Warning: Europe Might Irrevocably Make Bitcoin Illegal

Paymium’s Alexandre Stachtchenko explained that if the current version of the EDPB’s guidelines on processing personal data through blockchain technologies is approved, bitcoin might become illegal in Europe. This is because the proposed ruleset identifies public keys as personal data.

EDPB Guidelines Might Make Bitcoin Illegal in Europe

Bitcoin’s operability in Europe is under attack. Alexandre Stachtchenko, Chief Strategy at Paymium, a French cryptocurrency exchange, raised the alarms against a possible illegalization of bitcoin due to conflicts with the proposed guidelines of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) regarding the processing of personal data through blockchain technologies.

Stachtchenko explains that, in the current draft subject to public consultation, the institution assumes that a public key might be considered personal data. This, as such, may be subject to deletion depending on certain conditions.

However, onchain data is immutable and cannot be deleted or modified due to technical unfeasibility. Similarly, Stachtchenko clarifies that the EDPB guidelines establish that data protection principles are “not negotiable.”

The EDPB specifies that “technical impossibility cannot be invoked to justify noncompliance with GDPR requirements.” Stachtchenko blasts this statement, claiming that it’s classic behavior of the European Union, pretending reality must adapt to the norm.

The EPDB recognizes that “data deletion at the individual level in a blockchain can be challenging and requires ad-hoc engineered architectures.” Nonetheless, the ruleset establishes that if granular data deletion is not possible, it may require “deleting the whole blockchain.”

Specifically, the document states:

Where this would require the deletion of part of the blockchain, including the deletion of any copies held by nodes or other parties, controllers should ensure that sufficient technical and organizational measures are in place for doing so.

Statchenko stresses that data anonymization cannot be a solution to this conflict, as several regulations classify these transactions as high risk and even criminalize them.

Statchenko concludes that, due to existing regulatory collisions, bitcoin could be considered illegal in Europe, inviting people to give feedback before June 9, when the public consultation concludes.

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