MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2023 Regular Session
To: Finance
By: Senator(s) Harkins
AN ACT TO CREATE THE MISSISSIPPI DIGITAL ASSET MINING ACT; TO AMEND SECTION 75-15-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DEFINE THE TERM "VIRTUAL CURRENCY"; TO AMEND SECTION 75-15-7, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE AN EXEMPTION FOR THE BUYING, SELLING, ISSUING, RECEIVING OR TAKING CUSTODY OF VIRTUAL CURRENCY UNDER THE MISSISSIPPI MONEY TRANSMITTERS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Title and Definitions. (1) This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Mississippi Digital Asset Mining Act."
(2) The Mississippi Legislature finds the following:
(a) Digital asset mining has created thousands of jobs and provided billions of dollars worth of positive economic value for individuals and companies throughout the United States;
(b) Digital asset mining has grown significantly in the United States since the ban of digital asset mining in China;
(c) Digital asset mining has often faced regulatory challenges at the state and local level;
(d) Digital asset mining has the potential to stabilize the power grid and provide revenue for infrastructure projects across the state; and
(e) The State of Mississippi wants to explore the potential for digital asset mining in our state, protect the right of individuals and businesses to mine digital assets in our state and provide legal certainty for the digital asset mining industry.
SECTION 2. Digital Asset Mining Protection. (1) As used in this article, the following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed herein, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) "Blockchain" means a small group of decentralized computers working together to agree upon information.
(b) "Digital asset mining" means the use of electricity to power a computer for the purpose of securing a blockchain network.
(c) "Home asset digital mining" means the mining of digital assets in areas zoned for residential use.
(d) "Node" means a computational device which contains a copy of a blockchain ledger.
(e) "Digital asset mining business" means a group of computers working at a single site and consuming more than one megawatt of energy for the purpose of generating digital assets by securing a blockchain network.
(f) "Discriminatory rates" mean electricity rates substantially different from other industrial uses of electricity in similar geographic areas; and
(g) "Orphaned well" means an oil or natural gas well where no owner can be located.
(2) It shall be legal in the State of Mississippi to run a node or a series of nodes for the purpose of home digital asset mining at a private residence.
(3) It shall be legal in the State of Mississippi to operate a digital asset mining business in an area zoned for industrial use.
(3) No political subdivision of this state shall place any specific additional limit on sound decibels generated by home digital asset mining beyond the current limit set forth for other forms of sound pollution by such political subdivision.
(4) No political subdivision of this state shall impose any requirement on a digital asset mining business which is not also a requirement for data centers in its jurisdiction.
(5) No political subdivision of this state shall modify the zoning of a digital asset mining business without the proper notice and comment procedures. A digital asset mining business whose zoning is changed shall have the right to appeal that change in the circuit court of the county in which the business is located, pursuant to Section 11-51-75.
(6) The Mississippi Public Service Commission shall not establish a discriminatory rate schedule for digital asset mining businesses.
(7) No person or other entity engaged in home digital asset mining nor any digital mining asset business shall be considered a money transmitter under the Mississippi Money Transmitters Act, Section 75-15-1 et seq.
SECTION 3. Digital Asset Mining Council. (1) There is hereby created a Mississippi Digital Asset Mining Council. The Digital Asset Mining Council shall be composed of the following thirteen (13) members:
(a) One (1) member appointed by the Governor;
(b) One (1) member appointed by the President of the Senate;
(c) One (1) member appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(d) Two (2) members who are Commissioners of the Public Service Commission;
(e) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality or his designee;
(f) One (1) member appointed by the largest energy provider in the state by volume of customers served;
(g) Three (3) members of the digital asset mining industry, one (1) appointed by the Governor, one (1) appointed by the President of the Senate, and one (1) appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(h) One (1) member of an environmental nonprofit appointed by the Governor; and
(i) Two (2) members of the general public appointed by the Governor.
(2) The Digital Asset Mining Council shall determine which member shall serve as chairperson of the council. The members of the council shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses in the performance of their duties. All appointments under this section shall be made no more than forty-five (45) days after the passage of this act. A new appointment may be made at any time if a prior appointee can no longer fulfill their duties. Any staffing requirements for the council shall be handled by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
(3) The council shall meet on at least four (4) separate occasions before the conclusion of the year 2023 and shall be tasked with the following determinations:
(a) A survey of existing digital asset mining companies in Mississippi, including how many people are employed by such companies;
(b) Whether and how attracting digital asset mining companies to Mississippi would impact the state's economy;
(c) The impact digital asset mining would have on the existing power grid and how digital asset mining might be used to pay for upgrades to or expansion of the existing power grid;
(d) Whether and how attracting digital asset mining might aid in the buildout of renewable energy infrastructure;
(e) Whether and how digital asset mining might be used to partner with the state in the cleanup of orphaned oil and gas wells;
(f) Whether and how digital asset mining can mitigate methane pollution from landfills and wastewater treatment facilities;
(g) Whether and how digital asset mining might perform demand response and/or frequency response for the power grid;
(h) What legislative or regulatory actions other states have taken to attract digital asset mining companies to their state, including a list such legislation and regulations; and
(i) The environmental impact of digital asset mining in the state.
(4) The council shall deliver a report containing the determinations enumerated in paragraphs (a) through (i) of subsection 3 to the Governor and the Chairs of the House and Senate Energy Committees no less than forty-five (45) days before the commencement of the 2024 regular legislative session. The council shall meet again in the year 2024 with the same mandate as provided in subsection (3) of this section and deliver a second annual report. After submission of its second annual report, the council shall disband.
SECTION 4. Section 75-15-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
75-15-3. For the purposes of this chapter:
(a) "Check" means any check, draft, money order, personal money order or other instrument, including, but not limited, to stored value cards, for the transmission or payment of money. The format of a check may be either paper, electronic, plastic or any combination thereof.
(b) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance of the State of Mississippi.
(c) "Deliver" means to deliver a check to the first person who in payment for same makes or purports to make a remittance of or against the face amount thereof, whether or not the deliverer also charges a fee in addition to the face amount, and whether or not the deliverer signs the check.
(d) "Executive officer" means the licensee's president, chairman of the executive committee, senior officer responsible for the licensee's business, chief financial officer and any other person who performs similar functions.
(e) "Licensee" means a person duly licensed by the commissioner under this chapter.
(f) "Monetary value" means a medium of exchange, whether or not redeemable in money.
(g) "Money transmission" means to engage in the business of the sale or issuance of checks or of receiving money or monetary value for transmission to a location within or outside the United States by any and all means, including, but not limited to, wire, facsimile or electronic transfer.
(h) "Outstanding check" means any check issued or sold in Mississippi by or for the licensee that has been reported as sold but not yet paid by or for the licensee.
(i) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, joint-stock association, trust or corporation, but does not include the United States government or the government of this state.
(j) "Personal money order" means any instrument for the transmission or payment of money in relation to which the purchaser or remitter appoints or purports to appoint the seller thereof as his agent for the receipt, transmission or handling of money, whether the instrument is signed by the seller or by the purchaser or remitter or some other person.
(k) "Records" or "documents" means any item in hard copy or produced in a format of storage commonly described as electronic, imaged, magnetic, microphotographic or otherwise, and any reproduction so made shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof and be admitted in evidence equally with the original.
(l) "Sell" means to sell, to issue or to deliver a check.
(m) "Stored value" means monetary value that is evidenced by an electronic record.
(n) "Virtual currency" means any type of digital representation of value that:
(i) Is used as a medium of exchange, unit of account or store of value; and
(ii) Is not recognized as legal tender by the United States government.
SECTION 5. Section 75-15-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
75-15-7. Nothing in this chapter shall apply to the sale or issuance or delivering of checks by:
(a) Any financial institution whose deposits are insured by any agency of the United States government or any trust company authorized to do business in this state;
(b) The government of the United States or any department or agent thereof;
(c) The State of Mississippi or any municipal corporation, county or other political subdivision of this state;
(d) Agents of a licensee, as provided for in Section 75-15-17, provided that this exemption shall apply only to the agent's acts on behalf of the licensee and this exemption shall not exempt the agent from the provisions of this chapter where he conducts money transmissions for his own account;
(e) Attorneys-at-law, as to checks issued in the regular course of the practice of law;
(f) Persons not
carrying on the trade or business of money transmission, this exemption is
intended to include persons who conduct money transmissions only as an incidental
act to another trade or business regularly carried on by them and persons who
only occasionally and infrequently conduct money transmissions for another
person; * * *
(g) The Nationwide
Mortgage Licensing System and Registry for mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders
and mortgage loan originators * * *; or
(h) Buying, selling, issuing, or taking custody of payment instruments or stored value in the form of virtual currency or receiving virtual currency for transmission to a location within or outside of the United States by any means.
SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2023, and shall stand repealed on June 30, 2023.