A bill which was proposed on March 30 intended to regulate Bitcoin mining and protect miners by the Senate and the Arkansas House of Representatives. According to the report, miners must “pay applicable taxes and government fees in acceptable forms of currency and operate in a manner that places no burden on the generation or transmission network of an electric public utility.”
The Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 establishes appropriate laws for Bitcoin miners in an effort to prohibit unethical business practices. Crypto miners have the same privileges as data centres, which Arkansas recognises as being good for the regional economy.
The bill mandates that crypto miners must pay applicable taxes and government fees using acceptable forms of currency and must operate in a manner that does not burden the public electricity grid. However, it also establishes that the Arkansas government cannot impose particular requirements that are distinct from those imposed on data centres.
Anyone can start home Bitcoin mining businesses if they pay the appropriate utility fees. The proposed legislation lays out the regulations needed to protect Bitcoin miners from unjustified sector-specific taxes and regulations. The bill also adds that, “a person that is engaged in home digital asset mining or that has a digital asset mining business shall not be considered a money transmitter under the Uniform Money Services Act.”
A few terminologies linked to mining for digital assets are also defined in the draft bill. For instance, a “digital asset mining business” is a group of computers gathered in a single location that, on average, uses more than one megawatt (1MW) of electricity annually to produce digital assets via blockchain network security. and “digital asset miner” as a person who mines for digital assets.
Reflecting on the bill, “an individual may utilise a node in this state for the purpose of operating home digital asset mining at the individual’s residence in accordance with applicable utility rules and rates,” people who mine cryptocurrencies from their homes are also protected.
Similar to this, the Montana State Senate approved a measure in February with the goals of protecting at-home mining, ending discriminatory electricity prices for miners, and establishing that cryptocurrency used for payment would not be subject to additional taxes. Energy taxes that discriminate between residential cryptocurrency purchasers and businesses using digital assets will also be eliminated.