On May 28, PANews reported that more than 20 organizations, including the European Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund, jointly released the 'Digital Freedom Declaration,' calling for the EU to establish a clear regulatory framework for Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). The declaration advocates: 1) developers should not bear legal liability for third-party use of open-source code; 2) there is a need to coordinate the conflicts between the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation that will be implemented in 2027, the latter of which will prohibit regulated institutions from handling privacy coins such as Monero.
Dr. Joachim Schwerin, the chief economist of the European Commission and a signatory of the declaration, emphasized that obfuscation technologies are 'a crucial check against the excessive collection of personal data by the public and private sectors.' This initiative directly responds to the Dutch court's 2024 criminal judgment against Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev, whose defense attorney Judith De Boer pointed out that 'holding neutral tool developers accountable is unprecedented.' Current blockchain data analysis companies are now able to quickly break on-chain pseudonymity using AI technology, and the declaration believes that comprehensive privacy solutions will become a prerequisite for using blockchain in sensitive scenarios such as business and politics.
