Digital Currency and Novelties in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Topical Issues

Introduction: the article analyzes the concept and legal nature of digital currency and certainnoveltiesrelated to digital currency, which were put forward in the last few years so as to be introduced in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Aims: to study and summarize legislative initiatives related to digital currency; to define the concept and essence of digital currency; to establish its place in the civil rights system; to analyze the possibility of recognizing digital currency as an object and (or) a means of committing crimes. Methods: historical, comparative-legal, empirical methods of description and interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; legal-dogmatic method, and interpretation of legal norms. Results: having analyzed the development of Russian legislation regulating the legal status of new digital objects of economic relations we see that the features that make up the general concept of digital currency do not allow us to determine the range of objects that fit this legislative definition; moreover, these features do not allow us to define digital currency as an object of civil rights and identify which operations and transactions with it are legal. Due to the above, it is impossible to establish criminal liability for committing acts involving digital currency. Conclusions: we have revealed certain tendencies toward legalization of digital currency on the one hand, and prevention of its use for payment for goods and services, including the imposition of criminal-legal prohibitions, on the other hand. The concept of digital currency needs to be revised: its definition should not contain a reference to the operator and the nodes of the information system. The most correct solution seems to be the introduction of the concept of cryptocurrency to denote a decentralized means of expressing value; as for digital currency, it should be understood as centralized funds, for example the digital ruble. Digital currency must be recognized as an object of civil rights, being classified as other property. This will help to minimize the difficulties in recognizing it as a subject or means of crime and introduce socially determined prohibitions into the criminal law.Keywords: digital currency; digital rights; cryptocurrency; amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; novelties in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; crimes against property; crimes in the field of economic activity; theft