The integration of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain represents one of the most promising frontiers for regulatory compliance in the European single market.
With the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the AI Act) and its national implementation through Law No. 132 of 23 September 2025, the European Union and Italy have established a legal framework that demands advanced technical tools to ensure transparency and accountability.
1. Blockchain as a "Notary" for European Compliance
The AI Act adopts a risk-based approach, imposing particularly stringent obligations on systems classified as "high-risk." In this context, the immutable and decentralised nature of Blockchain serves as a compliance infrastructure in three key ways:
- Training Data Certification: it enables the origin and integrity of data used to train models to be recorded on a distributed ledger, ensuring that the high-quality datasets required by the regulation have not been tampered with.
- Immutable Audits: system logs — mandatory under Article 12 of the AI Act for traceability of events throughout the AI lifecycle — become irrefutable evidence when stored on a blockchain, thereby facilitating the work of supervisory authorities.
- Smart Contracts for Compliance: these procedures can automate access to AI models only once specific security and transparency requirements have been verified in real time.
2. The Italian Framework: The Pillars of Law 132/2025
The Italian legislation translates European principles into the national context, with a focus on critical sectors such as healthcare, employment, and public administration. Blockchain addresses the specific requirements of the law through the following mechanisms:
- Transparency (Art. 7): it upholds the user's right to be informed when interacting with an AI system, by certifying the algorithm's full operational history.
- Protection of Intellectual Professions (Art. 13): it enables precise tracking of the AI's contribution relative to human intervention, thereby safeguarding the professional's accountability.
- Copyright (Art. 25): since the law protects only works that are the product of human intellect, blockchain notarisations and NFTs serve as essential proof of authorship and originality.
3. Technological Synergy and National Security
The integration of these technologies resolves the "black box" paradox inherent to AI. While the algorithm processes, the blockchain documents, creating a system of digital checks and balances.
4. Conclusions: Accountability and Sanctions
The adoption of Blockchain is not merely a technical choice, but a strategic measure for mitigating legal risk. The AI Act provides for severe penalties, reaching up to 7% of annual worldwide turnover for the most serious infringements. Furthermore, Law 132/2025 introduces the criminal offence of unlawful dissemination of deepfakes (Art. 26) — an area in which blockchain-notarised digital watermarking will be essential for distinguishing genuine from synthetic content in judicial proceedings.
Ultimately, AI and Blockchain together advance genuine national technological sovereignty, enabling businesses to transform regulatory compliance into a competitive advantage grounded in mathematically verifiable trust.