TRISA + OpenVASP: Frequently Asked Questions for TRISA Network Members
Member FAQ - October 2026
Effective October 1, 2026, TRISA’s Working Group, Global Directory Service (GDS), TRISA Envoy, and related interoperability work continue under the stewardship of the Swiss-based OpenVASP Association. OpenVASP already stewards the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) and now owns and stewards the TRISA network, and TRISA Envoy open-source codebases.
OpenVASP provides a broader, neutral, member-governed home for open Travel Rule standards and shared infrastructure. Bringing the TRP and TRISA communities together is intended to improve interoperability, reduce fragmentation, and advance privacy-preserving compliance while preserving freedom of implementation and commercial service choice.
At a glance
- Existing TRISA implementations and the peer-to-peer network continue to be maintained and supported.
- The TRISA Working Group, GDS, TRISA network, and TRISA Envoy continue under OpenVASP stewardship.
- Rotational Labs continues operating and supporting the TRISA infrastructure on behalf of OpenVASP. Existing hosted Envoy agreements remain with Rotational Labs.
- No change to GDS or network pricing is being announced as part of the integration.
- Current OpenVASP membership rates are guaranteed not to increase before January 1, 2027. They will be reviewed then.
- OpenVASP remains committed to open standards, open-source licensing, interoperability, and privacy-preserving Travel Rule compliance.
Transition and continuity
1. What changed on October 1, 2026?
Stewardship of the TRISA Working Group, GDS, TRISA Envoy, and related interoperability work moved to the OpenVASP Association. OpenVASP also took ownership and stewardship of the TRISA network, and TRISA Envoy open-source codebases.
The result is a broader neutral home for open Travel Rule standards, bringing the TRP and TRISA communities together under member governance.
2. What does this mean for existing TRISA users?
Business as usual. Existing TRISA implementations using the peer-to-peer network or TRISA Envoy will continue to be maintained and supported.
3. Do we need to make an immediate technical change?
No. Existing network integrations, Envoy deployments, and operational arrangements continue. Any future technical change requiring participant action will be communicated separately.
4. Will the TRISA Working Group continue?
Yes. The TRISA Working Group continues under OpenVASP, with familiar contributors and leaders remaining involved.
The weekly Working Group meeting is every Thursday at 11:00 AM New York time on Zoom.
During U.S. daylight saving time:
11:00 AM New York / 3:00 PM GMT / 4:00 PM UK / 5:00 PM Central Europe / 7:00 PM UAE / 11:00 PM Singapore and Hong Kong
During U.S. standard time:
11:00 AM New York / 4:00 PM GMT / 4:00 PM UK / 5:00 PM Central Europe / 8:00 PM UAE / 12:00 AM Singapore and Hong Kong the following day
To see it in your timezone, download the TRISA Working Group meeting calendar invite (.ics).
5. Who operates the TRISA infrastructure?
Rotational Labs continues to operate and support the TRISA infrastructure on behalf of OpenVASP, as it has done since TRISA network operations began in 2020.
Contracts, support, and pricing
6. What happens to an existing hosted TRISA Envoy agreement with Rotational Labs?
It remains with Rotational Labs. OpenVASP’s ownership of the TRISA network and TRISA Envoy open-source codebases does not transfer or replace existing commercial hosting agreements.
7. Is technical support changing?
No. Existing Rotational Labs support arrangements continue. Customers with a Rotational Labs service agreement should continue using their normal support channels.
8. Is TRISA GDS or network pricing changing?
No change to GDS or network pricing is being announced as part of this integration. Any future changes would be considered through OpenVASP’s normal governance and communicated separately.
TRISA network, GDS, and TRISA Envoy
9. What happens to the TRISA peer-to-peer network?
The network continues. Existing TRISA implementations will continue to be maintained and supported under OpenVASP stewardship.
10. What happens to the Global Directory Service?
The GDS continues as TRISA’s institutional trust and discovery layer. It provides secure mTLS certificates and counterparty discovery.
It is not a central repository for Travel Rule transactions. Travel Rule data is exchanged peer-to-peer between counterparties.
11. Where is the GDS infrastructure hosted?
The GDS remains deployed across three regions: the United States, the European Union, and Singapore.
These are GDS hosting regions and do not determine where a self-hosted or managed Envoy deployment is located.
12. Is the GDS Certificate Authority changing?
OpenVASP is reviewing the certificate infrastructure as part of the integration. Any migration plan, timetable, or action required from network participants will be communicated once agreed.
13. What is happening to TRISA Envoy?
OpenVASP now owns and stewards the TRISA network, and TRISA Envoy open-source codebases.
Envoy is MIT-licensed, supports TRISA and TRP messaging, uses IVMS101, and provides a REST/JSON API. It can be self-hosted in an institution’s own environment.
Existing hosted Envoy arrangements are covered in Q6 and Q7. Organizations remain free to build their own implementation, self-host open-source software, or use a commercial provider.
14. Is TRISA Envoy still open source?
Yes. Envoy remains open-source software under the MIT License. Institutions can inspect, adapt, deploy, and integrate the code in their own environment.
Its future development will be determined through OpenVASP’s governance and community priorities.
15. Is OpenVASP committed to open-source licensing?
Yes. OpenVASP is committed to keeping the software projects it stewards openly and permissively licensed so organizations can inspect, use, modify, self-host, and contribute to the code.
TRISA and TRISA Envoy are currently licensed under the MIT License. OpenVASP intends to preserve this open-source approach as the projects evolve.
We are happy to collaborate with open-source communities or foundations that also advocate permissive open-source licensing.
16. Is the native TRISA network being shut down?
No. Existing TRISA implementations and the peer-to-peer network continue to be maintained and supported.
Any future change requiring participant action will be communicated separately.
TRP, IVMS101, open standards, and interoperability
17. What happens to the Travel Rule Protocol?
OpenVASP continues to steward the open, royalty-free Travel Rule Protocol. TRISA joining OpenVASP gives the TRP and TRISA communities and their interoperability work a common organizational home.
18. What happens to TRISA-TRP interoperability?
TRISA and TRP established interoperability in 2023. That work continues, alongside OpenVASP’s wider pursuit of interoperability with other Travel Rule networks.
Reducing fragmentation between Travel Rule solutions is a central objective of bringing the communities together.
19. Is IVMS101 changing?
The IVMS101 standard was updated in 2023 as IVMS101.2023, although many current Travel Rule implementations still use variants of IVMS101.2020.
OpenVASP supports greater standardization of originator and beneficiary data around IVMS101, but is not the steward of the standard, although it is a key participant in the IVMS101 Working Group.
IVMS101 remains the common data standard used for originator and beneficiary information across TRISA and TRP messaging. OpenVASP President Andrew Davidson is also co-convener of the Joint Working Group for interVASP Messaging Standards, which maintains IVMS101.
20. How does OpenVASP approach reference data and open standards?
DTI support was introduced in TRP version 3.2.0 on July 10, 2023.
OpenVASP intends to continue adopting and promoting a core reference data set for identifying digital and crypto assets, based on open-data principles, made available as a public good, and to champion royalty-free, open standards.
This forms part of the wider goal of improving interoperability across Travel Rule implementations.
21. How will OpenVASP support Travel Rule implementation for stablecoins?
OpenVASP is committed to helping regulated institutions implement the Travel Rule for stablecoin transfers using open, interoperable, and privacy-preserving standards.
FATF has made clear that its standards apply to stablecoins, although regulatory treatment can vary depending on the nature of the asset and the jurisdiction.
As stablecoin use grows, OpenVASP will work with members and the wider community on practical implementation, interoperability, open standards, and shared reference data.
Privacy, financial safety, and data location
22. Does the TRISA privacy model change?
No. Privacy-preserving peer-to-peer data exchange remains a core principle.
Travel Rule information will continue to be exchanged directly between authenticated counterparties. As before, there is no risky central pool of customer Travel Rule data involved.
23. How will OpenVASP approach privacy and user safety as the Travel Rule evolves?
OpenVASP remains committed to a privacy-preserving, harm-minimizing approach to Travel Rule compliance.
In its 2025 submission to the Financial Action Task Force, TRISA’s Working Group warned that linking personal identity information to activity recorded on public blockchains can expose crypto users to both financial and physical harm. Protecting users’ financial safety should therefore be a core consideration in how the Travel Rule is implemented.
OpenVASP will carry this work forward by supporting data minimization, secure information sharing, and privacy-enhancing technologies, building on the approach already reflected in the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP).
Where regulation permits, OpenVASP will continue to advocate for retrievability rather than routine full transfer of personal data, so required information can be securely held and retrieved by authorized parties when genuinely needed.
This supports effective AML/CFT controls while reducing unnecessary exposure of sensitive customer data.
Read TRISA’s submission to FATF.
24. What role will zero-knowledge proofs and other privacy-enhancing technologies play?
OpenVASP supports zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, and other privacy-enhancing technologies where they can reduce unnecessary disclosure of personal data while still meeting regulatory requirements.
This has a long history within TRISA. In 2021, TRISA presented a privacy-preserving zero-knowledge prototype to FinCEN as part of its Innovation Hours program, demonstrating how compliance requirements could be met while reducing unnecessary exposure of sensitive customer information.
TRISA’s early technical program also included a dedicated Privacy Enhancing Technologies working group and privacy-preserving prototypes. More recently, the TRISA Working Group has maintained a dedicated Privacy Subcommittee. In its 2025 submission to the Financial Action Task Force, TRISA’s Working Group again advocated greater use of zero-knowledge proofs and other privacy-enhancing technologies.
OpenVASP will carry this work forward as part of its commitment to privacy-preserving, harm-minimizing Travel Rule compliance, while recognizing that required Travel Rule information must remain retrievable by obliged institutions where regulation requires it.
25. Will OpenVASP organize more hackathons?
OpenVASP has no current plans to schedule a hackathon, but may do so in the future.
TRISA held a major hackathon alongside the Cryptocurrency Travel Rule Compliance Conference in San Francisco in November 2019.
The event brought developers together to work on practical Travel Rule implementations and privacy-preserving approaches. That work fed into TRISA’s early technical program, including its focus on privacy-enhancing technologies and open-source implementation.
26. Does Swiss stewardship mean customer Travel Rule data is moved to Switzerland?
No. OpenVASP’s Swiss location concerns organizational stewardship and governance. It does not centralize Travel Rule transaction data in Switzerland.
The GDS provides certificates and discovery, while Travel Rule data remains exchanged peer-to-peer. Self-hosted Envoy deployments remain in the institution’s own environment, while hosted deployments follow the applicable service arrangement.
OpenVASP membership and governance
27. Does participation in TRISA automatically become OpenVASP membership?
No. Participation in the TRISA network or Working Group does not automatically create OpenVASP membership.
TRISA participants are, however, welcome to apply.
28. Who can apply for OpenVASP membership?
OpenVASP has VASP, Organization, and Individual membership categories. Organizations and individuals can apply, and membership is not limited to users of a particular Travel Rule protocol or service provider.
Applications are considered by the Board under OpenVASP’s Articles of Association and membership procedures.
Membership is by application through the OpenVASP Association.
29. Will OpenVASP membership rates change?
No. Current OpenVASP membership rates are guaranteed not to increase before January 1, 2027. They will be reviewed then.
30. How is TRISA represented in OpenVASP governance?
Benjamin Bengfort, CEO of Rotational Labs, and Carol Van Cleef, Founder & CEO of Luminous Group, have joined the OpenVASP Association’s Board.
OpenVASP is member-governed. Its General Assembly is the Association’s supreme body, with VASP and Organization Members holding voting rights.
31. Why join OpenVASP?
Joining OpenVASP is more than just a signal that you take implementation of the crypto Travel Rule seriously.
It gives members an opportunity to help shape the open, interoperable, and privacy-preserving technical standards the industry relies on, helping reduce fragmentation and improve cooperation across the Travel Rule ecosystem.
32. How does OpenVASP maintain vendor neutrality?
OpenVASP develops and stewards open standards and open-source infrastructure. It does not endorse or recommend any commercial Travel Rule provider, including any particular TRISA Service Provider(s) offering hosted Envoy service.
Organizations remain free to build their own implementation, self-host open-source software, or use a commercial provider supporting the relevant standards.
33. Does OpenVASP take part in conferences and industry events?
Yes. OpenVASP Board members regularly speak, moderate panels, and attend industry events, previously including the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, the MROS Crypto Symposium, and Crypto Valley Association events.
At the Cryptocurrency Travel Rule Compliance Conference in San Francisco in November 2019, TRISA was showcased and developed further through a hackathon, and Carole House, then of FinCEN, delivered a keynote address.
OpenVASP does not currently have its own conference planned, but we are open to organizing or supporting relevant events.
If you are going to a conference and would like to meet, let us know. Board members, and Working Group leaders, are happy to connect with members, regulators, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), financial institutions, technology providers, and others working on the Travel Rule.
What members should do now
34. Is there anything existing TRISA users need to do immediately?
No. Continue operating as normal.
There is no immediate integration change required because of the October 1 stewardship transition. Any future changes requiring participant action will be communicated separately.
35. Who should I contact?
For TRISA onboarding, Envoy, and implementation inquiries: info@travelrule.io
Existing Rotational Labs customers should continue using their normal support contacts for contracted hosted services.
For information about OpenVASP membership, governance, and activities, visit the OpenVASP Association.