The relationship between private and public money has shaped the economic and legal debate over money for centuries. Private money can either compete with or complement public money and this depends on the applicable law and the relative powers of the State and private parties. The rise of disruptive digital and cryptographic technologies applied to money creation has the potential to innovate this century-long debate.

This article proposes a framework to analyse the role of the law in the relation to the risks and benefits of having circulating private money competing with public money. Accordingly, the article highlights the unprecedented threat to monetary sovereignty, the risks to systemic stability and, ultimately, to democratic decision-making prompted by digital private money.

To counter these risks while seizing potential efficiency gains generated by novel forms of private money, the article proposes to regulate convertibility and fragment by regulation such a potentially global market.

几个世纪以来，私人货币和公共货币之间的关系一直影响着有关货币的经济和法律辩论。私人资金可以与公共资金竞争或补充，这取决于适用的法律以及国家和私人当事方的相对权力。应用于货币创造的颠覆性数字和加密技术的兴起有可能为这场长达一个世纪的争论带来创新。

本文提出了一个框架来分析法律在流通私人资金与公共资金竞争的风险和收益方面的作用。因此，文章强调了数字私人货币对货币主权的前所未有的威胁、对系统稳定性的风险以及最终对民主决策的风险。

为了应对这些风险，同时抓住新型私人货币带来的潜在效率收益，本文建议通过监管这样一个潜在的全球市场来规范可兑换性和碎片化。