Self-Sovereign Identity on Public Blockchains and the GDPR

Kondova, Galia; Erbguth, Jörn

Self-Sovereign Identity on Public Blockchains and the GDPR

Proceedings of ACM SAC Conference, Brno, Czech Republic, March 30- April 3, 2020 (SAC’20), 342 - 345. DOI: 10.1145/3341105.3374066

4 Pages Posted: 30 Jan 2020 Last revised: 2 Apr 2020

See all articles by Galia Kondova

Jörn Erbguth

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: April 1, 2020

Abstract

This paper studies three existing technical solutions for a self-sovereign identity on blockchains and analyzes the arising issues related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU). In particular, the paper provides an overview of the existing Sovrin self-sovereign identity on the Hyperledger Indy public permissioned blockchain as well as uPort and Jolocom on the Ethereum public permissionless blockchain. The paper then concludes with a discussion on the GDPR-compliance of the blockchain-based identity concepts.

Keywords: Blockchain, Technological Change, Digital Identity, Economic Development, Data Protection Law

JEL Classification: K10, K22, O31, O32, O38

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Kondova, Galia and Erbguth, Jörn, Self-Sovereign Identity on Public Blockchains and the GDPR (April 1, 2020). Proceedings of ACM SAC Conference, Brno, Czech Republic, March 30- April 3, 2020 (SAC’20), 342 - 345. DOI: 10.1145/3341105.3374066 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3515213