Legally, it remains an apparently esoteric fact that there is no strict legal definition of money. The Monetary and Financial Code offers a vague formula: "The currency of France is the euro," without providing precise suggestions for determining its quality. Given this legal uncertainty, several questions arise: what attributes, if any, are necessary for an object to acquire this quality? Must money be subject to specific formalities for its transmission or creation? What are the origins of modern currencies?
In this matter, law and economics are no longer the only fields dealing with monetary prerogatives, and it has become essential for jurists to rigorously assess the implications of technological deployment in value exchanges. From this perspective, and in a surprising approach to legal standards, we argue that while the material existence of a right can be confirmed by a regime that provides for it, the realistic anchoring of this right is often overlooked, requiring a clear demonstration of practical issues. Thus, complementing economists' approaches, we must consider whether the reciprocal influence between law and economic reality as seen in practices can offer conclusions about the monetary quality acquisition of cryptocurrencies.
Throughout this reflection, we have examined the accession to monetary quality by cryptocurrencies, through the complex study of their functional, organic, and symbolic attributes, and the influence of law on practices. From a fundamentally empirical approach, it results that the qualification issue remains complex: on one hand, cryptocurrencies would crystallize the essential functional sub-criteria for monetary qualification; on the other hand, they would be unequivocally rejected by domestic law, emphasizing the organic criterion tied to the requirement of legal tender, which we have nuanced in a comparative approach. Nonetheless, it is clear that cryptocurrency conforms to a contractual money quality, endowed with its own characteristics.
From the perspective of a symbolic criterion, we have attempted to demonstrate at the interface of economics and law that the liberatory power attached to a monetary object can emerge from usages, conditioned by the prevailing legal regime and regulatory attempts aimed at limiting its development or adoption. Our reasoning is based on a critical study of the legal framework's consequences, particularly fiscal, on practices, carefully examining its limits and confronting it with innovations still unforeseen by doctrine, law, or jurisprudence. It follows that in the current state of positive law, cryptocurrency benefits from a halfway qualification, leading to significant difficulties in assessment.
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