Open Letter Summary

The letter advocates for technological neutrality, ensuring freedom of choice and adaptability of regulations, irrespective of the technology used. It also emphasizes the need for clarification within the Data Act, as the current text could inadvertently limit the use of Smart Contracts based on public/permissionless technology and introduce uncertainty for already deployed Smart Contracts. This scenario could pose significant challenges for SMEs who heavily rely on these Smart Contracts for their operations and business models.

While we understand the intention of the EU regulator was not to regulate smart contracts deployed on public/permissionless technology, our proposed refinements emphasize three key potential amendments that aim to clarify the regulator’s intention and minimize potential negative impacts (in order of preference):

1. Substitute the term 'Smart Contract' with 'Digital Contract' to reflect the Act's intended scope more accurately and to eliminate ambiguities about the applicability of Article 30's stringent requirements.

2. Clarify the scope of Article 30 in case the change of terminology proves unsuitable. In this scenario, we recommend revising Article 30 to narrow down its applicability to 'Smart Contracts' deployed on private and permissioned electronic data records.

3. Limit Article 2(16) to privately operated and permissioned electronic data records, which, although it is the least favorable option, could still mitigate some of the potential negative impacts if the other two options do not materialize.

We believe these proposed changes align with the principle of technological neutrality, ensuring equal treatment to all technological solutions and fostering an environment conducive to innovation and growth.

Below you can read and download the Open Letter About Concerns and Proposed Refinements Regarding the Regulation of Smart Contracts in the Data Act. If you wish to support this Open Letter, send your logo and information about your organization’s representatives to one of the organisations leading discussions about the Data Act. You can find our email addresses on the About Us page.

Lead organizations:

Robert Kopitsch, Secretary General 
Michael Gebert, Chairman
Jörn-Jakob Röber, Head of EU Policy
Marina Markezic, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Ricardo Simoes, Executive Director
Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder & Chairman

Signatories:

Orest Gavryliak, General Counsel
Stani Kulechov, CEO & Founder
Matthew Niemerg, Founder & CEO
Slava Demchuk, CEO
Marcin Jacek Choscilowicz, CTO
Addie Wagenknecht, Lead) & Mauro Casellini, COO
Rita Halász, Founding Member
Pietro Azzara, CEO
Francesco Paolo Patti, Co-Founder
Anja Blaj, President
Dr. Max Bernt, Chief Legal Officer
David Zein, Managing Partner
Morva Rohani, Executive Director
Michael Reuter, Co-founder
Silvan Jongerius, President of the Board
Kristina Lillieneke, Founder & LL.M.
Marlene Marz, Branch Manager
Frederik Gregaard, CEO
Henrik Hjelte, CEO
Tom Duff Gordon, VP International Policy
Nicolas Louvet, CEO
Gregor Žavcer, CEO & Co-founder
Kai Meinke, Co-founder
Vincent Katchavenda, Co-Founder & COO
Jori Armbruster, Co-Founder & CEO
Dr. Detienne Giel, COO
Hugo Volz Oliveira, Secretary & Founding Member
Izzat-Begum B. Rajan, Founder & Managing Partner
Ravindra Kumar, Founder & Director
Andrew Matiukhin, Co-Founder and CTO
Lia Millecamps, Global COO
Sukesh Tedl, CEO & Founder
Seth Hertlein, VP & Global Head of Policy
Max Kordek, President
Hansjörg Hettich, Executive Director
Mel Gelderman – Co-Founder
Johannes Virleitner, Partner
Jakob Mikkel Hansen, CEO & Boardmember
Rebecca Rettig, Chief Policy Officer
Dr. Christoph F. Strnadl, Deputy CTO
Cristina Carrascosa, President
Holger Köther, Co-Founder & Managing Director
Luc Falempin, CEO
Luigi Telesca, CEO
Thomas Nägele, President
Ivan Piton, COO
Antonio Lanotte, Member of the Board of Advisors
Jason Allegrante Chief Legal & Compliance Officer
Natalie Linhart, Legal Counsel
Yves de Beauregard, Head of Digital Shift
Candace Kelly, Chief Legal Officer

Viktor Tron, Co-founder

Roald Parmentier, Founder

Ismael Arribas, Co-Founder & CEO

Radoslav Albrecht, Founder & CEO

Sabine de Witte, Chief of Staff

Martin Schmidt, co-founder

Raj K Bagadi, Founder & Director

Chris Donovan, General Counsel

Daniel Wellinger, Foundation Board Member 

Angela Kreienweis, Founder

Miguel Angel Dominguez, Chairman

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