The Cryptocurrency Mining Bill of Rights, with laws that would prohibit discrimination against cryptocurrency miners, is one step closer to becoming a reality after being approved by the Montana Senate.
The designed the laws would enshrine the “right to mine digital assets” and ban “discriminatory” electricity rates charged to cryptocurrency miners, protect mining that occurs “at home” and strip local governments of the power to use zoning laws to shut down cryptocurrency mining operations.
It also prohibits additional taxes on the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method and considers “digital assets,” including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, to be “personal property” along with other financial products such as stocks and bonds.
The bill was approved by the state senate on February 23 vote of 37 for and 13 against and will head to the House for approval. If passed there, the final step would be for Gov. Greg Gianforto, who could also choose to veto the bill, to sign it into law.
The bill outlined that Montana wants to “protect the right to mine” cryptocurrencies and “create legal certainty” for miners because mining “provides positive economic value” and could potentially “stabilize the network and provide revenue for infrastructure upgrades.”
The bill was written with the help of the Satoshi Action Fund, a pro-Bitcoin (BTC) lobby group.
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Dennis Porter, CEO of Advocacy, he told Cointelegraph in a January interview that Montana leaders used zoning laws to try to push out miners and considered imposing higher electricity rates on mining operations.
In April 2019, Missoula County, Montana passed rules that required miners operate only in light and heavy industrial areas and required miners to use exclusively renewable energy sources. If passed, the law would repeal the county’s zoning ordinance.
In early February, the Mississippi State Senate passed a similar bill is trying to protect cryptocurrency miners from discrimination and is working its way into the state house.
Meanwhile, Missouri’s Digital Asset Mining Protection Act, which Objectives to protect the rights of cryptocurrency miners, was introduced to the state legislature in mid-January.
