Abstract This article addresses the issue of e-voting in commercial companies in Poland from the perspective of the company’s shareholders. It presents this issue as an example of digital democracy and discusses the associated challenges and opportunities. The article is based on the dogmatic-legal and the comparative-legal methods. The main aim is to examine whether regulations regarding e-voting by shareholders on the resolutions of commercial companies in Poland have improved the conduct of shareholder voting or have established barriers that complicate this process. The second research issue is an attempt to answer the question of whether regulations introduced by the Polish legislature enable the use of modern technologies for conducting voting, including systems based on distributed ledger technology and virtual worlds. The research allowed for the formulation of the following research theses: firstly, the regulations contained in the Polish Commercial Companies Code allow for the widespread use of electronic voting methods by shareholders when resolutions are adopted. However, they are not available in all commercial companies, nor to the same extent. Secondly, voting using methods based on distributed ledger technology is also permissible. However, voting at a meeting cannot be conducted solely virtually. The conclusions include proposals for clarification of the legal provisions in this area, which will enable more effective use of e-voting in commercial companies in Poland.
The work examines modern approaches to building electronic voting systems, such as blockchain, which promises to revolutionize the process due to its immutability and decen-tralization properties, as well as traditional cryptographic methods, including homomorphic encryption, which allows vote counting without the need to decrypt each individual vote. Blind signatures ensure the ability to confirm a vote without disclosing the user's identity, and zero-knowledge proofs allow voting without interacting with the server. The goal of the work is to select an approach for building electronic voting systems based on a comparative analy-sis of their key characteristics. The solved tasks include reviewing the requirements, general-ized structures, and main procedures of electronic voting systems; analyzing the existing types of electronic voting systems and their comparative characteristics. During the work, existing systems and other literature were thoroughly analyzed. The article provides a de-tailed analysis of the advantages and limitations of these technologies, as well as their suit-ability for different electoral systems, considering important aspects such as scalability, effi-ciency, and protection against potential threats. Throughout the work, a list of requirements for electronic voting systems was compiled, the main procedures present in electronic voting systems were outlined, a set of actors in typical electronic voting systems was defined, and the generalized structures of their main types were presented. A comparative analysis of the types of electronic voting systems based on compliance with the requirements was conducted. An approach was chosen for further system development.
The article is devoted to the study of the administrative and legal status of local self-government bodies in the process of implementing the decentralization reform. Currently, Ukraine is undergoing a decentralization reform. Its beginning, in its current form, is considered to be the approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of the concept of reforming local self-government and territorial organization of power in Ukraine in 2014 and the approval of the action plan for its implementation, which launched the decentralization reform. In 2020-2021, a new stage of decentralization is taking place in Ukraine, which was characterized by a number of significant legislative changes. The article examines the administrative and legal status of local self-government bodies. It is argued that the term “local self-government body” is understood as an autonomous, non-sovereign legal entity of public law, which was created and received its power from a law adopted by Parliament. The degree of independence of local self-government in decision-making is determined by the nature and structure of administrative relations with state authorities. It is concluded that during the implementation of the reform, the legislation on local self-government and related legislation should be revised and improved in such a way as to expand the powers of local self-government bodies and contribute to the better performance of their functions, especially in the management of personnel issues, financial affairs and in determining their own priorities in the provision of public services. Despite the revision and amendment of the legislation on local self-government and other relevant legislation, the analysis of scientific sources gives grounds to assert that the exercise by local self-government bodies of their statutory powers and the performance of the functions assigned to them largely remained under the influence and control of the state authorities.
Błyskawiczny rozwój systemów wirtualnych walut o zasięgu globalnym powoduje, że problematyka ich prawnego uregulowania staje się koniecznością. Systemu bitcoin – i jemu podobnych – nie da się zamknąć ani zabronić, dlatego coraz więcej krajów koncentruje się na „wymuszonej” akceptacji traktowania tego typu walut jako środka płatności w transakcjach handlowych. Jednak ich podejście do problematyki alternatywnej waluty jest zróżnicowane. W zależności od stopnia zaangażowania poszczególnych państw dostosowanie przepisów do potrzeb współczesnego systemu walutowego wydaje się wielkim wyzwaniem. W artykule przedstawiono podejście wybranych krajów do rynku wirtualnych walut na przykładzie bitcoina oraz potrzebę wprowadzenia regulacji prawno-podatkowych niezbędnych do legalnego ich użytkowania. W dalszej części skoncentrowano się na interpretacjach podatkowych polskich izb skarbowych. Liczba składanych zapytań interpretacyjnych wskazuje, że problem ich legalnego użytkowania musi być jednoznacznie rozwiązany.
Artyku powicony jest zagadnieniu bitcoina na paszczynie cywilnoprawnej. Podjto w nim rozwaania de lege lata w wskim zakresie zarwno prawa cywilnego, jak i rodzinnego odnonie do problematyki dotyczcej moliwoci podziau
Przemysław Rodwald, Witold Sobolewski, Maja Rodwald
The aim of this article is to show how one can deanonymize users of cryptocurrencies. To this end the most popular of the cryptocurrencies, i.e. bitcoin is used as an example. At the beginning, the basic concepts about cryptocurrencies are presented. Afterwards, our approach to systematize the types of transactions existing in the blockchain is proposed. This part is enriched with the graphs showing their quantitative occurrence in the blockchain. The main part of this article presents the heuristics use to deanonymize users. A few practical pieces of advice for implementation of the presented heuristics in the real deanonymizing system are included. Then the real case studies are introduced. They are supported with comments based on the experience from court trials carried out by the authors. The final part contains legal regulations and existing tools supporting the deanonymizing process. Keywords: deanonymization, cryptocurrency, bitcoin.
Local government reform has been acknowledged to be one of the biggest successes of political transformation in Poland. Municipalities (gminy) gained strong powers and are now responsible for many public services of crucial importance to local communities. The districts (powiaty) and provinces (województwa) were also given important competences in the fields of public services and the responsibility for their development. Their autonomy is guarded by legal, institutional and financial guarantees and strong local leaders. The carefully designed institutional framework of local and regional government seemed to be permanent and durable, guaranteeing strong decentralization and providing local and provincial authorities with substantial decision-making powers and responsibilities for a vast majority of public services.Such a broad field for the functioning of the local government does not remain without interpretation problems. The consecutive central governments were finding common ground in their instrumental approach to local authorities' independence. It was convenient for the state to decentralize problems and challenges, while keeping control over finance and other resources, as well as looking for ways to increase supervisory powers over local government. Almost 30 years after the reintroduction of territorial self-government in Poland, it is expected to be well rooted in the constitutional system of Poland, but is it really so?
This article concerns the correlation between criminal law and procedure and the technical, technological and civilisation progress in the form of possibility to stand bail in Bitcoin virtual currency (cryptocurrency) in the criminal procedure. The article, firstly, presents introductory remarks to provide information about the analysed subject. Secondly, there is an outline of the essence and mechanism of applying bail in criminal procedure. Thirdly, the process transformation of money as an element of assets is presented. Fourthly, the article presents a categorisation of digital money and an economic qualification of Bitcoin. The above provides a background for argumentation relating to the legal qualification of Bitcoin as money and presentation of the basic threats connected with this cryptocurrency. The article ends with a brief summary containing the authors’ view on the subject of these reflections and a proposal of the desired legal amendments, addressed to the Polish legislator.
Recent years have witnessed the emergence of digital currencies - digital representations of value which are transferred using IT technologies and used as a medium of exchange but are not recognised as official means of payment. Bitcoins are one of such currencies and their popularity in Europe and in Poland has been growing. Hence it is a good time to consider to what extent Polish law is prepared to face the phenomenon and what potential problems may arise from it for the judicial system. The main objective of the paper is to analyse Polish tax regulations in the context of bitcoin transactions, as broadly understood.
Cybercriminals use cryptocurrency Bitcoin since it come to existence. It is an ideal, anonymous platform for global money transfer. Bitcoin does not have authority or central issuer, so there is no way to steal it from its holder. It is therefore used by the criminal groups around the world. This article aims to increase the reader’s knowledge on new technologies of money transfer. This knowledge will help the reader to improve the quality of personal security on the Internet. In effect it will reduce the potential risk of various types of frauds and other cybercrimes.