Nadezhda Olegovna Sergeeva, Anastasia Albertovna Khairullina, T Dunaeva
The article explores the transformation of financial technologies under the influence of blockchain, focusing on changing the transparency of investment transactions. Based on the analysis of theoretical approaches to trust and empirical studies of the practices of using distributed ledgers in asset management, crowdfunding and syndicated lending, three key mechanisms for increasing transparency have been identified: cryptographic verification, smart contract automation of execution and role-based access differentiation. It is proved that blockchain transforms the institution of trust from interpersonal and institutional to algorithmic, reducing transaction costs, but creating new challenges in the field of privacy and regulatory regulation. It is shown that the introduction of distributed registry technologies leads to the emergence of “hybrid transparency” – a balance between public verifiability and maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive data.
This article explores the role of digital financial instruments in increasing the availability and sustainability of financing in the construction industry. These instruments are characterized as a set of innovative solutions and mechanisms based on the use of digital platforms, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts to optimize the processes of attracting, distributing, and monitoring financial resources in the investment and construction cycle. The study illustrates the impact of digital transformation on the financial availability of construction projects and the evolution of new forms of capital raising. It emphasizes that financial stability and availability of financing are key benchmarks that construction companies aim to achieve through the digitalization of financial processes. The final section summarizes the role of digital financial instruments in transforming the construction industry and ensuring sustainable economic growth.
The article examines the use of intellectual property as collateral and as a tool for attracting financing. It considers the legal and economic aspects of using intellectual property rights to secure loans and investments, as well as the associated investment risks. Russian and international experiences are analyzed. Special attention is given to the challenges of valuing intangible assets, high transaction complexity, and the prospects of digitalizing rights management using distributed ledgers. The article presents conclusions on the significance of intellectual property as a financial resource for innovative businesses and the development of high-tech industries.
The article examines the impact of legal protection of intellectual property on the investment attractiveness of the economy. It considers mechanisms for safeguarding intellectual property, including rights registration, patenting, and the use of digital technologies, as well as their role in reducing transaction costs and increasing investor confidence. The advantages of an effective intellectual property protection system for stimulating innovation, enhancing company capitalization, and developing high-tech industries are analyzed. Special attention is given to international aspects and the prospects for integrating distributed ledgers into economic processes.
Digital Transformation in Law
Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
Digital assets have become a significant and indispensable part of the modern financial system and have brought innovations in the areas of payments, investments, and financial intermediation. However, their expansion brings numerous regulatory challenges, particularly with regard to preventing money laundering, user identification, the legal treatment of decentralized finance, and privacy protection. Approaches to the regulation of digital assets vary significantly among jurisdictions - while some countries introduce comprehensive legislation, others apply restrictive or fragmented policies. Serbia has positioned itself as one of the first countries in the region to adopt a specific Law on Digital Assets (2020), thereby establishing a regulatory framework for this market. This paper analyses the legal challenges of digital assets, exploring national and international regulatory approaches, including the European Union's MiCA Regulation. It also examines the need to strike a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring the stability of the financial system. The key finding is that continuous international cooperation and a flexible regulatory framework are necessary to enable the sustainable development of digital assets and the technologies that support them.
The article is devoted to the study of the possibilities of applying blockchain technology in the system of intellectual property management in the context of the digital economy. The limitations of the traditional rights registration model are examined, and the potential of distributed ledgers for recording authorship, automating royalty payments, and increasing transparency in the circulation of rights is substantiated. The advantages and risks of implementing blockchain solutions are analyzed, as well as the prospects for developing hybrid models involving state registries.
This paper examines the transformative potential of Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”) in bridging the massive infrastructure funding gap in emerging markets. Traditional project finance relies on complex, high-friction syndicated loan structures and equity distributions that often exclude smaller institutional investors and lack secondary market liquidity. The Bank for International Settlements defined tokenisation as the process of generating and recording a digital representation of traditional assets on a programmable platform. By tokenizing infrastructure assets, project sponsors can democratize access to capital and automate revenue distribution via Smart Contracts. However, this transition faces significant legal hurdles. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the existing regulatory landscape, focusing on the Investments and Securities Act 2025 (“ISA 2025”) and the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (“CAMA 2020”) . It interrogates whether infrastructure tokens should be classified as securities, the enforceability of decentralized collateral registries, and the legal standing of automated waterfall payments in bankruptcy scenarios. The paper concludes by proposing a model regulatory sandbox framework designed to provide legal certainty for developers while maintaining robust investor protections.
Radovan Vladisavljević, Aleksandra Zlatić-Tešić, Svetlana Marković
The aim of the work is to present a model of tax control automation using smart contracts, this is a relatively new application of blockchain technologies. The use of new technologies can greatly improve the operations of modern organizations that have digitized their operations. New technologies not only provide a high degree of automation but also provide a high degree of transparency. This leads to faster business with an increase in the level of trust of all participants in the business venture.
The article is devoted to the philosophical, legal and comparative legal analysis of the transformation of the autonomy of the will in the context of algorithmization of private law. The subject of the study is the transformation of the autonomy of the will as a system-forming principle of private law in the context of algorithmization of contractual relations. The focus is on the relationship between automaticity of fulfillment of obligations (smart contracts) and dispositivity, as well as the functional change in the role of the subject of civil law in the digital environment. In this paper, attention is paid to the problem of the relationship between automaticity of fulfillment of obligations and dispositivity as a system-forming principle of contract law. The author proceeds from the historiographical understanding of the autonomy of the will, which has developed in European and Russian civil law, and considers the smart contract as a technological form of realization of the previously expressed will of the parties. Additionally, the limits of judicial control and the preservation of traditional principles of good faith and proportionality in algorithmic mandatory structures are analyzed. The research methodology is based on a combination of philosophical-legal and comparative-legal approaches. The author applies a formal dogmatic method to analyze the category of autonomy of will and the legal nature of a smart contract in Russian civil law. The scientific novelty of the article lies in substantiating the thesis that the algorithmization of private law, contrary to the doctrinally widespread ideas about the "death of the subject" and the replacement of the autonomy of the will by program code, leads not to the denial of the classical model of the contract, but to the functional transformation of the role of the subject. Based on a comprehensive comparative legal analysis (Russia, the countries of continental Europe, the USA, China), the predominance of an integration regulatory model has been revealed, in which a smart contract adapts to existing legal structures without revising the conceptual core of the law of obligations. A comparative legal analysis of the regulation of smart contracts in Russia, the countries of continental Europe, the USA and China demonstrates the predominance of an integration model in which digital technologies adapt to existing legal structures without revising the conceptual core of the contract. The conclusion is drawn that the subject of private law in the era of algorithms does not lose its autonomy, but becomes the architect of its own digital normativity, while maintaining the status of a bearer of will and legal responsibility.
Smart contracts represent a specific synthesis of technology and law. They are agreements that are automatically executed and, owing to blockchain technology, relatively immutable. Due to their automation and immutability, smart contracts constitute a useful instrument of contemporary digital transactions. At the level of the European Union, smart contracts are comprehensively regulated by Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 on fair access to and use of data. In the first part of the paper, the author analyzes the concept of smart contracts, along with a brief explanation of blockchain technology as their underlying basis. In the second part, the author examines the legislation of the Member States of the European Union concerning smart contracts prior to the adoption of the aforementioned Regulation. The central part of the paper is devoted to an analysis of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 relating to smart contracts, with particular emphasis on the essential requirements for smart contracts used in the performance of data sharing agreements, as well as on the procedure for assessing the compliance of smart contracts with those essential requirements. In the conclusion, the author elaborates the thesis that the new European Union legislation, including that relating to smart contracts, represents a qualitative leap compared to previous solutions, as it provides a detailed regulation of some of the most significant issues concerning the functioning of smart contracts and offers appropriate legal and technical guarantees for their successful application.
Smart contracts have revolutionized finance by enabling decentralized applications without intermediaries, yet their widespread adoption has exposed significant gaps in understanding their practical implications and unresolved challenges. Unlike existing works that primarily focus on theoretical overviews, this paper employs a rigorous empirical methodology to bridge the gap between research and real-world operations. By combining insights from user and developer communities, practical experiments on testnets and mainnets, and a comprehensive analysis of prior studies, this work uncovers underexplored applications, highlights discrepancies between theoretical models and actual behaviors, and identifies emerging security, privacy, and social challenges. The paper first provides structural insights into the surveyed contents and then introduces critical security, privacy, and social considerations. The first category of surveyed contents includes well-documented applications such as automated market makers (AMMs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and flash loans. Unlike existing works, this study offers unified explanations that integrate fragmented information while presenting experimental findings and practical proposals. The second category covers under-explored applications like NFT vouchers for real-world assets, wrapped NFTs, and reversible transactions. By offering actionable insights and usage guidelines, this study distinguishes itself by addressing the nuanced, practical realities of smart contract applications, equipping researchers, developers, and users with the knowledge needed to navigate the evolving world of smart contracts effectively.
This article addresses the pressing issue of defining the legal nature and practical description of new types of civil law objects - tokens, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and cryptocurrency - in notarized transactions. The author analyzes the existing legal framework of the Russian Federation, including provisions of the Civil Code and Federal Law No. 259-FZ dated July 31, 2020 “On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency, and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”. The focus is on the challenges faced by notaries in identifying the unique characteristics of these digital assets to unambiguously define them as the subject matter of the transaction in the contract and notarial inscription. The article proposes practical recommendations for formulating descriptions of such objects, considering the requirements of notarial law and the principle of legal certainty. Risks associated with incorrect description of the transaction’s subject matter are examined, along with ways to mitigate them. The conclusion highlights the need for developing unified methodological approaches and potential avenues for legislative improvement.
Abstract Blockchain technology indubitably offers opportunities for the trading of carbon credits through the tokenization of Verified Carbon Credits (VCCs) via DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). These organizations aim to facilitate the trading of VCCs, improve market transparency, reduce transaction costs by eliminating intermediaries and facilitate market access for small entities interested in exploiting this opportunity. Thus, the purpose of this paper—in line with the content of the U nidroit Project on the legal nature of verified carbon credits—is to analyse the tokenization of VCCs through DAOs, given the development of new platforms created for this purpose. To carry out this analysis, it is necessary to study the concepts of blockchain technology, digital assets and DAO.
This paper explores the transformative intersection of blockchain technology, decentralized digital systems, and emerging global data protection frameworks. As the digital economy shifts from centralized data monopolies toward decentralized, cryptographically secure ledgers, traditional legal concepts of privacy, ownership, and intermediary liability face unprecedented challenges. By analyzing current legislative paradigms, specifically the European Union's GDPR, India's DPDP Act, and the IT Rules 2021, this analysis evaluates the efficacy of statutory enforcement against the structural realities of Web3. The paper further forecasts the juridical landscape of 2026 and beyond, examining the implications of smart contracts, self-sovereign identities (SSI), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Ultimately, it argues for a prophylactic legal synthesis: a regulatory approach that harmonizes mathematical trust and code-driven autonomy with equitable human rights, ensuring robust accountability without stifling technological innovation.
This Article examines the national security risks posed by intelligent non-fungible tokens, or iNFTs, which combine blockchain-based digital assets with adaptive artificial intelligence. It argues that iNFTs amplify concerns surrounding money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, cybercrime, and disinformation while creating difficult cross-border problems of jurisdiction, choice of law, and enforcement. The Article concludes that current AML/KYC frameworks are inadequate and calls for updated legislation, international regulatory harmonization, and AI-enabled blockchain analytics.
The article provides a theoretical substantiation of the essence of investment technologies within the system of decentralized finance. Based on a synthesis of existing scientific approaches, the author proposes original definitions for key concepts: "investment technologies", "financial technologies", and "decentralized finance". It is demonstrated that decentralized finance represents an alternative ecosystem built on public blockchains and smart contracts, which ensures the complete elimination of intermediaries. The formulated theoretical propositions establish a foundation for the further development of the organizational and economic framework for managing investment technologies within the DeFi space.
This article examines decentralized finance as an institutional and technological alternative to traditional financial intermediation in the Russian Federation. The economic nature of protocol-based liquidity redistribution, the role of smart contracts, tokenization, and digital financial assets are explored. It is demonstrated that decentralized instruments can reduce transaction costs, expand access to capital, and create new investment channels. However, they are accompanied by technological, legal, fiscal, and systemic risks that require balanced government regulation.