The Phenomenon of Virtual Assets: Economic and Legal Aspects

Abstract

Background and Aim of Study:The current conditions of breakthrough digital technologies keep generating new phenomena.One of them are virtual assets having various types, existence environments, etc.It is known that today there is no clear understanding of virtual assets, nor there is any common classification of them, while the related terms require clarification in relation to economy and law.The aim of the study: to characterize the phenomenon of virtual assets in relation to economy and law relying on the main trends of economy digitalization and establishment of the modern terms. Materials and Methods: In order to study the phenomenon of virtual assets in relation to economy and law, we have used the theoretical methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, generalization, systematization and interpretation of results.Results: Studying the main trends of economy digitalization allowed us to determine the key properties of a virtual asset, to classify the subjects of the digital data accounting system based on the distributed ledger technology in the field of virtual asset use as well as to substantiate the way these subjects ("service providers" -"service users") interrelate and interact.Having established the "original asset derivativeness" criterion and taking into account the objective properties of each virtual asset type and ways of their use, we suggested the following classification of virtual assets of the distributed ledger: tokenized asset and crypto-asset.We have proposed the following modern terms of the field of virtual asset use as well as their definitions: digital data accounting system based on the distributed ledger technology, distributed ledger, distributed ledger token, identifier, tokenized asset, digital asset, original asset, crypto-asset, user of the digital data accounting system based on the distributed ledger technology, service provider, and service user.Conclusions: Using various research methods allowed determining the key properties of a virtual asset, classifying the subjects of the digital data accounting system based on the distributed ledger technology as well as substantiating the way these subjects interrelate and interact in the field of virtual asset use.The classification of virtual assets of the distributed ledger and the modern terms with characteristics of the essence of main concepts of the research subject have been suggested.

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