가상화폐의 법적 성질과 민·형사상 강제집행

The Virtual Currency (VC) including Bitcoin, is evolving as medium of exchange and storage of value. However, VC is hardly captured in the existing concept of legal tender, currency or money, since it has no material subsistence, only having some value accepted among participants in the digital network. Therefore, there are lots of difficulties in defining the legal character of VC and in finding the ground and method for public power to carry out civil compulsory execution or criminal enforcement on VC itself. In the overtone of private laws, VC can be object matter of claim, basic element of claim right, although it has neither material substances nor controlled energy. Taking consideration that the vast majority of VC trading is performed via, or by help of VC traders, the civil execution is supposed to be carried out when the claimant applies for foreign attachment against debtor’s claim right to VC traders. On the realm of criminal laws, VC is analyzed to be eligible for criminal forfeiture in the existing criminology theory. However, the block-chain system nesting VC is preventing the current laws and regulations to provide appropriate legal ground for search and seizure of alleged VC information VC stored in trader’s systems as well as alleged criminals’ computers. It is eventually in order for us not only to revise some articles of related laws but also to establish legal definition of VC and to legalize a special law on VC, as some other countries including the Japanese government do.