Rethinking the Institute of Money in the Context of the Emergence of Digital Currencies

The main purpose of the article is to rethink the category of “money” in the context of the emergence of their new types, classify money types, review the functions traditionally performed by money, determine the place of new types of money in the structure of the money supply, to predict what the observed trends in the monetary world lead to. Being an important social category and legal institution, money metamorphoses help to understand the most likely scenario for the development of economic relations. The methodology of the study is as follows- the comparative analysis of the types and functions of money, their place in the structure of the money supply; analysis and synthesis; the evolutionary principle of unity of historical and logical. Findings of the study are as follows. Nowadays we are witnessing the emergence of a fundamentally new monetary system based on the issuance of digital money in a decentralized manner by private investors or, in the future, by central banks of countries with the possibility of transformation of this system into a worldwide network of digital control based on cryptocurrencies. Their appearance may change the role of public money and the architecture of the entire international monetary system. The introduction of new types of money into the traditional monetary system changes economic relations not only in this area, but also leads to a different level of interaction throughout the global economy. The conclusions of the study will help decision makers in government financial structures to navigate the essence of the changes taking place in the monetary world and make decisions maintaining a stable value of the national monetary unit. The research contributes to the issue of the economic security of the state.