Criminal legal regulation of the blockchain functioning sphere in Russia: challenges and barriers

Abstract

Research background. Despite the enormous attention of the scientific community, legislators, and law enforcement officials to the development and implementation of measures to combat cybercrime, the sphere of blockchain functioning and cryptocurrency circulation remains outside the scope of most criminal law research. This causes perplexity in the context of the desire of state bodies to introduce blockchain technology in many significant areas of society, as well as to introduce a regulatory framework dedicated to the issues of private and public legal regulation of digital financial assets. Concerns are also caused by the increase in the number of cybercrimes and the increasing involvement in them of the blockchain technology and virtual currencies, the circulation of which is carried out based on blockchain. The need to study the prospects for criminal law regulation of the blockchain functioning spheres in the territory of the Russian Federation becomes more and more obvious in such conditions. Study objective: to identify and to study the main challenges (problems) for modern criminal law regulation of the blockchain functioning sphere, possible barriers (obstacles) that reduce the effectiveness of such regulation, as well as potential directions for responding to these challenges and overcoming such barriers. Methods: formal legal and comparative legal research methods are widely used in conjunction with systemic, logical, and philological methods of interpreting the norms of law. The empirical part of the study is based on the investigation of judicial and other law enforcement practices, as well as transcripts of meetings of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and information from the media about criminal offenses that have become widespread in the sphere of blockchain functioning. The analysis of modern foreign and Russian scientific literature relevant to the selected research topic is carried out. Results and novelty: it is the first time that comprehensive analysis of the challenges of the current stage of the blockchain functioning sphere development, as well as legislative, law enforcement, doctrinal, and social barriers for creating a system of effective and comprehensive criminal law regulation of the named sphere, is carried out. The author’s concept of the directions of responding to the analyzed challenges and overcoming the corresponding barriers is presented.