암호통화(cryptocurrency)의 본질과 스마트계약(smart contract)에 관한 연구

A cryptocurrency making a hot issue in financial circle is a digital information based on blockchain technology which is a kind of a cryptographed digital distributed ledger. Although there came a lot of voices of demanding to regulate the cryptocurrency being used as a speculation tools without any tax and also an instrument of making an illegal transaction anonymously, The cryptocurrency should be regulated on the basis of the lagal nature thereof. An endeavor to research on the legal nature of the cryptocurrency, hence, is neccessry to regulate it correctly and properly. Because a too rigid regulations or ristrictions on the use of cryptocurrency and other utilized forms without knowing the legal nature of it can interfere the development of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and damage the technology neutrality doctrine. This paper is aiming at studying the function and essence of the cryptocurrency and examining a smart contract that is one of utilized form of the cryptocrurrency. A cryptocurrency seems to have a characteristic of a payment instrument or means for exchange of commodities which is referred from ‘currency’ in the terminology. But such an approach is challenged by the speculative nature of the cryptocurrency as many people invests money in lots of cryptocurrencies to get profit. The challanging opinions argue that a cryptocurrency is just investment object or commodities like golds and it should be taxed on. Examined the fuction of a cryptocurrency, it was created as a payment instrument but it doesn’t have a face value and is rather traded by the market price which is decided by the mechanism of demand and supply of it. But the fact that a cryptocurrency has no face value does not contradict with the nature of payment instrument thereof, as some coins has been traded by far more value than the face value when those currencies are coined just ralely less than other coins. In sum, the cryptocurrency has a legal nature of digital payment instrument but still has a tint of the nature of commodities or investment goods. A Smart Contract is based on the blockchain technology which means a distributed ledger system. Analysing the concept of a smart contract proposed diversely by many commentators, it can be defined as a computer code(program) supposed to be implemented automatically according to the contract based on a blockchain technology only after the triggering event which is exercising of the terms by the other party. As shown by The DAO case, the smart contract can create a digital asset and exchange it with cryptocurrency without relating to real world commodities. The legal nature of a smart contract is not a solicitation of offer but a kind of an offer of contract and it can be concluded into a contract in case of meeting an acceptance which means an implementation of a condition or term of a smart contract. As the researches and discussions on a smart contract are at a very starting point, we can not imagine the future of a smart contact, but it is closely connected with a blockchain technology or a cryptocurrency which is represented as Bitcoin or Ether and can influence on civil law and commercial law including corporate law in many ways.