Dimensions of Legislative Regulation of Electronic and Virtual Currencies in Egypt and France

Abstract

The development of digital technology does not stop at a limit. We see that it has intervened in many areas, including the financial field, and its application has resulted in the emergence of a new group of currencies that have taken two basic types: electronic currencies and virtual or encrypted currencies. The use of these currencies has spread a lot even before the law intervened to regulate them, which raises the question of the law's position on their use.  

If the law does not prevent the application of technology developments and only sets a framework for regulating their application, its position has changed on electronic and virtual currencies because there are strict constitutional principles that prevent them from being recognized as legal currencies. This refusal has been demonstrated for virtual currencies in most countries of the world, and we will, of course, present the most important legal reasons for this refusal. 

As for the electronic currencies, the legislator has regulated them in a number of countries including Egypt and France not as currencies in the specific legal sense, but as payment tools. The legislative regulation here is broad and covers a large number of points such as the concerned institutions, the issuance process and the holders’ rights of customers.  

In this research, we propose to study the legislative regulation of electronic currencies and virtual currencies and the position of the law and the judiciary on these currencies in Egypt and France, as well as in the law of the European Union.