Financial obligations and cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Compared to gold, cash and commercial bank money, bitcoin is presented as a medium of exchange, functionally similar to electronic money. Bitcoin is known as decentralized, convertible, deflationary and unstable cryptocurrency, deprived of state control and protection. Equally important is the open and global Bitcoin computer network for online transactions, operating without the need for until recently unavoidable intermediaries and different from traditional payment systems. The field of application of virtual currencies is determined by their unusual characteristics, but also by diverse comparative legal regime. Initially as a material for criminal courts and tax authorities, virtual currencies and crypto-subjects are now defined at the EU directives level. Contractual relationships and financial obligations take new forms in crypto-environment, so the question arises: to which extent a positive law is able to absorb until recently improbable concepts. The privacy and freedom that cryptocurrencies bring has its own backwardness, and the legal order is over focused on that side of a coin. On the other hand, the risks in private law transactions involving bitcoins remain unresolved, although legal subjects need this kind of legal protection badly.