ADAN’s Response to the EDPB’s Consultation on Guidelines for the Processing of Personal Data Using Blockchain Technologies (GDPR)

ADAN would like to thank the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) for the opportunity to participate in the consultation on the Guidelines on the application of the GDPR to blockchain technologies. This initiative is essential to ensuring that the European framework balances data protection with the Union’s digital ambitions.

The Guidelines, however, adopt questionable legal interpretations that undermine decentralized innovation and European competitiveness. By overclassifying technical actors as controllers, imposing a right to erasure that is incompatible with the immutability of blockchains, and neglecting community-based governance, they risk marginalizing the EU in Web3.

The Association is therefore calling for adjustments: exemptions for nodes and minors who exercise no effective control, a contextual analysis of data identifiability, and recognition of solutions such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). These proposals aim to preserve technological neutrality (Article 55 TFEU) and to support European leadership in the face of competing jurisdictions.

Summary of the major issues identified:

• Incorrect classification of nodes as controllers, despite their technical role (Article 4(7) of the GDPR).
• The requirement to completely delete blockchains in order to exercise the right to erasure is legally disproportionate (Article 17).
• Systematic linking of pseudonymized data to personal data without contextual analysis (Article 4(1)).
• Lack of understanding of decentralized governance structures in the allocation of responsibilities.
• Ambiguity in the rules governing international transfers, making compliance impractical for global blockchains (Chapter V).
• Lack of guidelines for DPIA tailored to modular blockchain architectures.
• A departure from the principle of technological neutrality, implicitly favoring private blockchains (Article 55 TFEU).

ADAN is committed to working with the EDPB to develop clear guidelines that support European digital sovereignty.