Legal Framework for Central Bank Digital Currencies and the Digital Ruble

Abstract

The introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) requires an appropriate legal framework. Its absence creates serious legal and reputational risks that may undermine citizens' confidence in the new digital form of national currency. The purpose of this article is to explore the approaches to the formation of the legal basis for the functioning of CBDCs based on the analysis of foreign experience and Russian legislation. The article highlights the legal features of CBDCs that allow to distinguish them from other state digital financial instruments. The author proposes a legal taxonomy of retail CBDCs, revealing the legal consequences of the choice of CBDC design. Special attention is paid to the problem of legal balance between user privacy and security. The article investigates legal approaches to the regulation of CBDC of foreign countries, primarily China. The author analyses the legislation on the digital ruble, which showed the insufficiency of legal guarantees to protect the rights of citizens — users of the digital ruble platform, which may negatively affect public confidence in the digital ruble.

Keywords

• central bank digital currency (cbdc)
• legal taxonomy
• retail cbdcs
• programmable cbdcs
• digital ruble
• digital yuan