Towards Verifiable Mutability for Blockchains

Abstract

Due to their immutable log of information, blockchains can be considered as a transparency-enhancing technology. The immutability, however, also introduces threats and challenges with respect to privacy laws and illegal content. Introducing a certain degree of mutability, which enables the possibility to store and remove information, can therefore increase the opportunities for blockchains. In this paper, we present a concept for a mutable blockchain structure. Our approach enables the removal of certain blocks, while maintaining the blockchain's verifiability property. Since our concept is agnostic to any consensus algorithms, it can be implemented with permissioned and permissionless blockchains.