Abstract
This work examines a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of legal regulation of public procurement, associated with the transition from traditional post-control to preventive control through programmable money based on distributed ledger technology. The subject of the study is legal relations arising from the application of the digital tenge in public procurement, as well as legal gaps and conflicts of this process. The purpose is to identify systemic legal defects in current legislation that impede the effective implementation of programmable money technology and to develop conceptual foundations for eliminating them. The relevance is determined by the February 2026 launch of a pilot project using the digital tenge in public procurement and by the contradiction between the system's technological readiness and the legal uncertainty regarding the status of its key elements. The methodological basis comprises formal legal, comparative legal, system-structural, and legal modeling methods. The main results indicate the phenomenon of "double lag": legislation lacks adequate regulation of smart contracts and programmable money, while legal doctrine fails to comprehend their legal nature. Conceptual proposals for creating legal infrastructure to regulate programmable finance have been formulated.