How problematic is the relationship between Blockchain and GDPR?

The decentralized Hard Fork event will be open December 12-14 and one of the main discussions on which the event will focus is linked to the relationship between blockchain and GDPR.

Authorized vs Permissionless

The Next Web, a News Hub focused on Fintech, is organizing Hard Fork Decentralized, its blockchain and cryptocurrency. According to the Agency, in addition to focusing on the most important challenges in the cryptocurrency industry, the event will also focus on the relationship between blockchain and GDPR and on how the blockchain can be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) ).

There is a battle going on in the blockchain industry. This battle is opposed to two parties who have their vision of what should be the future of the blockchain. There are those who see the private blockchain as a possible solution to different problems while others are completely against this idea as it contrasts with the true nature of blockchain technology which is based on the notion of decentralization.

Vitalik Buterin also expressed his concerns on this issue earlier this month during the annual Ethereum conference when he said that IBM's commercial blockchain offers are "absolutely not the point …" because it believes that blockchain should be open, transparent and owned by all participants in the Network.

So, can we actually consider a blockchain to be a private ledger? Following the notion of Vitalik, many will argue that private or blockchain authorization networks are not actually blockchains while others stand before this discussion defending the idea that this does not matter. Authorized or unregistered, they are both two different forms of the same technology and perhaps an alternative may have better performance when it comes to remaining compliant with the GDPR, while the other will find many obstacles to compliance.

In a sense, we can not completely agree that the blockchains controlled by a centralized entity are truly decentralized. While the Puritans Blockchain are right when they claim that "putting a blockchain inside the metaphorical walls of a corporation seems counter-intuitive" and that it was not the original idea of ​​Satoshi Nakamoto's vision. However, in a world that has to deal with privacy and security and remain compliant with GDPR, authorized registries will probably be a way to help with compliance. This means that we will have to find ways to cooperate and accept these private blockchains, after all.

The real problem here is that in some cases public blockchains will not be able to store sensitive data and that could compromise its compliance with GDPR. But on the other hand, public blockchains are immune to censorship and there is no way or it would be incredibly difficult to sanction a non-compliant blockchain. But this leads us to another question: how will the decentralized entities of the government be?

How can a decentralized entity be sanctioned?

The EU has already referred to this problem and has come to the conclusion that authorized private blockchains are probably the only way to keep decentralized technology compatible with GDPR. This could be an obstacle to technology itself, as companies wanting to get into technology will flee to safer security chains.

Even so, there are still many things to discuss and the authorized registers will certainly not be the only way for companies working in the niche to remain complaints, as there will be solutions that will be available soon.

But the Hard Fork Decentralized event will not just focus on regulation and there will be many other topics to discuss. The event will take place in London between 12 and 12 December. Interested parties can consult the complete list of events, which will be hosted by industry leaders, and there will be a lot of discussion.