Financial security of the state in the field of circulation and use of virtual currencies
Authors: Perepelytsya Maria 
Published: October 2021

Problem setting. An important condition for the financial security of any state is full control over the monetary system, which allows not only to perform tasks in the field of regulation of social processes, but also to predict their further development, to determine priorities. Legislation regulated such types of financial security as budget, tax, banking, monetary, currency, investment, debt and others. Legal relations within these areas of financial activity of the state are clear to its participants, they function in the material "physical" world and the state only corrects them by making changes and additions to existing legal norms and laws.

The rapid development of information technology (digital revolution) has penetrated and continues to affect all spheres of society. In IT, there is a direction that works to improve financial technologies. The creation of a virtual currency or cryptocurrency, i.e. virtual money, can be considered a revolutionary discovery in the field of financial technologies.

Money is the main component of the state's financial sovereignty, the basis of its existence. The monopoly on the issuance of money and control over its circulation has always belonged to the state represented by central banks and other financial regulators (Ministry of Finance). In essence, the state has an objective need to issue, control and supervise its currency (one of the features of the state in general is the collection of taxes, i.e. money in the form of taxes). Therefore, the issue of protecting financial security in the circulation of virtual currencies is important for any state.

The purpose of the research is to analyze the legal regulation of virtual currency in the areas of banking, tax, budget activities of the state and activities related to combating and preventing money laundering.

Analysis of resent researches and publications. The essence of such a new financial phenomenon as virtual currency, its functionality, types and principles of operation were studied in the works of domestic scientists M. Kucheryavenko, A. Kud, E. Smychok, A. Ovcharenko, O. Glushchenko, S. Khvalinsky and foreign - Fredrik Schneider, E. Gots. At the same time, there is a separate aspect of this problem – these are the challenges and threats that arise and tend to increase in the financial security of any state, namely - in the banking system, tax and budgetary relations, in the field of money laundering by criminal means.

Articles main body. The emergence of a new virtual currency, money that is emerging, existing and disappearing forever in cyberspace - this is in the full sense of the word a new challenge to financial security. Legislatively regulating the circulation of virtual currency in detail is a difficult task, because the very algorithm of its operation, originally laid down by the founders - provides for the purpose of avoiding such regulation. The circulation and operation of virtual currency is based on mathematical schemes and formulas, which gives it stability to any state and centralized regulation. The main advantage of virtual currency is its anonymity. The personal data of the e-wallet owner is kept secret. Sometimes the transactions themselves contain such a complex and confusing pattern of movement, which generally disappears in cyberspace. The circulation of virtual currency is not controlled by the state.

Does this pose a threat to the financial security of the state? Really, and serious. After all, an alternative currency and a payment system operating in cyberspace have been created, improved and are gaining momentum. Cryptocurrency becomes a competitor to the national currency of any state. Therefore, it should be noted that the state has grounds to interfere in the regulation of cryptocurrency circulation. What are the direct threats and risks from the existence of a virtual decentralized cryptocurrency system? These threats can be divided into areas of financial activity of the state and identify the most important of them. These are the banking sector, the monetary sphere, the tax and related budget sphere, the legal relations in the field of financial monitoring, the debt sphere.

The introduction of digital currencies and blockchain technologies threatens to destroy the banking system in its traditional form. The fact is that virtual currencies and the blockchain allow any entity (physical and legal, etc.) to communicate economically directly, bypassing any intermediaries. And modern banks are such classic intermediaries, in addition to the monopoly type.

Problems also arise in the field of tax evasion with the help of virtual currency. Such activity can be taxed only if one condition is met - if users of this network (real taxpayers) will be willing to declare and keep records of their transactions with virtual currencies. And will there be many such people? It is clear that the risks of tax evasion in the circulation of virtual currencies pose threats first in the tax sphere, destroying the state's ability to protect its economic interests, the ability to realize and develop the country's tax potential, and then create threats to budget security.

Virtual currencies that can be exchanged for real money pose a threat of their illegal use for money laundering and terrorist financing. They may allow for anonymous transfers if the sender's and recipient's identities are not properly established. In this situation, there is no control body with which to track and detect suspicious transactions. Today, we can give examples of services designed to hide sources of virtual currency, transactions with them and complete anonymity. Yes, anonymizer means "dark networks" and "mixers", which are designed for these types of operations. Their types are the Tor network (anonymous network), Dark Wallet (anonymous network service), Bitcoin Laundry (mixer), Cold Storage, Hot Storage.

Conclusions. The emergence of Fintech in information and telecommunication technologies, on the basis of which a system of virtual currencies and decentralized payment systems was developed and implemented, has created a number of serious threats and risks for the world. The main principle of the virtual currency is anonymity, which allows users to completely prevent government and financial control by the authorities, which is a very attractive prospect for many of them. Unregulated cryptocurrency market threatens the financial security of the state in the banking, tax, budgetary spheres and legal relations in the field of money laundering. The only way to counter these threats is to take full control and supervision of the decentralized system of virtual currency circulation. Unfortunately, the creation of an alternative centralized system of virtual currencies, which is subordinated to state and financial institutions, is not able to completely solve this problem.