First it has to be stated that Cryptocurrencies are mostly used for legal transfers between legitimate partners and are becoming more and more popular in our society. Any heavy regime of new regulations would make all transactions costlier and less convenient. Such negative economic impact is opposing the need of monitoring the financing structures of organized criminal and terrorist organisations. With the increasing importance of cryptocurrencies, a completely new field of complex problems is arising through the implied anonymity and complexity or sheer impossibility to track transfers in the dark net. As regulations in this new financial market will be difficult to enforce, it is necessary to establish international cooperation and capacity building to implement some possibilities for law- enforcement and intelligence entities to monitor the illegal parts of the capital flowing in these systems. To solve this situation, the focus should lie on the attempts to make the risk of detection of such transfers higher for the parties involved. Without interfering too strongly with the new financing system developing, this process asks for improved compliance and cooperation on all levels and capacities.
This research examines existence of Bitcoin bubble in the year of 2017 by studying time series data within four main paradigms of the modern bubble theory. All four models suggest that Bitcoin closing price was overstated during the period. The analysis also detects Bitcoin features that could lead to the behavioral bias on the cryptocurrency market. The study suggests that investors’ behavior on the crypto market should be investigated more within behavioral finance.
The prerequisites and main trends in the development of the latest financial technologies (FinTech) are considered. The emerging approaches to the legal regulation of ICO and crypto currency in foreign countries and the European Union (EU) are analysed. It is concluded that the legal ways of regulating new phenomena are ambiguous while in the main states adhere to the principle of technological neutrality. In relation to the EU member states, there is a need to comply with the supranational legislation of the European Union. The conclusion about the high level of mobility of legal foundations in the field under investigation is made.
The article is devoted to the theoretical justification of the need to introduce criminal law prohibitions on criminal encroachments in the sphere of cryptocurrency turnover in Russia. The author analyzes the principles and grounds for the criminalization of such acts in connection with their increased public danger. The article examines the prerequisites, grounds and justification for criminalizing criminal offenses in the field of cryptocurrency turnover, problems of applying current criminal law provisions to acts committed using cryptocurrency, examines the opinions of law enforcement officials, prosecutors and the court, relating to the category of cases considered. The author's position on problematic issues is presented.
The article is devoted to the study of legal resources, within the framework of information objects, the provision of Russian legislation. There are several approaches to the designation of the legal nature of detachments. The conclusion is that bloksn should not be considered as a separate information object. From the position of information law, offered primarily as a kind of information technology, on the basis of which there is a collection, processing, storage and transmission of information. From a legal point of view, the notebook can also be viewed as a decentralized distributed database ("ledger") of all confirmed transactions made with respect to certain assets, within the scope of which cryptographic algorithms lie. In the majority of cases, the block system should be considered as an information system, which is a register of information, as well as information processing technologies, including the formation and storage of accurate, specific data, confirming the totality of property and other rights and obligations of their holders, and allowing for electronic payments and other legally significant actions.
the development of digital economics has taken on vital importance nowadays. Entrepreneurs in their business actively use digital technologies by which they enter into civil law relationships of different nature. Cryptocurrency usage in commerce is one of the most topical issues discussed in a legal community. The article analyzes an issue of legal regulation of cryptocurrency which logically follows digital technologies and digital economics development. Presently there are no legislative mechanisms of cryptocurrency turnover and usage regulation. The main aim of the article is to develop legal suggestions for cryptocurrency effective regulation. With this aim the author has analyzed cryptocurrency development trend in the Russian Federation, studied experience of foreign countries (USA, Germany, France, China and Japan). In his article the author offers for the legal community a single matrix of the cryptocurrency legal regulation which comprises three levels: international, regional and national.
The article is devoted to the study of legal nature of smart contracts. Smart contracts definitions are analyzed, the data in the project of the Federal law «About digital financial assets» № 419059-7 (passed by the Gosudarstvennaya Duma in the first reading 20.05.2018), and in the technical, legal and economic literature, and outlines the main approaches to defining the legal nature thereof. The author comes to the conclusion that nowadays smart contracts should be qualified as technical means of contract performance, and that the statutory rules applicable to electronic contracts cannot apply to smart contracts.
Over the last years, the blockchain technology has attracted the attention of both business users and IT specialists. In essence, blockchain or a chain of blocks is a distributed and decentralized database replicated across the multiple nodes of a network. Until recently blockchain has been associated mainly with cryptocurrencies, but nowadays it is revealing its serious potential as a means of replacing the business models that facilitate the operations of business organisations and the communication between them. The utilisation of the advantages provided by blockchain, however, requires their appropriate interpretations within the framework of business processes. With reference to this, the article analyses some of the main concepts and mechanisms of this technology. Special attention is paid to the interrelation of blockchain and distributed ledger (DLT) technologies, hashing of transactions and data management through consensus as well as the so called “smart contracts”. A parallel is made between the capabilities of public and private blockchain. Based on this, the study defines the fundamental blockchain characteristics and the advantages resulting from them. It is suggested that the blockchain technology offers a solution to the primary problem of trust between people in the context of global communication and ensures better transparency, reliability and security of data and business processes. In addition, the author outlines certain potential technical and business risk that have to be taken into consideration in the process of data transfer with reference to blockchain.
The rise of cryptocurrency as a new sui generis asset class creates a need for a new classification scheme to cover the wide range of functionality for which tokens can be used. By differentiating tokens based on their functional attributes, cryptocurrency tokens can be categorised into crypto-transaction tokens (which act as a cash substitute); crypto-fuel tokens (which underpin generic blockchain applications); and crypto-voucher tokens (which can be exchanged for a predefined asset). This classification is applied to identify important issues when considering whether to participate in a cryptocurrency system, such as the impact of potential forks, token supply expectations and the level of dependence on a few operators (entity-dependence). For crypto-transaction tokens (and crypto-fuel tokens if used in a similar or overlapping role) it shows the importance of the token being seen as a “better” form of money. For crypto-fuel tokens, the popularity of blockchain applications and the utility of the crypto-fuel system in application development is vital. For crypto-voucher tokens, the value of the underlying asset, the token’s exchangeability for that asset and the importance of a digital representation should be considered by participants. The interplay between fundamentals and speculation as drivers of price is considered.An erratum to this article has been published at as DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2018.151.
This article presents the main economic and legal approaches to determining the status of the cryptocurrency. It is proved that the establishment of effective regulation of the crypto currency is impossible without an understanding of its economic nature. Cryptocurrency is regarded as a currency (digital or virtual currency, analogue of the currency, money), as a universal financial instrument, commodity (property, asset, property), money surrogate. There are the main conceptual recommendations for the regulation of the cryptocurrency as a new economic and legal phenomenon.
Stephen Chan, Jeffrey Chu, Yuanyuan Zhang, Saralees Nadarajah
In financial trading, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin use decentralization, traceability, and anonymity features to perform transactional activities. These digital currencies, using the emerging blockchain technologies, are forming the basis of the largest unregulated markets in the world. This creates various regulatory challenges, including the illicit purchase of drugs and weapons, money laundering, and funding terrorist activities. This chapter analyzes various legal and ethical implications, their effects, and various solutions to overcome the inherent issues that are currently faced by the policymakers and regulators. The authors present the result of an analysis of 30 recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications and suggest various mechanisms that can help in the detection and prevention of illegal activities that currently account for a substantial proportion of cryptocurrency trading. They suggest methods and applications that can also be used to identify the dark marketplaces in the future.
The analysis of using so-called smart contracts, which have become widespread in recent years. The definition of the term “smart contract” is given, some classification is offered for them. A comparative analysis of traditional and smart contracts in the part of legal regulation of their application was conducted. The article formulates legal problems of the theoretical and practical direction, which are a significant barrier to the use of smart contracts in the context of widespread use of Internet of Things, some solutions have been suggested for them.
The article presents the prospects for using distributed registry technologies (blockchain) in various socio-economic spheres related to state and municipal administration. Provided examples and forecasts of the use of blockchain technologies in the provision of state and municipal services for individuals and legal entities in the following areas: - formation of a unified register containing the history of the placement of the state, municipal order, as well as procurement of corporations with state participation and / or control; - registers of documents (diplomas, certificates, lost and disavowed passports, policies for movable and immovable property insurance, health, etc.); - database of court decisions and executive proceedings; - portals of public participation of citizens in the affairs of the district - city - country. The fact that the blockchain technology is, first of all, the principles, and not the only possible way of implementing them, allows us to count on maximum openness and multivariate application in a dynamically changing digital world .
The article explores the problem of the legal regulations of cryptocurrencies, considering socio-economic factors and changes in the modern globalized world.
The article discusses issues related to the use of cryptocurrency in the world and in Russia. In particular, the author conducted a statistical study of the market volume, basic trends in the use of cryptocurrencies. Examines the main approaches to attract citizens to use crypto currencies for payment services, and also analyzes the problems faced by Russian business in this area.
Open access
Economic and Technological Developments in Russia
Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
The paper discusses the future development of the cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation. At present, it can be defined as a new financial instrument based on distributed registry technology (Blokchein). It is the lack of server storage and a single issuer, the relative anonymity (pseudonymity) and mobility calculations allow us to consider financial cryptocurrency to be a technology of the future. Evaluation of the prospects for the development of the regulatory and protective law of the Russian Federation, the author begins with an assessment of the world's leading strategies for regulating the virtual currency: permissive, prohibitive and observant. The author argues the problem of searching for the optimal model of the cryptocurrency legalization, considering it to be a kind of a computer program: means of exchange, a monetary symbol, a cashless cash, an electronic money and a security, a commodity, other property, property right, etc. Particular attention is paid to the critical analysis of the draft federal law on the declaration of a crypto currency by a surrogate and the introduction of a new composition in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - article 187.1 "Turnover of money surrogates" with the establishment of responsibility in the form of a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to four Years for production, purchase for sale, as well as the sale of money surrogates. As one of the developers of the draft law on legalization of the cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation, the author of this paper identifies the most important aspects that need in legal control. They are identification of exchange sites and the user, verification of transactions based on documents, data and information (validation), determination of the beneficial owner, Relations and monitoring of transactions with the cryptocurrency in accordance with the risk profile.
One of the key problems of blockchain technology is lack of control of users, organized societies, and state authorities over the transactions and asset on the decentralized network. The distributed ledger and blockchain are interesting as an example of new technology, which is the rule not only for users but also for governments. Technology-driven rules can be viewed as a technological law for blockchain users and legislative authorities. No legal regulation can change the anonymity or immutability of blockchain. Only another technology could turn the situation around. This is a lesson for every lawyer to learn not only the law but the scope of technology. The purpose of the article is an analysis of modern determinants of control distribution over assets, transactions, and decentralized organizations on blockchain distributed network. The article shows how control appears in a variety of different situations on blockchain network. Examples range from the individual and organizational control to control over the networking system discussing the possibilities of the participants to exercise control. On the base of the legal cases, the ability of controlling shareholder, directors, managers, governments, stakeholders and users of crypto-communities to control the organization, transactions and assets are discussed.
The presentation is dedicated to problems and approaches in the legal regulation of the use of one of the cryptocurrencies -Bitcoin. Currently Bitcoin causes bigger interest among the world society, which is connected, in particular, with the highly increased exchange rate of this cryptocurrency. A number of countries have already formed a well-defined position and created a legal basis for development or for a complete or partial restriction of this cryptocurrency. But at the moment the most part of the world countries do not have a legal and regulatory framework of Bitcoin. In this presentation there is an analysis identifying pros and cons of this cryptocurrency and also the consequences of its further integration into the biggest world countries. Besides, our group has considered the experience of the number of countries in which the legal regulation of this cryptocurrency is established. The research offers a way for the further legal regulation of Bitcoin in Russia.
Much significant research has been done to investigate various facets of the link between Bitcoin price and its fundamental sources. This study goes beyond by looking into least to most influential factors-across the fundamental, macroeconomic, financial, speculative and technical determinants as well as the 2016 events-which drove the value of Bitcoin in times of economic and geopolitical chaos. We use a Bayesian quantile regression to inspect how the structure of dependence of Bitcoin price and its determinants varies across the entire conditional distribution of Bitcoin price movements. In doing so, three groups of determinants were derived. The use of Bitcoin in trade and the uncertainty surrounding China's deepening slowdown, Brexit and India's demonetization were found to be the most potential contributors of Bitcoin price when the market is improving. The intense anxiety over Donald Trump being the president of United States was shown to be a positive determinant pushing up the price of Bitcoin when the market is functioning around the normal mode. The velocity of bitcoins in circulation, the gold price, the Venezuelan currency demonetization and the hash rate were found to be the fundamentals influencing the Bitcoin price when the market is heading into decline.
Шульгина Анастасия Николаевна, Колядина Марина Геннадьевна, Бикалова Надежда Александровна
в работе рассмотрены основные особенности платежной системы Bitcoin, история и перспективы развития данной системы. Приведены сведения по использованию данной платежной системы в разных странах, а также выполнен краткий анализ позитивных и негативных сторон использования Bitcoin. Системы стимулирования развития операций с данной «валютой». Развитие информационных технологий способствует развитию системы быстрых платежей. Отношение к данному процессу неразрывно связано с уровнем развития и культуры и экономики стран. Приведенные положения являются самыми важными, но не единственными, которые делают систему ВТС противоречивой, неповторимой, притягательной и непредсказуемой. Идеи Bitcoin революционны, несут в себе возможность создания уникальной финансовой системы, при которой люди будут защищены от любых посягательств на их капитал