Cryptocurrency
A currency with no guarantee of value by a particular state. It is mainly exchanged like “”money”” on the Internet and can be obtained by exchanging with legal currencies such as yen, dollar, euro, yuan, etc. at special exchanges, etc. It can be used for settling some goods and services. It does not exist in visible form such as banknotes and coins, exists as electronic data, is managed by a block chain that uses encryption technology to prevent fraud, shares records with multiple computers on the net and mutually monitors There. Therefore, the virtual currency is sometimes called “”digital currency”” “”encryption currency””. The representative is “”bit coin Bitcoin”” which is managed by a program based on a manuscript called Satoshi · Nakamoto. “”Ripple Ripple”” which is easy to use for settlement, “”Ethicalium Ethereum”” used for real estate and trusts, “”Light coin Litecoin”” managed by a technique similar to bit coin, “”Linden used in virtual space second life”” There are over 600 kinds of virtual currencies such as “”Dollar Linden Dollar””. The estimated market capitalization of virtual currency is about 8 billion dollars as of April 2016. As virtual currencies are exchanged without going through central banks and financial institutions, there is the advantage that remittance to overseas etc. and commission at settlement can be reduced, and remittance / settlement time can be greatly shortened. The value is guaranteed only by the credit of the user, and it is hard to be influenced by the policy of the central government and the central bank. Because of this, the virtual currency becomes a fledgling destination of money at the time of the financial crisis, and currency value fluctuates greatly due to speculation etc. It is easy to exchange across national borders on the net, and the anonymity of the deal is also high. Meanwhile, since it is hard for an eye to be monitored under the law, it is easy to be used for illegal transactions, tax evasion, money laundering (money laundering), and the risk of becoming a hotbed of terrorism and narcotic funds is pointed out. In 2014, Mount Gox, which operates a bit coin exchanges, broke down and lost about 40 billion yen. For this reason, in the revised fund settlement law established in Japan in 2016 (Heisei 28), it is obliged to request exchanges of virtual currencies and exchanges and to ask for identity confirmation when opening an account at the exchange . There is also a way of thinking to include electronic money in the broad sense of the virtual currency, but the electronic money can be refunded even if the issuing company stops handling like a gift certificate, while the virtual currency is based only on the user’s credit It is different in that there is also a risk that it loses its utility at all.