Governance of Consortium Blockchains Series Part 5

This blog post is part of a series called Governance of Consortium Blockchains. The series will explore the policies that should be created once a governance body takes form. Read below for the fifth of this five-part series.

Legal policies* are used to protect the consortium and its members. They create a framework to resolve internal disputes via arbitration and to guide members when dealing with external disputes. No policy covers every contingency, only reviewing them as conditions change can the consortium maintain.

Here are some areas that require policies:

Data Collection and Maintenance

Given the furor around the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and the many data breaches, it is important to have clear policies concerning data.

• Consent: If you are covered by GDPR, you must follow the rules laid out in that regulation. This applies to personally identifiable information.
• Retention: This can apply to communications (e-mails, memos, etc.), transactions, and financial records. You should have clearly defined retention policies that also conform to your legal jurisdiction.

Contracts and Liability Within the Consortium

Disagreement is common among partners and policies regarding arbitration and adjudication are a necessary part of the consortium. With the right arbitration policies, disputes can be amicably resolved before they escalate.

Contracts and Liability With External Players

Interactions between the consortium and any non-members are covered under these policies. These are used to define the relationships and the liabilities between the two, and to protect the membership of the consortium.

This concludes the Governance of Consortium Blockchain series. I hope you enjoyed it and for a complete overview of the series, please click here.

*Any verbiage in this article cannot be legally upheld; all legal policies should be reviewed by a licensed attorney.

Check out the rest of the series here:

Governance of Consortium Blockchain Series Part One

Consortium Membership Policies Part Two

Consortium Management and Member Participation Part Three

Governance of Consortium Technical Infrastructure Policies Part Four

About the Author: Rob Miroballi is a Senior Technical Architect at NVISIA, who has over 20 years of industry experience. You can find him @RobertMiroballi on twitter, LinkedIn and the Hyperledger Fabric Mailing List.