Trends in the development of the modern digital economy have determined the practical digital transformation of all aspects of human activity, including both production and social spheres. Currently, technologies are dynamically developing and under their influence; the volume of received, transmitted and stored information is constantly increasing. Accordingly, demand for Big Data technology is growing, since it allows you to work with large amounts of data, which determines the growing popularity of blockchain technology. This article presents a model of the workings of blockchain technology in an educational organization and the procedures for its use. It also highlights several directions for the development of educational institutions and processes that are based on the use of blockchain technology. These include confirmation of the authenticity of documentation, accreditation of an educational organization, confirmation of intellectual property and identification of students. In addition, the article discusses the problem of the attitude of the academic community towards blockchain technologies, which can significantly reduce the intensity of implementation. This paper presents a study of why professionals in the educational field are afraid of a significant digitalization in education. Thus, a balanced approach is the optimal strategy for introducing blockchain technologies into educational processes.
This article is devoted to the analysis of the legal framework for the digitization of public procurement, doctrinal approaches to the use of smart contracts in procurement. It studies the process and technologies of formation and development of smart contracts, blockchain, contracting in ethereum, the mechanisms of using smart contracts in public procurement. It also explores aspects that need to be addressed in improving the procurement system through smart contracts and develops recommendations.
Bei der Kryptokunst handelt es sich nicht um klassische Kunstwerke zum Anfassen, sondern um digitale. Bisher standen diese nicht auf derselben Stufe wie analoge, die teils für enorme Beträge verkauft werden. Wer ein physisches Kunstwerk erworben hat, kann es beispielsweise sicher im Safe verstauen. Kryptokunst dagegen kann meist grenzen- und kostenlos heruntergeladen, vervielfältigt oder geteilt werden. Wie kann also das Eigentum an einem digitalen Kunstwerk nachgewiesen werden? Beim Erwerb von Kryptokunst spielen NFTs (non-fungible tokens) eine große Rolle. Das sind nicht ersetzbare Zeichen, die als digitale Besitzurkunde bzw. Echtheitszertifikat fungieren. Gearbeitet wird dabei mit der Blockchain-Technologie (vgl. stichwort der merz 2018/03), welche die Basis für Kryptowährungen bildet. In dieser fälschungssicheren Datensatzliste wird eingeschrieben, wer das Objekt gekauft hat. Wer das NFT besitzt, besitzt damit das ‚Original‘ der Datei. In der Regel bleibt das Werk dennoch für alle verfügbar. Dieses Jahr wurde Kryptokunst erstmalig beim Aktionshaus Christie’s als NFT versteigert. Die digitale Bildcollage ‚Everydays: The First 5000 Days‘ aus 5.000 Einzelbildern des Künstlers Beeple erreichte 69 Millionen US-Dollar. Digitale Kunstwerke können auch auf Internetplattformen wie Nifty Gateway erworben werden. Bisher wurden NFTs in den verschiedensten Bereichen verkauft: Beispielsweise das bekannte Meme ‚Disaster Girl‘, das GIF ‚Nyan Cat‘, Musik sowie virtuelles Land in Games. Das besondere bei NFTs: Die Künstler*innen können bei jedem neuen Verkauf mitverdienen und ihre Werke weltweit direkt anbieten. Allerdings ist Kryptokunst stark an den Wert von Kryptowährungen gekoppelt und der CO2-Verbrauch beim Erstellen und durch den enormen Rechenaufwand beim Handeln der Werke ist hoch. Ob der Markt für Kryptokunst zukunftsfähig ist, ist bisher nicht absehbar.
Possible scenarios for using blockchain technology in the field of education are considered. Methods and technologies of tokenization of assets, related to the educational process, are investigated. It is concluded, that the blockchain technology is decentralized and transparent with a high degree of reliability, which ensures the equality of all users of the chain's services. The transparency of the technology guarantees the participants in the process against abuse and forgery of documents. The study of the features of smart contracts made it possible to form the advantages of smart contracts in the field of education. This is, first of all, the conclusion of agreements without the participation of third parties, as well as the security and confidentiality of agreements. This ensures that the terms and subject of the agreement are kept secret, and that no one else can amend the agreement. At the same time, storing the contract in encrypted form ensures its confidentiality. A decrease in the cost of operations was noted. Tokenization of educational assets is considered on the example of preparing and defending a thesis with the subsequent registration of a diploma. The processes of passing the thesis in the context of using blockchain technology and issuing smart contracts are considered in detail. The advantages of using blockchain technology and smart contracts are illustrated with specific examples. A study of the means and mechanisms for ensuring the confirmation of the authenticity of educational documents, the confidentiality of students' personal cards, and student identification has been carried out. To create a decentralized distributed ledger for tokenization of educational assets, it is proposed to use blockchain technology and smart contracts based on the Ethereum platform
The article is devoted to the analysis of cryptocurrency as a new phenomenon in the modern global economic processes and legal institutions. The relevance of the study is predetermined by the very specifics of such a phenomenon as cryptocurrency consisting of a distributed ledger technology, which determines the peculiarities of issuing, storing and performing operations with cryptocurrency. Moreover, the cryptocurrency turnover directly correlates with the national legislation of individual countries, which are the subject of domestic regulation with currency, tax legislation and legislation on the securities market. Sometimes, in this regard, there is a clash of public interests and the interests of entities involved in the circulation of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency, as an unconventional, trendy phenomenon of the recent times, has become the object of research and discussions on all the world platforms, starting with academia, continuing with the business community and ending with state institutions. There are many reasons for explaining such interest and they can all be reduced to two main blocks: the advantages and the disadvantages of cryptocurrency circulation. The problem of cryptocurrency turnover, on the one hand, is that until now none of the national economies have regulated the cost-effective mechanism for the cryptocurrency turnover and, on the other hand, the leading countries have not yet set up an effective system of legal regulation of cryptocurrency. Many countries are in the active process of working to adequately address the above problem. Separately, it is worth highlighting the interest of Muslim countries in this issue, where discussions are still underway about the permissibility of cryptocurrency in Islamic law. As for the Russian realities in the context of the issue under study, the Federal Law “On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation“, which came into effect on 1 January 2021, was supposed to streamline relations of subjects including cryptocurrencies, but, according to the experts in this field, this law is far from impeccable and this sphere of relations cannot be quickly and effectively regulated. This article describes the characteristics of cryptocurrency, its essence, disadvantages and advantages as an object of economic and civil law relations. The purpose of the research is to analyze the economic and legal phenomenon of cryptocurrency, as well as its characteristics in the Muslim legal system. The complexity of the work should be emphasized as a novelty. Based on the designated goal and the logic of construction, the study consists of three interrelated parts. The first part outlines the characteristics of cryptocurrency as an economic category, the second part is devoted to its legal analysis and the last part of the study demonstrates the Islamic perception (Sharia analysis) of this phenomenon. As a conclusion on the scientific research, we will highlight the following provisions. First, economically, nowadays, cryptocurrency is a rather controversial financial instrument: on the one hand, it has great investment attractiveness, but on the other hand, it is subject to great volatility and seems to be a rather risky financial asset. Secondly, from a legal standpoint, cryptocurrencies have not yet found their consistent consolidation and further legal regulation in the Russian legislation. It seems that the legal regulation of this institution will systematically develop depending on what application and results of its turnover the cryptocurrency will have in the future. Finally, the Islamic interpretation of the cryptocurrency phenomenon boils down to the absence of a single, consistent explanation of it from the perspective of Islam and Sharia as an object of permissibility (or prohibition) of transactions with it. It is necessary to further analyze the practice of using cryptocurrency and its impact on the economy and legal institutions in order to make a final decision on its permissibility or prohibition in correlation with the types of activity and the upcoming consequences associated with it.
The purpose of the present article is to gain an understanding of the opportunities and difficulties created by the introduction and development of the practice of network (smart) contracts. Our research methodology is based on a holistic set of principles and methods of scholarly analysis employed by modern legal science. It uses a dialectical method involving both general approaches (structural system method, formal logical method, analysis and synthesis of individual elements, individual features of concepts, abstraction, generalization, etc.) and particular methods (legal technical, systematic, comparative, historical, and grammatical methods, method of the unity of theory and practice, etc.). We analyze the views of lawyers and other specialists from Russia and abroad, legislative innovations in the field of digital technologies, the practice of blockchain-based smart contracts, and the main risks (whether legal, technological, operational, or criminogenic) of smart contracts for economic activities with a study of their causes. In the present-day situation, it is necessary to move from the legal definition of the smart contract and its legal and technological characteristics, advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of startups in a wide range of areas, especially business, public regulation, and social relations. Scholarly and information support for such processes will contribute to the development of industry, public administration and digital technology applications to improve the life of individual citizens and society as a whole. The introduction of smart contracts does not require the adoption of new laws or regulations. Instead, one should adapt and, possibly, modify existing legal principles at the legislative and judicial levels to pave the way for the use of smart contracts and other new technologies. The system of contract law provides a sufficient framework for regulating transactions without the introduction of any new legal categories. We propose approaches to the legal definition of the smart contract and identify a set of problems that must be solved at the legislative and technical legal levels in order to implement smart contracts effectively in different spheres of life.
This paper has four chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction. The second chapter studies the transaction fees in the bitcoin system. The transaction fees and transaction volume in the bitcoin system increase whenever the network is congested and results from a simple VAR show that it is indeed the case. To account for the empirical findings, we build a model where users and miners together determine the transaction fee and transaction volume endogenously. Even though the fluctuating transaction fee mechanism in bitcoin introduces the extra cost of uncertainty to users, a back-of-envelope calculation shows that the cost of using the bitcoin network for transactions is still smaller than the cost of using the current conventional payment system with a fix transaction fee rate. The second chapter studies the time-varying price dispersion among different bitcoin exchanges. We identify the sources of price dispersion using a standard time-varying vector autoregression model with stochastic volatility. The results show that shocks to transaction fees and bitcoin price growth explain on average 20%, and sometimes more than 60%, of the variation of price dispersion. The third chapter studies the relationship between connections and returns in the bitcoin investor network. Using transaction data from the bitcoin blockchain, we reach three conclusions. First, on average, the annualized returns of connected addresses in the network are 20.75% above those of their unconnected peers. Second, returns also differ among those connected addresses. By dividing the connected ad- dresses into ten deciles based on their centrality, we find that addresses in the two most-connected deciles earn higher returns than the other connected addresses. Third, eigenvector centrality is more related than degree centrality to higher returns, implying that quality of connections matters.
The use of digital technology is increasing in all spheres of society. And the right is no exception. Many technologies are designed to simplify work, save time and serve the goals of globalization of relations, as well as their decentralization. Smart contracts are one way to achieve this goal. The article discusses the possibility of applying smart contracts in the workplace, where the personal nature of relationships is one of the features that directly affect the prospects for the use of smart contracts in the area in question.
The article analyzes the jurisprudence under the treaties in the field of construction for 2018–2020. The most common disputable situations that provoke lawsuits are highlighted. As a result of the analysis of scientific literature and foreign practice, a conclusion is formulated about the advantages of implementing and using smart contracts in the field of construction, provided that the necessary institutional environment is formed and the legal field.
The article reviews the essence of blockchain – the technology of new generation, raised from the computer and internet development. The article also analyses several aspects in legal regulation of one of the most famous cryptocurrencies: Ethereum by using the blockchain technology. Except for that, the article describes steps of computer and internet development and the involvement of blockchain in these steps, as a revolutionary invention. The article analyses the essence of blockchain technology, the steps of its development and also, coming from its high confidentiality, the possibilities of its legal regulation by the states. In this regard, several countries are represented as an example (Great Britain, Vietnam, Canada). Except for blockchain, the article reviews essence and specification of Ethereum, as the cryptocurrency, as well as smart contract, analyses the area of smart contract development and the indispensability of its legal regulation, because they have an ability to detach simple consumer agreements in one of the directions of digital economy – electronic commerce, in the nearest future. In addition to this, the binary nature Ethereum is also analyzed, in particular it can be a method of payment, as well as have a form of a legally binding deal – contract with the high self-fulfillment mechanism and securing parties confidentiality standards.
The article focuses on analyzing Bitcoin, its crucial features and applications of crypto-currencies in the context of political consequences. These kinds of instruments have value and their role as a means of payment has been constantly increasing. The attempts to use crypto-currencies by countries that actively try to take advantage of their specific functions and mechanisms is noticed. One of the particular areas of activity aims to bypass economic sanctions. In this situation, the following actors, such as Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Russia may be pointed out. As an addition to activities directed at avoiding sanctions, there are also projects of creating crypto-currencies by the state. In essence, these actions are supposed to improve the economic situation of particular actors. Crypto-currencies also bring challenges which are related to the processes of functioning of the state. Law and security are the main areas in this regard.
The article discusses such new financial instrument as cryptocurrency. The authors present the characteristic features of cryptocurrency, advantages and risks of its use. The analysis is aimed at studying cryptocurrency as a legal phenomenon. The article attempts to determine the legal nature of cryptocurrency in accordance with modern foreign and Russian regulations. The authors consider the question of whether cryptocurrency can be the subject of crimes. The result of the analysis is the conclusion about the multidimensionality of the phenomenon and the need for detailed legislative regulation.
Smart contracts are computer protocols that self-enforce encoded terms. They arguably allow for individual freedom and increased sovereignty from inconveniences. The enthusiasm goes as far as foreseeing that smart contracts will make contractual legal oversight obsolete. However, whereas contract law theory evolved to acknowledge the importance of flexibility and relationality, smart contracts activists defend the opposite direction, arguing for contractual rigidness and denial of social norms supporting complex transactions. This paper departs from this paradox to argue that (i) smart contracts based on existing technology are unlikely to thrive in complex contractual settings, and (ii) contextual analysis is important for LawTech’s propositions. Smart contracts, blockchain, system’s theory, social norms, transaction cost, flexibility, relationality, trust, co-operation, contractual governance
Introduction: the digitalization of public relations and the emergence of smart contracts have created the need to study what a smart contract is and whether it is subject to the general principles of the law of obligations. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main ones are the methods of historicism, consistency, and analysis. Results: the possibility of extending the principles of the law of obligations to the relations of the parties when they conclude a smart contract is analyzed. Conclusions: the conclusion is made about the extension of the principles of the law of obligations to smart contracts with the features due to the nature of smart contracts.
<ns2:p>The modern period of development of society and the state is characterized by digitalization of all spheres of social life. One of the tools used in the process of digitization of law is a smart contract, which is considered as a program code intended for functioning in an information system and used as a form of fixing a set of obligations between the parties, as well as a method for automated fulfillment of these obligations. The purpose of the study is a comparative law analysis of the practice of legislating the concept of «smart contract» in legal acts of different states and the justification for considering the use of smart contract as a legal technology. The methods: the author uses general scientific methods (system, historical, formal-logical), specific scientific methods (mathematical, linguistic) and special-legal methods (comparative law, legal forecasting, interpretation of law). The results: the study concludes that the use of a smart contract could be considered as a special type of law enforcement technology representing an activity aimed at implementing the subjective rights and legal obligations of legal entities, carried out using self-executing program code that exists in the digital environment, which allows, first, to record and transmit certain legal information (in this case, a smart contract is considered as a type of written contract form), as well as to automate the fulfillment of obligations when certain conditions are met (in this case, a smart contract is understood as an automated technical method for fulfilling obligations).</ns2:p>
In 2008, a global financial crisis happened. It led to strong currency price volatility. Because of that, discussions on the need for an alternative, institution-independent currency occurred. Due to this reason the first decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin was created. The new and not yet explored concept of cryptocurrency changed the previously strictly defined role of money. Currently, with the growth of the cryptocurrency market, the most important regional institutions (e.g. FED, EBA) provide regulatory guidelines of a recommendatory nature. The regulations of these institutions remain significant, reflecting the dominant approach to digital money. Because of this reason, the aim of the study is to identify the factors that determine the difficulties in the legalization process of cryptocurrencies and to investigate the features of the European Union's cryptocurrency regulatory policy. Methods used: analysis of scientific literature and legal documents, systematization, comparison, interpretation and generalization of information. The results of the study show that the European Union has taken active regulatory action with the growing importance of cryptocurrencies in the world. To date, a document regulating the definition of cryptocurrencies has not yet been adopted at Union level, but the adoption of the cryptocurrency regulation proposal presented in 2020 would mean greater clarity and security for cryptocurrency issuers, intermediaries and users.
The processes of digitalization of public relations are very extensive, and of course, they do not bypass the economic, financial and monetary spheres. First of all, the transformation of monetary circulation affected the institution of money: along with the usual classical forms of money, their digital counterparts - cryptocurrencies - appeared. In modern realities, cryptocurrencies are a very controversial phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a highly effective financial instrument that can be used to quickly and very inexpensively conduct transactions between money market participants. On the other hand, cryptocurrency is a poorly understood economic phenomenon; and in the opinion of a huge number of people, the reckless introduction of cryptocurrencies into the sphere of monetary circulation as a legitimate means of payment threatens the entire economic system.
In order to clarify the possible nuances associated with the specifics of cryptocurrency as the most promising alternative to classic money, below are the author's reflections on Decentralized Finance (DeFi), based on the use of blockchain technologies. For greater objectivity, the study is divided into several directions; this will allow a deeper assessment of the national economy's need for modernization through the introduction of a new payment, settlement and financial instrument
From 1680-1980 paper currency gained popularity and is used across the world that is how modern currency came into existence. Modern currency includes paper currency, coins, cards, and digital wallets and all of this is controlled by banks and governments which means all transactions are observed by the centralized regulatory authority. In the year 2009 cryptocurrency was born as a form of digital payment currency. Cryptocurrency value is increasing another way we can mine cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Over the years there has been an ongoing debate regarding its use, whether it is a good and/ or safe investment, is it legal to use cryptocurrency the same way we use paper currency, etc. This paper gatherers information by analyzing and studying the different laws, legality, trading, and how different countries have used it as an approach to boost their economy, some countries have allowed individuals to trade without their profits being taxable, while those of business profits are and how some countries have allowed its use but are banned by the banks.
Статья посвящена зарубежному опыту законодательного регулирования внедрения цифровых технологий, которые самым непосредственным образом связаны с текущими процессами развития экономики и общества. Авторы рассматривают опыт регулирования цифровых активов на примере законодательства Республики Мальта и Княжества Лихтенштейн. Правительство Мальты в 2018 году заявило, что готово к цифровой трансформации своей экономики, тем самым претендуя на роль первой страны в мире, создавшей целостную законодательную базу для применения технологии блокчейн и токенизации активов. Одним из последних законодательных актов в этой области является Закон Княжества Лихтенштейн, посвященный технологии распределенных реестров, который представляет собой технологически нейтральную и всеобъемлющую систему, призванную охватить все аспекты токенизации. Исследуется возможность отнесения криптовалюты к объекту правового регулирования, что позволяет упорядочить и систематизировать правила, которые будут применяться в отношении оборота цифровых активов. The article is devoted to the foreign experience of legislative regulation of the introduction of digital technologies, which are most directly related to the current processes of economic and social development. The authors consider the experience of regulating digital assets on the example of the legislation of the Republic of Malta and the Principality of Liechtenstein. In 2018, the Government of Malta announced that it is ready for the digital transformation of its economy, thereby claiming the role of the first country in the world to create an integral legislative framework for the use of blockchain technology and asset tokenization. One of the most recent pieces of legislation in this area is the Principality of Liechtenstein Act on distributed ledger technology, which is a technologically neutral and comprehensive system designed to cover all aspects of tokenization. The possibility of classifying cryptocurrency as an object of legal regulation is being investigated, which makes it possible to streamline and systematize the rules that will be applied in relation to the circulation of digital assets.
Today, blockchain applications are being developed for a wide variety of areas of activity - from trade and advertising to logistics and social networks. Building an application using a ready-made blockchain on one of the specialized platforms is the most efficient way to develop. The development of a decentralized voting system on one of the most functional blockchain platforms Ethereum with a developed infrastructure for creating smart contracts is being considered.
This paper aims to show that computer software known as ‘smart contract' can help achieve various goals. First, the software can be used as a means of executing a traditional contract. Second, smart contracts may help enforce the law. Third, the software can act as a means of concluding and executing a contract. In this case, a smart contract can replace a written one. Consequently, the entire contractual practice moves into cyberspace, and we observe total ‘dematerialisation' of contractual relations. Fourth, a smart contract can be used to enforce a court decision. Since the paper focuses on the contractual aspect of this technological innovation, the authors believe that a smart contract should be understood as a computer program serving as an external form for any type of contract. Such a contract can only be blockchain-based, because the blockchain technology ensures commencement, automatic execution, and termination of civil obligations in cyberspace. Based on the authors’ concept of a smart contract, this paper offers recommendations to eliminate legal and operational risks that arise when users of digital financial services conclude and execute smart contracts. The paper suggests ways to improve customer supervision of activities performed by operators and administrators of operating platforms.