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1.Cryptocurrenciesandtheireconomicessence
p.25),i.e.inessence,asatypeofunregulateddigitalmoney(Piotrowska,2015,
p.370;Wiśniewska,2015,p.4).Moreover,intheliteratureonecanalsoencounter
theconceptofthevirtualcurrencyscheme,encompassingnotonlyaunitofvalue
itself,butalsothecloselyconnectedmechanismofitstransfer.Suchamechanism
allowsforsettlementsinvirtualcurrenciesbetweenentitiesandfunctions
asasubstituteforthebankingsystemthatperformssucharoleinthecaseof
electronicmoney.Anotherdefinition,bytheFinancialActionTaskForce(FATF),
alsostatesthatavirtualcurrencyisadigitalrepresentationofvalue,which“can
bedigitallytradedandfunctionsasamediumofexchangeand/oraunitofaccount
and/orastoreofvalue,butdoesnothavelegaltenderstatusinanyjurisdiction”
(FATF,2014,p.4).Thusacurrency’sperformanceofthefunctionsofmoney
comestotheforehere,despitethelackofalegalobligationtoacceptit.Itshould
beemphasised,however,thatthepracticeofdefiningvirtualcurrenciesinthe
documentsbyvariousofficialinstitutionsinoppositiontoelectronicmoneyresults
inthefactthattheyaregenerallynotconsideredasmoneyinthetraditionalsense.
Thisisalsounderlinedinthattypeofpublications,althoughitisalsopointedout
thatastimegoesbyandthescaleofliquidityandacceptabilityofvirtualcurrencies
increases,suchanapproachmaychange(ECB,2015,p.25;Heetal.,2016,p.17).
Thepremisethataffectthedivergencebetweenthenotionsofavirtualcurrency
andofelectronicmoneyinclude:differentrangeoftheiracceptance,dissimilar
legalstatus,diversescaleofregulation,supervisionandrisk,dissimilartype
ofissuer,nobuy-backguarantee,norealequivalent(Chrabonszczewska,2013,
p.56;ECB,2012,p.16;Lis-Markiewicz&Nowak,2015,pp.85,86;Michalczyk,
2018a,p.42;Piotrowska,2018,pp.20-22).
Virtualcurrenciesaredividedinliteratureinseveralways.Oneoftheclassifications
distinguishes:
y
“closed”virtualcurrencies(alsoknownas“non-convertible”),characterisedby
alackofconnectionwithrealmoney,notbeingsubjecttoexchangetocashand
receivednotforit,butforactivitiesperformedinthevirtualworld(e.g.inga-
mes);theymaybeusedtopurchaseonlyintangiblegoods;
y
virtualcurrencieswithaunidirectionalflow,whichmaybeboughtforrealmo-
neybutcannotberesold;
y
virtualcurrencieswithabidirectionalflow(“convertible”),whicharesubjectto
reversibleexchangeforfiatmoney(ECB,2012,pp.13,14;FATF
,2014,p.4).
Thesourcescontainanotherdivision,importantalsofromthepointofviewof
cryptocurrencies:namelyintodecentralisedvirtualcurrenciesandcentralised
ones(sometimescalledtokens),whichisdeterminedbytheexistenceofasingle
administeringauthoritythatcontrolsandsupervisesthesystem(FATF,2014,p.5).
Sometimes,besidesthedecentralisedmodel,itsdistributedversionisalsobeing
distinguished,characterisedbyalackofhierarchisation(Piotrowska,2018,p.20).