Data utility and data governance in cryptocurrencies

This chapter discusses three policy goals related to information generated by the cryptocurrency network: personal autonomy, development of the digital economy, and the prevention of crime. It explains how current data protection law and privacy rights can be assessed against these goals in the context of cryptocurrency. Analysis shows how unstable coins on the public chain, stable coins on the private chain, and state-backed currency on the private chain can benefit but also create risks to the three policy goals. It also assesses whether current data protection law and privacy law are able to address and mitigate any risks. There is a political dimension in cryptocurrency at the domestic level in terms of how citizens can participate in a more democratised space. At the international level, the data location requirement has also posted political challenges due to national security laws. While regulators focus on the economics of cryptocurrency, it is international politics that will set the standards, deciding how policy goals, such as these three, are to be fulfilled, what information amounts to public good to be shared by whom and with whom, and how data protection and privacy law will set the new international or regional standards.