An Introduction to Blockchain Technology From a Legal Perspective and Its Tensions With the GDPR

In this paper, we provide a brief overview of blockchain technology from a legal perspective and its legal tensions with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The purpose of our study is to provide a first approach to help legal professionals, researchers, and students to better understand what is the blockchain technology and how it works, and what are its implications on data protection requirements, particularly in the allocation of responsibilities and in the data subject’s rights. This study primarily focusses on the decentralized and immutable features of blockchain technology and the complexities and uncertainties it creates with respect to the centralized way in which the GDPR operates. Consequently, we also present a few solutions that can be implemented into the design of blockchain-based applications to achieve some of the GDPR’s objectives.