Institutional Purpose

The International Digital Asset Association (IDAA) is a digital asset standards initiative developing the 1CAD Protocol — First Capital Architecture Defence — in collaboration with market participants, legal professionals, compliance specialists, auditors, custodians, RWA platforms, payment infrastructure providers and digital asset technology teams.

IDAA exists to address one of the most urgent institutional gaps in the digital asset market: the lack of a common evidence standard designed for review by banks, funds, auditors, legal advisers, compliance teams and regulated counterparties, with clarity and consistency. A blockchain record alone is no longer enough. Institutions need structured evidence of ownership, control, source-of-funds, custody arrangements, sanctions exposure, reserve status, legal enforceability and audit readiness.

Governance

IDAA is registered in the United Kingdom as a private company limited by guarantee (Company Number: 17223770), a non-profit legal structure designed for industry associations and standards bodies. This structure ensures that IDAA operates without shareholder profit distribution, with all resources directed toward protocol development, market education, and institutional adoption of digital asset compliance standards.

IDAA operates as a standards initiative for digital asset evidence architecture. Its governance model is designed to keep protocol development neutral, market-informed and compliance-oriented.

The 1CAD Protocol is developed through structured input from legal professionals, compliance specialists, auditors, custodians, digital asset infrastructure providers, RWA platforms and institutional market participants.

Governance priorities include maintaining independence from any single issuer, exchange, custodian or payment provider; defining common terminology for digital asset evidence and institutional review; supporting lawful verification, documentation and compliance workflows; reviewing protocol updates as market practice, regulation and institutional requirements evolve; and ensuring that 1CAD remains a documentation and evidence standard, not a payment rail, sanctions bypass or substitute for regulated financial infrastructure.

Legal Structure

Governance Documents

The following constitutional documents are available for public review in accordance with UK Companies Act 2006:

Operating Partner

EXCH Consulting LLC (Wyoming, USA) serves as the operating partner for the 1CAD Protocol implementation. EXCH Consulting provides operational support, technical infrastructure, and service delivery under the IDAA governance framework.

IDAA and EXCH Consulting LLC are affiliated organisations, and EXCH Consulting LLC is a Founding Partner of IDAA. Its 1CAD Protocol Partner status reflects this affiliated, related-party relationship rather than independent, third-party accreditation.

The 1CAD Protocol

The 1CAD Protocol provides a framework for organising that evidence. It defines how digital asset documentation can be structured across technical, legal and institutional layers, helping market participants move from fragmented documents and informal explanations toward a consistent, reviewable and bank-ready evidence architecture.

The protocol can be applied to asset passports, custody reviews, proof-of-control files, reserve evidence, transaction risk analysis, source-of-wealth documentation, sanctions screening summaries, RWA onboarding packages, and investor or regulator-facing data rooms. These are implementations of the protocol, not the protocol itself.

Compliance Positioning

IDAA is not positioned as a payment rail, a sanctions bypass or a replacement for regulated financial infrastructure. Its role is to develop standards, terminology and protocol logic that support lawful verification, compliance documentation, institutional review and responsible adoption of digital assets and tokenized real-world assets.

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