Montana: Bitcoin mining law

Bitcoin mining in Montana: A law protecting miners' rights goes into effect. What's changing in the U.S. - where mining is becoming increasingly politicized.
Montana's governor, Republican Greg Gianforte, has passed a state law that would give bitcoin miners rights and equal treatment with other industries. The law, which has been in the works for some time and is against the Biden Doctrine. A new doctrine that would impose a 30 percent excise tax on miners' electricity consumption, regardless of the type of energy consumed.
This legislation is not the first of its kind to be passed at the state level in the United States, and it reinforces the political standoff over bitcoin mining, the use of electricity by some private industries and, more generally, the standoff between Republicans and Democrats over bitcoin. A clash that is also likely to be at the center of the upcoming presidential election in which the next host of the White House will be chosen.

Montana law to protect bitcoin miners

Bitcoin mining is a subject of political controversy in the United States. A recent proposal by the Biden administration would impose a 30% excise tax on electricity consumption in an industry on which the security of the Bitcoin protocol depends.
An excise tax that for many miners would mean no profit and would force most operations to leave the U.S., a country that has become a favorite destination for miners both because of political stability (which is now in question) and because of the availability of cheap energy in some parts of the country.
The answer comes at the state level. The state of Montana, whose political leader is Joe Biden, passed a law a few hours ago that would protect bitcoin mining.
The premise of the law just passed echoes several themes that bitcoin enthusiasts hold dear and have been challenged in a recent New York Times attack, such as mining's ability to provide economic stability and the ability to support investments in renewable energy and energy system improvements. With that in mind, the state of Montana has passed legislation to make the state a safe harbor for this kind of activity. Specifically:
 No discriminatory laws will be allowed between different types of activities
 No additional taxes will be allowed on cryptocurrencies used as a payment method Cities and counties are prohibited from imposing different restrictions on bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining than on conventional data centers.

What does the law actually say?

In addition to what the law says about payment neutrality, it imposes equal treatment of data centers and bitcoin mining farms on all local governments, without imposing additional restrictions on the latter, as has already happened in New York State, for example.
In other words, local laws discriminating against the specifics of mining would not be created unless they also affected general data centers.