DIGITAL OBJECTS, DIGITAL ASSETS, VIRTUAL ASSETS, AND DIGITAL TOKENS: TO DIFFERENTIATE OR CONSOLIDATE

Abstract

Abstract. The author examines the relationship between the concepts and essence of digital things, digital assets, virtual assets, and digital tokens through the lens of their economic and legal nature, as well as the provisions of normative acts of Ukraine and the European Union, international and European organizations, and the positions of domestic legal scholars. Overall, it has been determined that domestic legal scholars, legislators, and practitioners do not have a definitive answer to the issue raised in this work. This ambiguity is due to various factors, including the uniqueness and complexity of the private-law nature of virtual assets in a legal context, which has been relatively unknown to domestic legal science until recently. The article outlines the problems associated with the lack of legislative distinctions between the definitions and nature of digital things, digital assets, virtual assets, and digital tokens, as well as the absence of comprehensive civil-law research on this issue. According to the author, this normative-legal gap, along with the insufficient level of scientific development, results in legal uncertainty in understanding the nature of these digital instruments, which, in turn, negatively affects the potential methods of their use by participants in civil legal relations and the protection of their rights. Based on the analysis of the definitions and nature of digital things, digital assets, virtual assets, and digital tokens, the article demonstrates that these objects share common features, such as existence in a digital environment and the presence of economic value measured in monetary terms. However, digital things and digital assets cannot be equated with virtual assets and digital tokens due to their essence and the differences in their generic and specific characteristics. It is worth noting that digital things and digital assets are similar categories in essence, but they can be distinguished by their origin: digital things are a legal category describing this essence from the perspective of civil law objects, whereas digital assets primarily have an economic nature and are characterized, in particular, as units of accounting. Digital things and digital assets, in turn, are generic categories concerning virtual assets, which act as a specific category in this context. Similarly, digital tokens can be regarded as a specific category of virtual assets, which are a generic category in this relationship.