The cities of Barcelona and Amsterdam are to pilot the use of blockchain technology to give citizens more control over their online data. The EUR 5 million Horizon 20202 research project, named Decode (DEcentralised Citizens Owned Data Ecosystem), started in January 2017 and will run until December 2019.

The two cities aim to use the Decode pilots to encrypt citizen data, and use the emerging blockchain technology to give citizens more control over how their digital records are used by public services. “Increasing awareness [over the use of online data] is at the heart of Barcelona’s digital strategy,” Francesca Bria, Barcelona’s Commissioner of Technology and Digital Innovation, told Forbes Austria.

Speaking to Spanish newspaper El Pais in early December, Ms Bria said the goal is “technological sovereingty”.

This week, the project was showcased in Turin (Italy), which organised of the ‘Blockchainfor social good’ conference. Here, Denis Roio, CTO at Dyne, one of the partner organisations involved in Decode, explained how the project is taking into account the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

The next presentation of the project takes place in Amsterdam on 31 January.

More information:

Decode project
El Pais news item (in Spanish)
Forbes Austria news item (in German)