虛擬貨幣於電子商務之發展及其法律上之衝擊：以比特幣為討論中心

The Impacts of Visual Currency on the Development and Legal issues and Electronic Commerce: Bitcoin

自2012年興起的比特幣熱潮，對於電子商務中的支付機制，或是電子金融體系皆產生重要的衝擊，目前正受到歐美各界的高度重視，除官方報告側重於稅收影響及洗錢防制外，法界亦做出相當數量之裁判與定義。由於比特幣在結構上已脫離一般虛擬貨幣之框架，而對比特幣框架之法治管理亦需多方整合協調所致，也因此本文擬先從虛擬貨幣現行運作現況及對於金融相關法律爭議做廣泛和深入之探索，以了解其市場運作交易的機制與本質。此外，本研究由法律面角度切入，針對比特幣之特性、法律地位及其影響效果做深入分析，並對「虛擬貨幣」與「比特幣」之特性加以探討，同時對「貨幣」、「虛擬貨幣」及「電子貨幣」作比較分析，經由討論「虛擬貨幣」及「比特幣」其特性差異，闡述為何比特幣在法律面會處在管轄之真空地帶。本文後半部描述比特幣在銀行及金融相關法規以及傳統的民刑法之衝擊，並於結論提出具體控管建議：主管機構於虛擬貨幣發展初期可先對「虛實互相轉換」交易平台做出嚴格控管；而我國政府除應建立「虛實互相轉換」之控管機制外，亦需持續關注「國際貨幣基金」及歐美各國對虛擬貨幣政策和法規發展之最新動向，保持與國際接軌，以維護金融秩序並進而促進網路市場和電子商務之發展。

＂Bitcoin＂has emerged in 2012 as perhaps the hottest topic in e-commerce and has drawn lots attentions from the US and EU governments. While reports and analyses focus on the issues that surround taxations and money laundry, certain decisions had made by legal departments regarding definitions and characteristics to the visual currencies. These reports and decisions will be crucial important to the payment transactions in e-commerce. An important point from these report is that the decentralized visual currency scheme, in particular bitcoin, falls outside the scope of most e-money transaction and financial regulations; therefore the research needs to focus on the schemes and operations of the bitcoin in order to provide solutions to the irrelevant regulations. This paper offers an initial exploratory analysis to the currencies, including digital and visual currencies. It then introduces visual currencies concepts, such as architectures, general issuance schemes and decentralized visual currency. Therefore, this paper goes to a key point why ＂bitcoin＂, decentralized visual currency, can become a legal no man’s land. The article then analyzes the legal issues and tasks to both financial systems and civil and criminal laws. The article closes by offering a conclusion on the impact of decentralized visual currency and authorities should initially establish visual-real currency transfer witness mechanisms to regulate the financial order, otherwise the authorities should keep close watch on attitudes of IMF and US European regimes regarding corresponding schemes to the Bitcoin.