Missouri Enforces Bill to Protect Crypto Miners' Rights

The state of Missouri is in line to become one of the most crypto-friendly in the Union given it’s just passed a string of regulatory acts designed to protect the rights of bitcoin and crypto miners.

Missouri Seeks to Keep Crypto Miners Protected

Missouri legislators recently voted to amend what’s known as House Bill 764. Introduced last January, the bill defines the language and descriptions surrounding cryptocurrency miners. It also says that no crypto miner can be discriminated against regardless of what kind of energy they use or how they choose to run their facilities.

The Missouri law is considered a huge step forward given how much of a bad rap crypto miners have been getting in recent years. There are many environmentalists out there who seem to believe crypto miners are going to lead to the death of the planet. There have been numerous reports published in recent years claiming that crypto mining now uses more electricity than three quarters of the world’s most underdeveloped countries, and thus the practice should be banned and stopped in its tracks.

One can assume this is just drama led by knapsack-wearing vegans, but it really doesn’t help when industry heads like Elon Musk appear to be taking their side. About two years ago, Musk – the South African billionaire entrepreneur behind major companies such as Tesla and SpaceX – stated that he was going to allow crypto fans to buy Tesla vehicles with bitcoin. Many felt this was a definitive moment for the space, and the price of BTC rose into the high $50K range soon after the news spread.

However, things didn’t last as just a few weeks later, Musk said he was rescinding the decision because he was worried about the dangers presented by the mining sector. He said he would reconsider implementing BTC as a payment method if crypto miners were willing to be fully transparent about their energy sources and they were able to switch completely to clean energy.

Another important aspect of the Missouri bill is that it deciphers home miners from mining businesses, and equal protections are granted to both parties. Mining businesses are defined in the document as multiple computers located within single sites that consume heavy amounts of electricity to extract new units of crypto from the blockchain.

Ensuring Safety Is in Place

By contrast, home digital mining is defined as taking place in a residential area. Neither entity can be charged more money than others. In addition, those who choose to mine crypto from their residences cannot face discrimination or persecution due to accusations of noise pollution.

Further protections are in place to ensure no county or residential area can enforce alternative zoning procedures to attack crypto miners or facilities unless they go through proper protocols with local and statewide courts.

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