Arizona Set to Pass Law to Protect the Rights of Blockchain Operators
Benjamin Roussey
Benjamin Roussey is from Sacramento, CA. His bachelor’s degree is from CSUS (1999) where he was on a baseball pitching scholarship and he completed 4 years in the US Navy. He has an MBA in Global Management from the Univ. of Phoenix (2006). He has worked everywhere from small businesses to large corporations, and also for public agencies. He has lived in South Korea and Saudi Arabia where he was an ESL instructor. Benjamin has a tremendous work ethic and is quite focused. Now he writes professionally for several clients that cover one sector of our economy to another. Currently he lives in the Phoenix area. He enjoys sports, movies, reading, and current events when he is not working online.
A recently proposed law in Arizona for protecting operators of network nodes of blockchain is moving closer to passage, according to public records.
HB 2602 (House Bill 2602) which has been sponsored by Jeff Weninger, member of Arizona House of Representatives, received recommendations of “do pass” from the Committee of the Whole and the Committee of State Senate Rules last week, setting up the measure for voting on it by the Senate.
Arizona is the same state that passed HB 1070 which allowed law enforcement to ask suspected illegals if they were illegal or not. This has a fantastic effect. Crime is down in Phoenix. Now people can drive into a Home Depot parking lot and not be harassed anymore while walking into the store or back to their car. Quality of life has improved!
According to information received from LegiScan, which tracks the development of legislature in the US, both caucuses of the Senate have given their approval.
While it is not clear when the vote will happen, the bill passed House of Representatives of the state in February just days after endorsements of the same kind were made.
The measure passed the House previously with a vote of 55 to 4, while one representative abstained from voting, on 20th February.
Protection against Regulation for Users of Blockchain Nodes
The bill will protect users (who run blockchain nodes) from facing any kind of local regulation. It states that any town or city may not restrict or prohibit an individual from operating a blockchain node from their residence. The bill prohibits county-level regulations as well.
It is currently not clear whether the measure is restricted to miners of cryptocurrency, or once signed into law, it will protect the energy-intensive process as well. The text of the law, however, suggests that it will.
The bill states that running nodes on the technology of blockchain means giving computing power to encrypt or validate transactions in blockchains.
Developing Arizona as a Blockchain Hub
HB 2603, another bill which was sponsored by Weninger, recently passed the Committee of Senate Transportation and Technology unanimously. If this bill is passed and then signed into law, it will change Arizona’s regulations so that the stored data on a blockchain will become legally recognized.
Weninger has said that the objective behind the bill is to minimize regulation that could create obstacles for the development of the technology of blockchain in Arizona, and thus prevent Arizona from becoming a blockchain hub.
Weninger said that government bureaucrats and politicians who don’t know much about blockchain technology should not put arbitrary regulations on it.
He explained that his interest in the bill is to specifically prevent the interference of the government in the mining of cyptocurrrency in residences.
The bill clearly states that a town, county or a city may not restrict or prohibit any individual running a node in their residence on blockchain technology.
Multiple Bills Introduced in Arizona to Promote Blockchain
Weninger said that the wordings used in the bill are typically used when you want to stop the localities from placing regulations on industries. Weninger’s focus is particularly on such industries that have a strong future and which should come to Arizona. Arizona is soaking up lots of jobs and businesses from California which is anti-business.
When asked why HB 2602 covers residences but not commercial sites, his response was that he didn’t have enough time to figure out the implications that it would have caused and provide solutions to address them in the bill.
However, he said that since there are many data centers in the state, and in case they have more capacity, crypto mining farms and operations of digital currency mining could be collocated there.
He remarked that after he came to the conclusion that the law of Arizona allows the collocation of those two kinds of commercial ventures, he had himself encouraged an operator of such a facility to begin mining cryptocurrency.
Weninger has introduced two more bills related to the technology of blockchain: HB 2601, which authorizes conducting of ICOs; and HB 2603, which will allow the corporate registration of different entities using blockchain technology by Arizona Corporation Commission.
Over the last one year, the state of Arizona has seen the introduction of many other bills relating to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It is too bad the NBA made the wrong call when Horry smashed Nash out of bounds in 2007 by suspending Stoudemire for taking one step onto the court but at least Arizona is doing the right thing by being business friendly. This is why Arizona is doing very well compared to other states on the northeast coast and the west coast but this is another topic.
