TheĀ DMARC Working Group has completed Last Call for the ARC specification. This means that when the final consensus changes are incorporated, the document will be submitted for approval and publication by the IETF. It is possible that the specification might be published before the next IETF meeting in November, though perhaps more likely between then and the following meeting in March 2019.

The ARC specification has been under development by the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) DMARC Working Group since roughly June 2016. In July, just over two years later, the Working Group reached a milestone known as Working Group Last Call (WGLC). During Last Call the members of the group determine if consensus has been reached on the content of the document in question. If so, any final changes are made to the document and it is submitted to one or more IETF officials known as Area Directors. Upon review they may ask questions or make suggestions, and when satisfied, the document is approved for publication.

The ARC specification grew out of work begun by a group known as OAR in the summer of 2014. OAR refers to a proposed email header named Original Authentication Results, the subject of a draft proposal published in 2012.