Blockchain enthusiasts have is a failure to understand that a true public blockchain is not compatible with the data privacy issues (and the related legal requirements)

You're right. These don't don't work in those situations. I know Sovrin has a public-permissioned distributed ledger. It's really quite ingenious what they did. I see this type of functionality being built into other areas including law.

NO PII is ever put on the ledger even in hashed forms. It's a blend of what you discussed above. I think it's the answer to many problems. Not just Sovrin, the identity layer, but using that same methodology to solve other use cases.

I'm sorry I did not find your article sooner, or I would upvote it for you. I will resteem it though. :)

Here's one of the Sovrin whitepapers in case you're interested: Sovrin Whitepaper