GDPR considerations
General data protection regulation (GDPR) (https://gdpr-info.eu/) is an EU law that defines how personal data is acquired, processed, and ultimately erased from a computing system. The definition of personal data in GDPR is quite broad—examples include names, email addresses, and IP addresses.
Blockchain, by design, creates an immutable, permanent, and replicated record of data. A blockchain network based on Hyperledger Fabric will obviously encompass these three properties. Thus, storing personal data on a blockchain network that cannot be deleted or modified can be challenging from the perspective of GDPR. Similarly, it is important to know with whom that personal data is shared.
The channel private data feature of Hyperledger Fabric provides a mechanism for determining the entities with which data is shared. In the case of channel private data, the data is never stored on a blockchain, but its cryptographic hashes are stored on the chain. Through...