. Private Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.3. Combined Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3. Why Markets?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4. Number of Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. IANA Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. Market Identifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1.1. Reserved IMIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1.2. Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1.3. Modification / Cancellation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.1.4. Expiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.2. Publications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.2.1. IMIC Market Identifier Registry. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.3. Future Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.4. ISO Liason. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.5. Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.1. Normative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.2. Informative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8. Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
9. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10. Appendices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
10.1. Appendix A: Special Purpose MIC Values . . . . . . . . . . 13
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2. Requirement
In recent years the internet has seen the emergence of online markets
trading in both conventional and novel [BITCOIN] financial
instruments.
Given this trend, it makes sense to propose a standard mechanism for
the consistent, global identification of internet-based markets.
IMIC provides such a mechanism.
3. Solution
3.1. ISO10383 (MIC)
For inspiration we look toward present standards for the global
identification of financial markets and exchanges in conventional
financial networks. Today's most widely widely adopted international
standard in this area is the International Standards Organizations's
Market Identification Code (MIC) [ISO10383].
In practice, a MIC is simply a unique series of four alphanumeric
characters that is associated with a given market by publishing it
within the ISO's Market Identification Code registry [MIC-REG].
3.2. IMIC
In order to issue financial endpoint identifiers within the MIC
[ISO10383] scheme IANA assumes management of the portion of the name
space beginning with the digits 0-9. IMIC thus becomes superset-
compatible with MIC.
The IMIC format may be expressed in ABNF [RFC5234] as follows:
imic = digit 3char ; eg: 0I7E
mic = letter 3char ; eg: XTAF
char = digit / letter
digit = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" /
"9"
letter = "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F" / "G" / "H" / "I" /
"J" / "K" / "L" / "M" / "N" / "O" / "P" / "Q" / "R" /
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"S" / "T" / "U" / "V" / "W" / "X" / "Y" / "Z"
Of the assumed name space, only codes with the zero (0) prefix are
initially considered assignable by IANA, with the remainder reserved
for private or future use as summarized below.
+--------+-------+------+----------------------------+------------+
| Prefix | Auth. | Std. | Description | Codepoints |
+--------+-------+------+----------------------------+------------+
| 0000 | IANA | IMIC | Local (or default) market | 1 |
| 0 | IANA | IMIC | IANA assignable name space | 46,655 |
| 10 | IANA | IMIC | Private use | 1,296 |
| 11-1Z | IANA | IMIC | (Reserved for future use) | 45,360 |
| 2-9 | IANA | IMIC | (Reserved for future use) | 373,248 |
| A-Z | ISO | MIC | ISO managed name space | 1,213,056 |
+--------+-------+------+----------------------------+------------+
4. General Considerations
4.1. Namespace Prefix
ISO's Market Information Code (MIC) registry document [MIC-REG]
contains assignments spanning approximately eight years, yet contains
no evidence that a MIC has ever been issued with leading digits.
IANA may thus safely and conveniently subsume management of the
portion of the name space beginning with the digits 0-9.
Within this name space, a strong candidate for an initial prefix from
which IANA may issue IMIC assignements is zero ('0'). Zero is
considered particularly attractive for the following reasons:
* It is unlikely that a market will emerge that is best identified
with leading '0'.
* '0' will appear above legacy market identifiers in alphabetically
sorted destination lists.
* '0' provides reduced complexity for international recognition.
* The digit '0' tends to have digital connotations.
IMIC therefore reserves the name space defined by any leading digit
for assignment by IANA, but employs '0' as the initial prefix for
assignments.
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4.2. Identifier Issuing Paradigms
4.2.1. Distributed Hash Table (DHT)
Using distributed hash tables (DHT) or a similar mechanism it may be
possible to provide dynamic identifier name space management within a
financial network itself, such that individual markets can self-issue
IMICs and have them corroborated by network consensus.
Drawbacks to this approach include:
* The 'always on, always connected' requirement of most of these
architectures.
* The 'endpoint exposure' problem.
IP addresses for critical financial systems or their proxies
are generally made available to a DHT network, which MAY not
be desirable in a financial services setting.
* Namespace exhaustion.
Without some underlying capability for reliable network
participant identification, a single party COULD request vast
quantities of identifiers in a bid to disrupt the network through
name space exhaustion or processing overhead, causing Denial of
Service (DoS).
The primary benefit of a DHT-based approach is that it is completely
decentralized, thus avoiding issues associated with centralization.
In future, part of the reserved name space might be considered for
assignment to a DHT-style self-managing peer to peer network.
4.2.2. Private Issue
Just as the Internet Protocol provides a mechanism for Address
Allocation for Private Internets [RFC1918], so too IMIC provides a
mechanism for address allocation for private financial networks.
Private financial networks MAY include those operated associated with
Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs) or financial
simulations.
For this reason, the prefix '10' (in deference to IPv4's well known
10.x.x.x range [RFC1918]) is allocated for private use, with a total
of 1,296 codepoints.
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4.2.3. Combined Issue
Various approaches have been discussed with reference to their
individual benefits and drawbacks. A combined process allows these
to be balanced against other requirements, such as IANA's need to
perform name space management. Under the IMIC scheme, provision for
privately issued addresses is included, top-level institution
registration is managed by IANA, and future assignments COULD provide
DHT or similar mechanisms for the management of a delegated name
space to users desirous of such services.
4.3. Why Markets?
With the advent of truly decentralized virtual currencies such as
[BITCOIN] the conventional idea of a financial market (such as a
stock exchange) MAY be seen by some as superfluous. However, the
notion remains useful:
* Consolidated instruments such as corporate stock require a degree
of centralization in order to maintain rapid settlement of trades
* Multi-currency or multi-instrument markets will require support
for conventional currencies whose immediate settlement is
difficult or impossible in many situations.
* Systems such as [BITCOIN] have quirks that require slightly
delayed settlement due to the nature of their decentralized,
consensus-based approach to fiscal transfer.
4.4. Number of Markets
The present ISO Market Identification Code (MIC) database contains
794 'live' codes. We therefore assume a requirement to support at
least a few thousand market codes. We claim 466,560 codepoints from
ISO's existing name space (prefixes 0-9), and activate 46,656 (10%)
under the prefix zero ('0') for immediate assignment.
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5. Security Considerations
IMIC only provides a financial market identification scheme and DOES NOT
approach problems of communications security, which are purposefully
left to other protocols. Other than IANA processes regarding
registration, maintenance, expiry of registrant codepoints and the
potential for name space exhaustion, no security security considerations
are felt to apply.
6. IANA Considerations
6.1. Market Identifiers
6.1.1. Reserved IMIC
The following IMIC are reserved and MUST NOT be issued to
registrants.
+------+----------------------------------------+
| IMIC | Purpose |
+------+----------------------------------------+
| 0000 | Denotes the local (or default) market. |
+------+----------------------------------------+
Implementers should note that the precise meaning of '0000' is
system-specific and as such it MUST NOT be used in inter-system
communications except by explicit prior arrangement. (See also
Appendix A: Special Purpose MIC Values).
6.1.2. Registration
Internet MICs (IMICs) MUST be assigned by IANA on a first come first
served basis [RFC5226]. IMICs SHOULD NOT be provided to entities
with existing MICs, as this would represent duplicate allocation
under the MIC standard. Such entities MUST be defined as those
appearing within SWIFT's official MIC registry [MIC-REG].
Registrants MUST provide the domain name with which their service is
primarily associated and the name of the registrant (either a person
or an organizational entity). Registrants MAY provide a physical
address, and MAY provide one additional identifier such as a business
registration or license number.
IMICs MUST be assigned randomly from the pool of available
assignments and MUST NOT be granted on a specific request basis.
Thus, the first issued institution code MUST NOT be '001'.
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Institutions unhappy with their random assignment for legitimate
reasons (such as unfortunate numerological connotations) MAY request
one (1) replacement assignment. No further replacement is allowed.
Registrants requesting replacement assignments automatically cause
their initial allocation to expire (see Expiry, below).
6.1.3. Modification / Cancellation
Registrants MUST contact IANA to cancel or change the details
associated with their registration. Authentication procedures will
be stipulated at IANA's discression.
6.1.4. Expiry
In case of imminent name space exhaustion and no viable alternative
avenues for expansion, IANA MAY consider the expiry of a registrant's
stated primary domain for a reasonable period (as determined by IANA)
as adequate grounds for the deallocation of an IMIC. Deallocated
IMIC MUST be immediately returned to the pool of available
allocations, and MUST be re-issued to new parties on a first come,
first served [RFC5226] basis.
6.2. Publications
6.2.1. IMIC Market Identifier Registry
IANA SHALL publish revisions to the global registry of IMIC
institution identifiers as changes are made. The registry SHALL
include date of registration and date of last modification of each
record, in addition to registrant information and the assigned
institution code.
6.3. Future Considerations
In future, part of the reserved name space might be considered for
assignment to a DHT-style self-managing peer to peer network.
6.4. ISO Liason
In the future, at IANA's discretion, it may be worthwhile for the
sake of preventing double assignemnt to contact the ISO's ISO10383
managing authority (SWIFT) via http://www.iso15022.org/ and advise
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them of leading-digit MIC name space utilization.
6.5. Security
IANA MUST provide adequate authentication of registrant institution
communications in order to prevent the subversion of established
institutions' registration information via IANA's registrar
functions. As IANA is likely to have superior experience in this
domain, specific procedures are left to IANA's judgement.
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7. References
7.1. Normative References
[ISO10383] ISO TC 68/SC 4 (Securities and related financial
instruments), "ISO 10383:2003: Securities and
related financial instruments - Codes for exchanges
and market identification (MIC)", ISO10383:2003.
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?
csnumber=33444
[MIC-REG] SWIFT, "ISO10383, Codes for exchanges and market
identification", October 3rd, 2011.
http://www.iso15022.org/MIC/homepageMIC.htm
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to
Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
March 1997.
[RFC5226] Narten, T., and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for
Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs",
BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008.
[RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for
Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
January 2008.
7.2. Informative References
[BITCOIN] Nakamoto, S., "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic
Cash System", 2009-05-24.
http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
[RFC1918] Rekhter, Y. et al, "Address Allocation for Private
Internets", BCP 5, RFC 1918, Feburary 1996.
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8. Acknowledgments
* Payward Inc. funded the research and development of this document.
9. Authors' Addresses
Walter Stanish
Payward Inc.
<walter@stani.sh>
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10. Appendices
10.1. Appendix A: Special Purpose MIC Values
The Market Identification Code (MIC) registry [MIC-REG] specifies the
following special values of which implementers should be aware.
+------+--------------------------------------+
| MIC | Purpose |
+------+--------------------------------------+
| XXXX | No market (eg: unlisted securities) |
+------+--------------------------------------+
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