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ThomasLiuFirstPaper 3 - 04 Apr 2022 - Main.EbenMoglen
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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | Blockchain and Data Privacy Law | | | In terms of privacy compliance, many present blockchain applications appear to be at best perplexing. Processing personal data directly on a public blockchain in the absence of clear legislative standards could entail significant economic risks. With that being said, by identifying decentralized data storage models and properly customizing data privacy rules, regulations, and recommendations for blockchain use cases, governments can encourage innovation. | |
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The best way to improve the draft would be to incorporate a better understanding of the technology you are writing about. You could start with a talk given by Christopher Ferris of IBM at the 2016 Software Freedom Law Center conference here at the law school. Chris explains pretty well there that distributed strongly authenticated ledgers, public and private, are a data storage paradigm—like the relational databases that have dominated enterprise computing for a generation,—with different and attractive properties in the contemporary computing context. Cryptocurrency is neither the most important nor a characteristic use of blockchain storage, which is why 99% of what you read about "blockchain" s nonsense.
A better grounding in the tech would probably lead you to reconsider some of the central paragraphs in this draft. If the purpose of the storage paradigm is to enable authenticated sharing of data that is intended to be shared in a distributed fashion—as distributed version control has enabled a revolution in software development practices, to take another example—then the privacy issues you are identifying here are largely immaterial. There are other questions that might well reward inquiry, but let's see where you want to take the draft when you know more about the primary subject.
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You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. |
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ThomasLiuFirstPaper 2 - 11 Mar 2022 - Main.ThomasLiu
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< | | | | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | |
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> | Blockchain and Data Privacy Law | | | -- By ThomasLiu - 09 Mar 2022 | |
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> | Introduction
Blockchain technology is a snapshot of emerging technologies and future advancements. The blockchain's advent marks a paradigm shift in terms of social organization and operational style. During 2017's unparalleled cryptocurrency surge, blockchain acquired recognition and rapidly became ingrained in public lexicon. The system is built on well-known principles and techniques from the disciplines of distributed transaction processing and encryption. Initially, software developers merged these notions in an incredibly unique way to support the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, resulting in the development of the first "blockchain" network" , with passing time the technology enthusiasts and acute observers recognized the underlying technology's potential beyond its original goal of documenting trustless, peer-to-peer value transactions and the popularity of blockchain applications increased, with current use cases in various industries including fintech, real-estate, healthcare, law etc. among others.
While on one hand, the blockchain technologies owing to their decentralized infrastructure enable users to establish data security to create a new decentralized programmable smart ecosystems, which is achieved by ensuring that the records kept in the blockchain are transparent and immutable. This is accomplished by storing each record redundantly and dispersing it across multiple nodes in a large network which in its very essence becomes contradictory to the provisions of the most popular data privacy legislations in the world. | | | | |
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> | Blockchain and Privacy related issues | | | | |
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> | Fundamental Design Issues | | | | |
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> | Because of its design, blockchain poses certain inherent privacy issues. The distributed nature of a blockchain, in particular, implies that each complete node that processes transactions and develops the blockchain must have access to the blockchain transaction data. This means that in a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, the blockchain is open to the public and every transaction can be tracked back to the initial genesis block . According to a study published in the New York Times, enough pseudonymous location data can be used to easily identify a person which is a big cause of concern for blockchain. The blockchain data is available to anybody including criminals looking to benefit from information . | | | | |
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> | Immutability | | | | |
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> | The immutable record of blockchain, which is frequently promoted as demonstrating its superior integrity, unfortunately offers no protection against fraud or error. When less than 18 million bitcoin existed at the time, a cryptocurrency exchange engineer believed that 4 million bitcoin had been lost and another 2 million had been stolen. This means that nearly a third of all bitcoins were hacked. This is a shocking amount and a significantly higher risk tolerance than anyone would accept in creating a system that handles crucial transactions, especially given the fact that bitcoin is the prototype blockchain implementation and the most resilient use case . | | | | |
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> | Anonymity | | | | |
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> | Most data privacy laws including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) become applicable when the question of law involves the processing of personal data, and blockchain implementations that record such data are clearly subject to laws regarding personal data. However if such data which is processed or recorded by blockchains qualifies as personal data is question of concern. By employing public-private key pair encryption, blockchains, including many public blockchains that underpin popular cryptocurrencies, claim anonymity or at least some amount of privacy. In support some blockchain enthusiasts heavily rely on the use of public-private key under the guise that its encryption feature preserves anonymity and privacy . This simplistic view may not hold water against the new-age technologies that capitalize on systematic loopholes and CCPA provisions. Analyzing blockchain transactions and other publicly available data can be used to link persons to public keys. Some companies provide services for identifying people based on their public keys, blockchain transactions, and other publicly available information. | | | | |
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> | Identifying Data Controller and Data Processor | | | | |
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> | Subjects of individual data. The evident difference that data privacy legislation and frameworks, such as the GDPR and the CCPA, create between controllers and their processors is at odds with blockchain implementations that processes personal information. Because of the decentralized peer-to-peer network architecture, it's not always clear who decides on the aims and methods of processing . Contrary to private blockchain networks, public blockchains often lack a central operator and traditional controller which makes processor accountability difficult to assign. Businesses that utilize blockchain technology to collect or manage personal data should think about their legal obligations, as well as the roles that any service providers they hire play . | | | | |
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> | Conclusion | | | | |
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> | In terms of privacy compliance, many present blockchain applications appear to be at best perplexing. Processing personal data directly on a public blockchain in the absence of clear legislative standards could entail significant economic risks. With that being said, by identifying decentralized data storage models and properly customizing data privacy rules, regulations, and recommendations for blockchain use cases, governments can encourage innovation. | | |
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ThomasLiuFirstPaper 1 - 09 Mar 2022 - Main.ThomasLiu
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Paper Title
-- By ThomasLiu - 09 Mar 2022
Section I
Subsection A
Subsub 1
Subsection B
Subsub 1
Subsub 2
Section II
Subsection A
Subsection B
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