Senate Bill 2603

(As Passed the Senate)

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;

(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.

(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 (1) 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.

(4) 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.

(5) 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.

(6) 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.

(7) The Mississippi Public Service Commission shall not establish a discriminatory rate schedule for digital asset mining businesses.

(8) 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. 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 4. 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;

(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; * * * or

(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 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2023, and shall stand repealed on June 30, 2023.