Digital Rights and Digital Currency in Russian Law: The Issues of Legal Nature and Relations

Introduction: currently, all countries are facing the challenges of the legal regulation of new digital phenomena that receive various names – digital rights, tokens, digital assets, digital currency, cryptocurrency. The Russian legislator has chosen the concepts of digital rights and digital currency as fundamental in this area. Questions arise about the correlation of such objects of rights, the selection of their qualifying features and the definition of the features of their legal regimes in the Russian Federation. The purpose of the study is to identify significant qualifying features of digital rights and digital currency, allowing them to be distinguished from each other in the Russian legal field. In this regard, the following research tasks are solved: 1) the definition of the essence of digital rights and digital currency in Russian law and similar legal phenomena; 2) the identification of qualifying features of digital rights and digital currency in the legislation, doctrine and law enforcement practice; 3) the comparative legal analysis of the legal regimes of digital rights and digital currency; 4) providing recommendations to the legislator and law enforcement officer on a more precise definition of the legal nature of digital rights and digital currency and a more effective legal regulation of their movement in the Russian Federation. Methods: in carrying out the study, the formal legal, historical legal and comparative legal methods were used to formulate the features of the legal regimes of digital rights and digital currency in Russian law. Results: digital rights and digital currency, despite the presence of a single digital (binary) form, have different legal regimes. Digital rights are second-order rights, being binding and other rights in digital form. In the case of digital rights, there is an obligor on whom the creditor has the right to make a corresponding claim. Accordingly, digital rights are relative rights. In turn, the digital currency is limited in circulation, at the same time, it seems more correct to recognize it as a special right of obligation, while the obligor is the user of the information system in which the digital currency is issued and circulated. Such a digital currency should not be confused with a digital currency issued by the Central Bank acting as an obligor. The authors have come to the conclusion that digital rights and digital currency are similar in having a digital form, which determines the civil remedies and liability applied in their movement relations, as well as the use of special contractual structures (smart contract). The differences between digital rights and digital currency lie in the definition of the obligor in the obligation, whose object is a digital right or digital currency.