The legislation includes revisions to laws aimed at prohibiting discriminatory electrical rates for mining enterprises and not permitting taxation for crypto utilized as a method of payment.
Greg Gianforte, the governor of Montana, has signed into law a bill mostly preventing local governments in the state from passing laws prohibiting cryptocurrency mining.
According to records with the Montana legislature, Gianforte signed S.B. 178 into law on May 2 after the bill had reached both the state House and Senate. The legislation effectively enshrines crypto miners ’ rights in the state by revising existing laws, prohibiting discriminatory electrical rates for mining enterprises, and not permitting taxation for crypto utilized as a method of payment.
The latest version of the bill suggested that the legislation was presented partly as a preventive measure in response to certain proposals in other nations — i.e. “ digital asset mining has frequently faced difficulty with regulations at the state and local position." For example, in April, lawmakers in the Texas State Senate presented a bill aimed at limiting incentives for crypto miners through participation in a schedule intended to compensate them for load reductions on the state’s power grid.
Crypto advocacy group Satoshi Action Fund has endorsed pro-mining legislation in certain states. Lawmakers in the Arkansas state House and Senate passed a bill such as Montana’s S.B. 178. Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter reported Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously signed this bill into law, but the legislature’s website didn't show such an action at the moment of publication.
“ At the state position, we can have a lot of progress, we can shift things forward, and there isn’t an entire lot the federal government can do in the meantime, ” spoke Porter.
Related: The economics of cryptocurrency mining: Costs, revenues and market trends
Such pro-mining legislation had been shifting ahead in the Mississippi state legislature, but the bill “ died ” in March. Porter told a Missouri bill was “ a further little behind in the process ” but still progressing in the legislature.
At the federal position, the Biden administration newly renewed a push for a 30% tax on cryptocurrency miners as a portion of an FY2024 budget proposal. The tax would potentially target miners ’ electricity use.
(TURNER WRIGHT, Cointelegraph, 2023)