ITU Center behind the first ever ethical guidelines for European blockchain infrastructure

Europe is building a new digital infrastructure based on Blockchain technology. Representative for Denmark, Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen’s Business IT Department, Roman Beck and Research Assistant Signe Agerskov, have been in charge of convening the ethical guidelines that will ensure the system aligns with European values.

Roman BeckBlockchainethicsprivacyBusiness IT DepartmentSigne Agerskov

Written 13 May, 2024 07:00 by Mai Valentine Kristensen

Today, when you move, study, or work cross-border in the EU, the process of reregistering yourself in a new country is still largely paper based. This makes it difficult for authorities to confirm the au-thenticity of documents or for citizens to know who has access to their data. In the future that will be less difficult, as the information will be organised digitally via a European blockchain infrastructure giving Europeans control over their own personal data, allowing companies to trade cross-border without a third-party, and for institutions to verify documents through the system.

As the blockchain infrastructure will facilitate primarily public sector services for citizens and com-panies within the EU as well as Liechtenstein and Norway, it must meet the highest legal and ethical standards. For this reason, Denmark’s representative at the European Blockchain Service Infrastruc-ture (EBSI), professor at ITU, Roman Beck, was appointed to develop the first ever ethical guidelines for blockchain systems.

“Not many people are aware that norms and values are codified in a software, which is especially critical when information systems are mandatory to use for everyone in Europe. Therefore, we need ethical guidelines that meet European values and protect the rights of European citizens,” says Pro-fessor Roman Beck.

The recommendations have been developed with support from research assistant, Signe Agerskov, and in collaboration with the EU’s Expert Group on Blockchain Ethics (EGBE), consisting of ten ex-perts with backgrounds in blockchain technology, philosophy, computer ethics and law.

The guidelines, which are equally applicable in the private sector, orient themselves along five EU-values that the expert group has identified as relevant for developing these kind of information sys-tems. Those are fairness, privacy, security, accountability, and social responsibility. They are meant to ensure that ethics are enforced and harmonized across Europe, and not dependent upon the individ-ual ethical understanding of developers of such systems.

“Blockchain technology can ensure digital power to stay in control over your own data. It can also provide transparency and therefore prevent illegal activities. In such a case you have to decide whether you value privacy over accountability or vice versa, and that decision should not be up to the individual developer which is why we need ethical guidelines,” says Professor Roman Beck.

Technology is not value-free

Over the past years, the EU has been focused on ensuring that technology developed or used in Eu-rope respect the rights of people and businesses in an increasingly digitalised world. Most recent is the AI Act, which imposes requirements on companies designing and/or using artificial intelligence in the European Union.

The AI Act can be seen as akin to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) passed in 2016, which was implemented to protect EU citizens’ private data, as data breaches from companies like Facebook highlighted the need to address how data is stored, collected, and transferred today.

“Technology is not value-free, but has an agenda, which is why Europe is trying to be independent from technology that comes from outside the union. With any new technology it is important to have ethical reflections before they are implemented, to minimize the risk of negative and unfore-seen consequences for society. With the guidelines we want to create awareness about that and start a discussion about ethics and blockchain,” says research assistant Signe Agerskov.

The ethical guidelines further ensure that digital services within the European Union align with Eu-ropean values and not only with legal frameworks. As the guidelines are the first of their kind, Signe Agerskov and Roman Beck hope that they will spark a debate about, not only blockchain ethics, but ethics and technology in general.

You can read the full-length ethical guidelines here.