Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Legal Turbulence and Dilemmas of Cryptocurrencies and Other Assets

Foreword

Cryptocurrencies are defined as technologies that aim to distribute the power, power of governance and regulation —which are agglomerated on central authorities— to the members of society. Cryptocurrencies have a huge market value, and the volume of transactions increases every day. In today’s world, cryptocurrencies, crypto monies, and other crypto assets are used as a source of investment. Because of the regulations of governments, they cannot be used as a tool for people to maintain their daily activities without a central authority. Therefore, it cannot be counted as the main aim behind the development of cryptocurrencies. In addition, because of these restricting regulations, neither countries nor citizens can benefit from this huge economic value in maximum level and it causes the usage of crypto assets as a source for black economy. By regulating the usage of cryptocurrencies, countries can benefit from their economic value and the link between these currencies and black markets can be cut. Moreover, during economically difficult times, people can use them as a source of transactions and earning money; as well as decentralized technologies, who can develop faster without harming the sovereignty of the states. In brief, the regulation of cryptocurrencies is beneficial for both countries and individuals about these aspects. This series is going to enlighten the readers about which legal remedies can be generated to use these modern technologies in our daily lives.

This 101 series is divided into seven chapters, with each providing a distinct discursive element on the legal environments of cryptocurrencies.

1. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Development of Cryptocurrencies and Their Effects on Law

2. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Legal Turbulence and Asset Dilemmas of Cryptocurrencies and Other Crypto Assets

3. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Regulations about Cryptocurrencies in America: In North American and South American Countries

4. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Regulations about Cryptocurrencies in Asia: China, Russia and Others

5. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Regulations about Cryptocurrencies in Europe: United Kingdom, France, Germany and Others

6. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Regulations about Cryptocurrencies in African Countries

7. Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Dispute Resolutions by Using Decentralized Systems: Resolutions For Cryptocurrencies

Law of Cryptocurrencies 101: Legal Turbulence and Asset Dilemmas of Cryptocurrencies and Other Crypto Assets

The digitization process can create opportunities for economies and legal categories such as monetary law, the law of obligations, and the law of property. It impacts several areas irreversibly and produces significant breakdowns in different areas. These technologies are defined as disruptive technologies and, as much as they benefit, they can cause huge gaps and issues that must be solved (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021). Cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and smart contracts are under these disruptive technologies, which strongly relate to the law system. According to the data of Forbes, there are more than 1.100 kinds of virtual currencies around the world such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, etc. (Cvetkova, 2018). Today, the value of total Bitcoin in cryptocurrency markets exceeds one trillion dollars (Topaloğlu, 2021). Thus, it is clear that lawyers and regulators have to start discussing the problems of integrating the law system regarding cryptocurrencies. Depending on technological characteristics, cryptocurrencies must be regulated differently (Rueckert, 2019).

Currencies are divided into two categories: official digital or printing monies of central banks versus private monies. Digital and crypto monies cannot be counted as the same currencies. Today, electronic banking makes us transact digitally over the Internet (Low & Teo, 2018). Cryptocurrencies are instead under the category of private monies. They are divided from digital currencies by their three features: ensuring anonymity, independence from central banks, and double spending attack protection. They are also divided from digital currencies because of being decentralized. Indeed, digital currencies are also collected in banks and central computer systems (Cvetkova, 2018). These specialties create many question marks in the legal area that must be solved. As a matter of fact, users in the system decide the form of regulation (Lansky, 2018) and integrating this legal structure into the current law systems is a challenging task. Actually, in 107 country out of 251 there isn't any legislation about cryptocurrencies (Oral & Yeşilkaya, 2021). This article explores the problems that need to be solved if cryptocurrency is going to be a transaction tool.

Figure 1: Basic Concepts of Cryptocurrencies

Issues in Public Law

Cyberspace is a new world and it is out of the control of the public actors. Cryptocurrencies are a developed part of this cyberspace and a central server or primary computer does not control them. They are channeled through a network of media that includes thousands of computers (Amsyar et al., 2020). These specialties of blockchain technology and crypto monetary units do not mean that states can never interrupt or regulate decentralized systems. Actually, tracking the transactions with every single crypto money brings several advantages for states: stolen money can be detected and can be brought back, the mining process can be controlled, and the exchange of cryptocurrencies with today’s fiat currencies can be restricted (Rueckert, 2019). Despite that, the track and interruption of blockchain systems and cryptocurrency markets will harm the main aim of these decentralized systems. By regulating public authorities, crypto monetary units can turn into centralized private digital monies, which is a considerable risk for them. Their decentralized structure has to be protected. As a result, disruptive technologies such as cryptocurrencies can mix public actors’ policies and rules of private and technological establishments (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021).

Issues in Constitutional Law

Whole establishments worldwide have their own rules to continue to exist and maintain their internal arrangements. Blockchain protocols and cryptocurrencies must hold their own rules as well. In other words, to make economic exchanges, these protocols have to have their constitutional order (Berg et al., 2018). It is a mechanism based on the consensus among users, and it can be defined as “shared truth.” Individuals have absolute power over their governance by these rules (Novak et al., 2020), and whole these rules can be found in a text called “The White Paper” of the blockchain protocol and related cryptocurrency.

The danger of the white paper on cryptocurrencies about the states demonstrates contradictions with states’ constitutional regulations (Berg et al., 2018). Any state does not control cryptocurrency transactions, so the rules on their white papers cannot be controlled by an authority as well. The system and its protocol include technical and operational features, which serve as a rule system for individuals and groups of individuals for exchanges (Novak et al.,2020). So, individuals can decide which rules they will be obliged to follow differently from states’ constitutions. These people can be eager to use the defined rules instead of the rules of central authority. It is also a question mark that the constitutional rules or white paper rules will be applied to the deals on the blockchain systems. As a result, if the activities on blockchain systems are going to increase, there is a risk that states’ constitutions can lose their efficiencies in daily transactions. It is a severe threat to all states.

State Sovereignty on Transactions

Decentralized markets can be interrupted by public authorities. Nevertheless, none of the countries has the option to extinguish cryptocurrency by prohibiting it; they can only restrict these monetary units from being used on their territories (Lansky, 2018). Eliminating central entities necessitates a consensus mechanism about the legitimacy of the relevant blockchain protocol to validate transactions, exchanges, and registrations. In this condition, there won't be any need for public authority. Trust in the blockchain environment based on cryptocurrencies creates adverse conditions for public actors and policies (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021). In addition, by allowing users to choose appropriate rules, new private entities can be established to exhibit these rules —threatening public authorities.

The whole of these points are well-known aspects of cryptocurrencies by public authorities. For that reason, regulators have started to try finding a solution to the lack of central authority. To protect their sovereignty on daily transactions, especially in China and Arabia, they increasingly rely on online intermediaries and enforce strict policies in the digital environment (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021). When this happens, as it is mentioned below, crypto monies start losing their function and move away from the main aim that Satoshi Nagatomo mentioned in 2008: a democratized, secure and independent system from central aurhorities (Nagatomo, 2008). Thus, these opposite structures must be balanced between public authorities and decentralized mechanisms. It is the biggest obstacle against using cryptocurrencies in daily life and for commercial activities.

Figure 2: Satoshi's Scheme About How Blockchain Works

Issues in Criminal Law

Cryptocurrencies are developed to increase trust in economic assets and to democratize the global financial system. Despite that, today, they are one of the primary sources of fraudulent activities, the black market, and other illegal attempts. For instance, until its closure by the FBI, Silk Road's website was used for illegal activities such as arms dealing, trade of illegal drugs, or hiring a thief or a hitman. Crypto monetary units made whole transactions on this website, and because of that reason, the sources and destinations of the money could not be found. Therefore, it is clear that integrating cryptocurrencies into daily life is highly linked to criminal law. However, legal research has not discussed the relationship between cryptocurrencies and crimes such as anti-money laundering, fraudulent activities, and violating a fundamental right by a criminal activity based on blockchain technology (Rueckert, 2019).

European Banking Authority has defined 70 risks for cryptocurrency transactions for businesses, individuals, and exchange offices (Lansky, 2018). These are essential risks in private law and especially in criminal law. Authorities face several problems when criminals use cryptocurrencies to execute their illegal activities. Firstly, criminals do not need to use regulated exchange platforms when exchanging a cryptocurrency with existing fiat money (Rueckert, 2019). Secondly, account anonymity is a severe problem when used for fraudulent activity (Lansky, 2018). When an illegal attempt is made, identifying the perpetrator of that attempt can be extremely hard, maybe impossible for central authorities. In addition, without a central authority, current investigation methods will fail because there will be a lack of power to apply a criminal procedures on employees, witnesses, or bank accounts. That is why new investigation methods must be found (Rueckert, 2019). The last issue that authorities can face is the irreversible structure of blockchain. Indeed, for criminal actions, when a transaction is made and it cannot be reversed, central authorities cannot atone fraudulent or deceiving activity. In other words, it is difficult to withdraw funds when they are used for criminal activity (Lansky, 2018).

The most considerable crypto money theft activity was realized in 2016: 'The DAO Hack'. The DAO was the first Decentralized Autonomous Organization —which gave name to these new corporations— that took 11.5 million Ether, equal to 150 million dollars from investors worldwide. After the organization's establishment, 60 million of the money invested in the DAO was stolen in 2016 by a new theft method towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies (Morris, 2023). Because of the uncertainty about the legal statutes of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, criminal law and criminal procedure rules could not be applied to 'The DAO Hack'. In other words, criminal law and lawyers were not ready for a case like such. Because of that, neither the stolen money nor the hacker himself could be found and punished. It is still uncertain that 'The DAO Hack' can be defined as a criminal activity according to the laws of 2016 (Noone, 2022). In addition to this hack, there are still unregulated crimes related to blockchain technology, which mount up to 51% of attacks or phishing.

Because of the uncertainty about which criminal activities can be realized by using crypto assets and blockchain technology, states and their establishments start to take strict criminal actions to interfere greatly with cryptocurrency markets and decentralized establishments. As we mentioned in the first part of public law, if states apply current investigation methods to blockchain-based platforms and use cryptocurrencies, these decentralized technologies will also lose their importance (Rueckert, 2019). Consequently, the imbalanced situation regarding the adaptation of daily activities and the state economic system with cryptocurrencies can also be seen in criminal law.

Figure 3: Types of Currencies and Their Location on Monetary System

Issues in Law of Economics (Public Law Branch)

In today’s global financial system, governments, central banks, private banking institutions, and central administrative inspection corporations control the monetary units around the world. State authorities detect the level of total money and relevant policies are decided by these authorities as well. In other words, by deciding the total circulated money, states can manage prices, employment rates, balance sheets, and other economic aspects (Topaloğlu, 2021). It is not a completely secure system; thus, it can face several attacks caused by hackers. For example, in 2016, hackers stole twenty million dollars by using the SWIFT system from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through Bangladesh Central Bank. This fraudulent activity has been realized because of the system based on trust. On the contrary, cryptocurrencies are based on cryptographic proof instead of trust (Low & Teo, 2018). Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, work with a network of public keys in blockchain systems and keep track of the account balances of all users. Every client in the computer system can create an infinite number of keys and identify themselves to the administrative unit of the system (Rueckert, 2019). The rising importance of cryptocurrencies can create new challenges for public actors to protect their monopolistic condition on monetary units and financial systems (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021).

As a result, it can be understood that cryptographic monetary systems are fully democratized systems, and individuals can manage their financial situations themselves. It is also a threat to state sovereignty. For instance, in countries with high inflation rates, people can suffer significantly because of decreasing purchasing power and living standards. In periods like these, for citizens, crypto monies can be a better alternative for transactions. Turkey is one of these countries that has been facing hyperinflation. During this economic difficulty, the total value of crypto money that Turkish citizens bought has risen to 192 billion dollars. In addition, the peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange rate in the country rose 51% during Q1 and 40% during Q2 of 2022. Because of Turkish citizens' interest in crypto assets, the government has started to apply new restrictions on crypto money markets as prohibiting the use of crypto monetary units for trade activities (Gogo, 2022). As we can understand from the example of Turkey, preferring private monetary units instead of official currencies certainly causes a downfall in state sovereignty over economic control and financial systems.

Issues in Tax Law

It is essential to define cryptocurrencies as property of money for the taxation process. If they are counted as money, they will be obliged to the taxation process of monetary units. On the other hand, if they are accepted as property, they will be counted as a subject that must be taxed according to the properties. In any case, there is no common ground around the world about the taxation of cryptocurrencies. In different parts of the world, cryptocurrencies are taxed by central authorities differently. For instance, Australian Tax Services did not accept crypto monetary units as a local or foreign currency (Cvetkova, 2018). Differently, Israel has agreed to tax them according to the dues of foreign investments. Another scenario is Germany, which did not accept cryptocurrencies as fiat monies and refused to tax them as property (Oral & Yeşilkaya, 2021). Instead, USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS) accepts cryptocurrencies as properties and taxes them according to properties imposts. In addition to the exception of the IRS, different states apply different taxes to cryptocurrencies in the USA. On the other hand, Florida did not accept it as money (Allen et al.) On the one hand, the district of Columbia accepts cryptocurrencies as monetary units. As a result, both these states apply different taxation to cryptocurrencies. From these points, it can be understood that the statute of cryptocurrencies about being money or property has to be decided. This uncertainty creates several concerns regarding tax dodging and loss (Oral & Yeşilkaya,2021).

Figure 4: Share of the Population That Owns Cryptocurrencies in Top 20 Economy

Issues in Private Law

The utilization of cryptocurrencies is superior to fiat currencies in many ways. They can be divided into small financial assets, making them suitable for micro payments. In addition, they are faster than current methods for international transactions, such as SWIFT. On the other hand, the exchange rates between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies can fluctuate fast and dramatically. It can cause huge economic loss and instabilities for both individuals and establishments. In addition, relevant data about private transactions are stored in the blockchain, and sometimes they cannot be used for civil investigations because of their stored condition on the blockchain (Lansky, 2018). As a result, unlike the relationship between decentralized systems and public authorities, there are not any significant obstacles against integrating cryptocurrencies and private law. The main problem about private law is the gaps in its relationship with crypto monies and blockchain technology. Several questions about their relationship with cryptocurrencies, the law of obligations, commercial law, property law, and personal data protection need to be answered.

Issues in Law of Obligations

Cryptocurrencies and the basis of their transactions —smart contracts— are linked to the general principles of the law of obligations. Nevertheless, there are considerable voids in these links. The legal basis of a deal between two parties can be realized by the integration of their consent/will (Çekin, 2019); it is an accepted rule in whole law systems around the world. With the development of smart contracts, this consent be thrown out of focus, and it will cause new concerns in the law of obligations. While using a smart contract for a transaction, the consent is explained by using private keys, and this transaction has to be permitted by whole individuals in the system. In other words, it is not sufficient that the transaction will be applied only by the other side of the contract. Another problem is the defects in the consent. According to the general principles of the law of obligations, the transactions must be changed if the consent is defective, which means that the invalidity of consent in a transaction will change the records of whole blocks (Çekin, 2019). However, blockchain is an immutable ledger, and technically, cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, even with a court order deciding the reverse of the transaction (Lansky, 2018). Therefore, technically or legally, there is still no established solution for both of these situations.

Figure 5: The Difference Between Soft Fork and Hard Fork

The forks in the blockchain system cause the second issue. Forks can be defined as developing a new blockchain protocol or crypto monetary unit developed using an existing blockchain protocol. They can be divided into two categories: soft forks and hard forks. Soft forks make consensus rules strict at the same time they restrict the number of valid transactions. On the other hand, hard forks include new features previously accepted as invalid (Lansky, 2018). After a fork is established in a blockchain protocol of a cryptocurrency, it can be uncertain whether the transaction is valid or invalid. A valid transaction can be invalid after a hard fork on the protocol, or an invalid transaction can also start to be valid. That said, an apparent uncertainty can originate from these forks in cryptocurrencies.

Another concern we face about the law of obligation is the dependency on the law systems. During the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts, the parties of a contract can decide which law they will apply to their contracts. For instance, two Turkish citizens who will make a smart contract with each other and make their payments with cryptocurrencies do not have an obligation to be dependent on Turkish law and legal rules. This condition is known in arbitration law. Indeed, during arbitration, parties can decide the law system among each other. Despite the fact that the blockchain system's closed structure and the parties' anonymity, applying the decided law system to the smart contract can be more difficult for central authorities.

Issues in Law of Economics (Private Law Branch)

As we mentioned above, the lack of a central authority for the controlling mechanism of cryptocurrencies makes it more democratized and secure. However, we cannot say that it is a completely secure system. The lack of a trusted third party creates other problems, which cannot be solved by regulations suitable for bank money and earlier forms of digital money (Low and Teo, 2018). For instance, a cryptocurrency address combines a private key and a cryptocurrency account address. This account address can be calculated by finding the private key quickly, and by this process, controlling the stored cryptocurrency units becomes effortless (Lansky, 2018). One individual can own millions of cryptocurrency accounts related to one private key, and when this key is found by an attacker, whole units stored on these accounts can be stolen anonymously (Lansky, 2018). For instance, in the incident of Bitfinex, almost 72 million dollars were stolen and the price of the Bitcoin was plugged. Because of the encrypted mechanism of blockchain-based systems, after the famous DAO hack, neither the stolen money could be taken back nor could investors be refunded by the organization (Morris, 2023). As a result, 150 billion dollars have been lost irreversibly. The examples from above show that the consequences of hacking a cryptocurrency wallet and stealing money inside of it are costly. Cryptocurrency systems may be more immune to these fraudulent activities; even if they suffer one, the economic loss will be huge and less irreversible (Low & Teo, 2018).

Figure 6: General Risks About Cryptocurrencies

Issues in Commercial Law

One of the most extensive discussions about cryptocurrencies is whether they can be used for daily commercial activities. There are several risks to the usage of cryptocurrencies in those activities. The first of these risks is the low market capitalization of crypto money markets. It is caused by the limited number of users and exchange rates with fiat currencies. Crypto money units can lose their price extremely fast because of the speculations about these exchange rates (Lansky, 2018). The second risk is violating the contract during the payment with crypto money. Due to the automatic structure of the cryptocurrency, the procedure cannot be reversed. It is a condition that can decrease trust in transactions with cryptocurrencies and include almost no regulation worldwide (Özgün Law, 2022). In addition to both of these points, private key knowledge, party anonymity, and irreversibility of transactions can also be problematic for the relationship between cryptocurrencies and commercial law. These specialties of blockchain can cause irrecoverable losses for companies (Lansky, 2018).

Another problem is using cryptocurrencies as a capital source for different companies. There are different types of capital: money capital, real capital, and capital of idea. Using cryptocurrencies as money capital is impossible because, according to the definition of money in several countries’ legislation, cryptocurrencies cannot be accepted as money (Bilginli & Cengil, 2019). To use cryptocurrencies in commercial activities in a state, the most popular advice is to turn the crypto monetary unit into the existing monetary unit in the state (Topaloğlu, 2021). On the other hand, there is no legal obstacle to using these monetary units as a source of natural capital and capital of ideas; there is uncertainty about this situation. In other words, they can be integrated into the monetary resources of a company as non-monetary funds (Bilginli & Cengil, 2019). In fact, companies as Microsoft, Shopify, Twitch, Reddit, and XBox have started to use cryptocurrencies as capital gain for their companies (Günen, 2021).

On commercial systems based on blockchain technology, transaction records are kept in blocks and cannot be shared with third parties (Topaloğlu, 2021). Sometimes, in order to protect the competition among companies or prevent illegal activities, a central authority must access these records. In traditional states, these supervisions are made by establishments such as Competition Authorities or Audit Commissions. In a blockchain-based commercial system, there will be no authority to supervise these transactions. As a result, this deficiency can cause an increasing economic power among big establishments as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

Figure 7: How DAO Works?

The last point we must discuss is the new type of company, Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs). DAO scan is a decentralized establishment that operates anonymously without traditional leadership or hierarchy. They aim to create a virtual entity to replace central management (Mienret, 2021). Instead of its benefits for accessing the market and cost efficiency, there still needs to be a definition of DAOs. It is a complex process to determine the applicable law and its corporate status. Most legal statutes accept DAOs as general partnerships (Mienret, 2021). That means they cannot be counted as official companies, and whole individuals who benefit from the system economically will have a general responsibility. However, there are also some exceptions. In the United States, states such as Wyoming and Tennessee accept DAOs as legal entities (Weinstein et al., 2022). Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are new types of companies, and their lack of legal statutes can cause several problems. Enforcing contracts, defining the borders of legal liability, creating relationships with the law of securities, and protecting them from being used for illegal activities can be complicated. One of the main reasons for The DAO Hack was the lack of the legal statute of DAOs; no legal rules could be applied to The DAO organization to solve the problem (Noone, 2022). Thus, these legal statutes for DAOs have to be defined immediately as other types of companies immediately in the universal area.

Issues in Law of Properties

All assets and goods create value under legal systems, which can be movable and immovable. A behavior related to the right to protect these values is connected with the definition of property (Rueckert, 2019). It is still uncertain whether cryptocurrencies must be counted as money or property. If they will be counted as money, there is no question mark about how owners can buy a property using these crypto monies. Nevertheless, if they will be counted as property, the legal status for buying a physical or virtual property by crypto monetary units is still being determined. For legal experts, these transactions can be defined as contracts to exchange goods. However, there is not any specific qualification about this aspect (Üzümcü & Yıldırım, 2022). To buy real estate properties with cryptocurrencies, new legal applications started to be applied in several countries. For instance, real estate companies in Dubai have announced that they will start accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, creating a legal basis for these transactions. (Oral & Yeşilkaya, 2021). Dubai Land Department has introduced a blockchain-based system in that whole real estate contracts are recorded. With this system, tenants can make electronic payments with fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies, and the whole process of buying property can be done in a few minutes (Graglia & Mellon, 2018). The number of attempts like these has to be increased.

Figure 8: A Graph About the Attacks to Crypto Exchange Platforms

Issues in Protection of Personal Data

Fundamental rights protect the conduct of individuals against the interference of the state or another authority (Rueckert, 2019). Many future regulatory concepts will include the integration of fundamental rights with cryptocurrencies. Anytime law and government authorities interfere with fundamental rights; they must protect those rights and meet the objectives of general interests. The interaction of those rights in cryptocurrencies starts with the blockchain system, protecting personal data. Indeed, personal data in cyberspace are among these fundamental rights and it must be protected exceptionally well (Rueckert, 2019).

There are three types of cryptocurrency systems: people inside the cryptocurrency system as developers of the relevant protocol and mining process. These people operate as intermediaries and groups of legal people, such as banks and merchant organizations (Rueckert, 2019). Cryptocurrency users want freedom in controlling personal data and money, and it needs the absence of a third party (Amsyar et al., 2020). The structure of the blockchain system is a highly beneficial system for the protection of personal data. In addition, the automatic satisfaction of the debt in the blockchain system can cause one to be destitute of personal data (Çekin, 2019).

Transactions with cryptocurrencies cannot easily be identified. So, to understand the parties of the transactions, actors outside the transactions can use other personal data to identify the user (Lansky, 2018). It is a way to understand the parties that can violate the general principles to protect personal data. Criminal investigations cause another breach to the fundamental right. To continue a criminal investigation against an activity made by cryptocurrencies, authorities have to collect several personal data. It both means an interference with the private life of users/crypto money owners and a breach of the main principle of blockchain technology, which cannot be interrupted by a third party (Rueckert, 2019).

Figure 9: An Illustration About the Protection of Personal Data by Blockchain

On the other hand, one of the responsibilities of public actors is to protect fundamental rights and freedoms (Pollicino & Gregorio, 2021). If there is no authority to protect personal data as Personal Data Protection Authorities or any legislation as GDPR, it is not a guarantee to keep these personal data safe. The blockchain ecosystem and its technical aspect is a highly beneficial technology to keep personal data safe and secure. Even so, without a central authority to protect personal data, when these data are stolen, there will be no provision against this activity or attempt to take this stolen data back. The last breach of the protection of personal data is caused by blockchain technology itself. One of the fundamental rights of personal data is the right to be forgotten. Every individual has a right to request deleting their data from the server of an establishment or the Internet. Blockchain is an immutable ledger, and changing a record on that system is almost impossible. For that reason, the technology itself broke this fundamental right, a topic that needs to be resolved legally.

A Brief About These Issues

The future cannot be prevented, and as with other technologies, cryptocurrencies will be a part of our daily lives and other aspects of global administrative systems. However, there are still many points that need to be clarified. First, decentralized systems are inevitably a threat to states. At the same time, if states regulate these systems, they will lose their specialties. A balanced structure needs to be found between cryptocurrencies and states. In addition, in private law, there needs to be more regulation about cryptocurrencies. As a conclusion, the question we need to ask is: how can we link these monetary units to the areas of private law? Many studies have to be made in this field.

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Visual References

Cover Image: Henn, P. (2021). Cryptocurrency countries: In which countries is crypto legal? [Photograph]. Currency.com. https://currency.com/cryptocurrency-countries-crypto-legal

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