Blockchain’s Forever Memory Confounds EU ‘Right to Be Forgotten’

The European Union’s “right to be forgotten” privacy law is on a collision course with blockchain, whose defining feature is that it “never forgets” the vast amount of information it collects.

The technology is becoming integral to a growing number of businesses, and companies across the Europe-wide economic bloc want privacy regulators to clarify how blockchain and the EU’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation can coexist.

“There is serious tension between blockchain and GDPR,” said Jörg Hladjk, a partner with Jones Day in Brussels. “There is a general belief that blockchain technology uses anonymous data, but that is not ...