Design of a Forgetting Blockchain: A Possible Way to Accomplish GDPR Compatibility

Abstract

Practitioners as well as academics expect that blockchain technology is a game changer for a variety of use cases. This is because of its feature of transaction immutability enabled by keeping a history of all transactions. Nevertheless, this strength can become its biggest weakness. There already exists a lively discussion on scenarios where it is necessary to delete submitted data from the chain after it is no longer needed. This becomes even more crucial with the introduction of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this paper we make use of a design science research (DSR) approach to design an IT artifact in form of a prototype that maintains most of the key features of blockchain technology but deletes old data. We evaluate the prototype with help of experts to investigate what to expect from blockchains that delete data and derive principles on how to design them.