The article presents a sketch of the most important legal and normative problems and challenges that are directly related to the emergence and development of cryptocurrencies. The case study is Poland, where in the first phase of existence, Bitcoin and other altcoins were considered property rights. Since 2018, under the Act on counteracting money laundering and terrorist financing, thanks to the unification of European Union law, they are classified as virtual currencies. The challenges identified in the course of the analysis that must be addressed include: the problem of creating an effective regulatory framework for the functioning of cryptocurrencies and placing them in the legal system; the problem of regulating relations with state institutions as monopolists in the field of finance and the worldwide trend of abandoning cash in favor of electronic payments and the formation of a cashless society

The aim of the article is to analyze the possibilities of using blockchain technology at the local government level. The analysis of the literature on the subject and the case study method were used to assess the potential of using the blockchain. Solutions already existing, observed and successfully implemented in other countries were investigated. Using the case study method, four implementation areas have been identified, namely: supporting election processes, functioning of the administration, cybersecurity and efficient functioning of the supply chain. The diagnosis carried out in relation to the progress of works in Poland indicates significant problems and challenges, including the lack of coherent actions at the central government level. The use of blockchain technology is incidental in the Polish local government. The possibility of improving and accelerating the work should be noticed in the activities of the European Union, which for several years has been adopting solutions aimed at intensifying the implementation processes.

The article characterizes the current state of development of cybersecurity education in highereducation institutions in Poland. The purpose of the study is to characterize the models of cybersecurity education, to verify the development trends and to attempt to estimate further directionsin higher education for cyber security professionals. The compiled material, obtained frompublicly available databases and curricula, allowed us to formulate conclusions related to theeducation process itself, as well as to the confirmation of skills. A quantitative as well as qualitativeanalysis of the data was carried out, focused on the content of study programs. The profile ofa cybersecurity graduate varies by the leading institution, as well as by the discipline under whichthe education is provided. Recent years show a significant increase in new majors with a socialhumanitiesprofile, which, in addition to technological issues, pay attention to the broad contextof human functioning in cyberspace. An important addition to cybersecurity education, apartfrom formal confirmation of skills during higher education, is the certification process. This is anexample of informal education, but as global experience shows, it is equally important, both fromthe perspective of improving specialized skills and as a formal requirement in the recruitment andemployment search process.

Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized, peer–to–peer network architecture, cryptographically secured, based on trust and consensus, type of virtual currency, incompletely fulfilling some functions of money. They constitute a new interdisciplinary subject of scientific research. In the article, the author indicates potential areas of empirical exploration that can be conducted by representatives of social sciences. The four areas identified were: research on attitudes and opinions, the behavior of the community of cryptocurrency users, products of Internet culture and the structure of the Internet, including, in particular, the block chain. The research is based on well–established techniques, classic in research practice, which, due to the different nature of virtual and physical reality, are modified and adapted to technical conditions.

The article has a deeper reflection on the issue of metadata, that is, data which are defined or describe other data. The theoretical layer extracted three types of metadata: descriptive, structural, and administrative. Descriptive metadata is used to find and identify key information that allows the location of an object. Structured metadata describes the internal structure of the object, but administrative metadata refers to the technical information, where information is provided for example about the time and how the file was created. The purpose of the publication is to provide theoretical knowledge as well as practical. The second part of the article depicts the concepts of graphic and text files, and simple self-defense techniques are indicated, which allow you to remove metadata before sharing the file. The supplementing of article is: analysis the ability to extract meta information by Fingerprinting Organizations with Collected Archives (FOCA), which is used to mechanizedly extract metadata reflection on what the metadata includes the email header.