Revisiting the formation of the legal status of cryptocurrency in the Russian legislation

Abstract

The paper provides insight in to the concept of cryptocurrency as considered by national and foreign authors, the principles of its functioning and the need to establish its legal status. Formulated is the definition of cryptocurrency, and the thesis that cryptocurrency can be classified as other property is grounded. The need for an legislative definition of cryptocurrency attributes to the growth of transactions, cryptocurrencies trading at official marketplaces, and a change in the Russian government’sattitude towards cryptocurrencies from its banning to acceptance. One of the threats to the cryptocurrency turnover in financial markets was its imaginary anonymity –it has been generally accepted that cryptocurrency transactions are completely anonymous. However, all transactions are recorded on a public blockchain, and the key problem is to identify the account holder. Thus, it is not the account holder's identity that is anonymous, but rather an actual transaction. In our opinion, this problem can be solved by applying a series of computer-aided tests.