Following a string of bankruptcies and fraud revelations that permeated the ‘crypto winter’ throughout 2022 and culminated with the collapse of FTX – once among the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world – there was a lot of talk among U.S. politicians about the need to ban cryptocurrencies in the country.
In 2023, numerous individual states – including Missouri, Arkansas, and Montana, for example – started work on creating and passing laws that would guarantee the rights of cryptocurrency miners. At the time, the laws were primarily designed to prevent discrimination regarding utility access and similar matters.
By early 2024, the crypto market and community largely moved on with events such as the approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the upcoming Bitcoin halving, and others, and the U.S. politicians turned notably more positive toward cryptocurrencies with some even accepting them as donations for their presidential bids.
Picks for you
However, much as some crypto hardliners like Elizabeth Warren remain, so does the states’ work on enshrining the rights to crypto-related activity continue, and, once again, Missouri appears to be in the very vanguard of the movement.
Missouri’s ‘Blockchain Basics Act’
In a session held on Tuesday, February 13, Missouri passed House Bill 2107 – the Blockchain Basics Act – which aims to safeguard the right to buy, self-custody, and mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
More specifically, the legislation defines terms such as blockchain, blockchain protocol, digital asset, digital asset mining, discriminatory rates, node, and staking. It also prevents the levying of additional taxes on transactions involving cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps even more importantly, the bill forbids the government from impairing the right to use coins and tokens in transactions – provided the transactions would otherwise be legal – and to self-custody said assets and reiterates that miners cannot be given discriminatory rates – such as for electricity – due to their activities.
The bill was sponsored and made with the help of the Satoshi Action Fund – an advocacy group that seeks to further the rights of all who wish to engage with cryptocurrencies – which actively engages both with state actors and the community using mass communication platforms like X to levy support for crypto-positive initiatives.
The bill has a counterpart in Nebraska and 11 additional states.
