Bill Protecting Bitcoin Mining Rights Passes Arkansas Senate and House

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A bill to regulate bitcoin mining in the state of Arkansas has passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, now moving to the governor’s office for approval.

According to the bill, the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 aims to regulate the Bitcoin mining industry in the US state, creating guidelines for miners and protecting them from discriminatory regulations and taxes.

Arkansas state lawmakers quickly passed the bill after it was proposed March 30 by Sen. Joshua Bryant, the law’s status page shows. The document recognizes “that data centers create jobs, pay taxes and provide general economic value to local communities.”

Arkansas Data Center Act of 2023. Source: Arkansas State Legislature

According to the approved bill, a digital asset miner is required “to pay applicable taxes and government fees in acceptable forms of currency, and to operate in a manner that does not cause any strain on production capabilities. or the transmission network of an electric utility”.

Under the legislation, crypto miners will also have the same rights as data centers. The bill stresses that the Arkansas government should not “impose a different requirement for a digital asset mining business than that applicable to any requirement for a data center.”

Related: Is Crypto Mining in 2023 Still Worth It? Watch Market Discussions

Arkansas’ move follows a similar move in the state of Montana. In late March, the Montana Senate passed a bill to protect crypto miners operating in the state. The bill aims to protect miners from taxes on digital assets used for payments and eliminate discriminatory energy tariffs against home-based crypto miners and digital asset businesses.

The state of Texas is in a different direction. Its Senate Business and Commerce Committee passed legislation on April 4 that would largely remove incentives for miners operating within the state’s crypto-friendly regulatory environment, Cointelegraph reported.

An even stronger decision came from New York last November, when Governor Kathy Hochul signed the proof-of-work (PoW) moratorium into law, banning crypto-mining activities in the state for two years. At the federal level, crypto miners in the United States could potentially be subject to a 30% tax on electricity costs as part of a budget proposal introduced on March 9 by President Joe Biden aimed at reducing the mining activity.

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