Legalization of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Private law aspects

Abstract

The emergence of a cryptocurrencies in the economic circulation is a challenge for legal systems. The response of a legal system depends on social, political and international determinants. The first attempts to understand cryptocurrencies usually concerns tax law, which, however, are related to the civilian understanding of the phenomenon. In the Polish legal system, we had a lack of regulation directly related to cryptocurrencies, which caused them to be strictly qualified as an instrument whose exchange for money was not exempt from VAT as Bitcoin was not classified as money. This situation has changed as a result of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has recognized Bitcoin as an alternative means of payment. Recently, new statutory regulations have been introduced in non-European legal systems, i.e. in Japan and Arizona, which regulate cryptocurrencies in a wider way. This allows us to propose classification of legal systems based on the relationship they have towards cryptocurrencies.

Keywords

• cryptocurrency
• Bitcoin
• private law
• Bitcoin legalization