Legislators in Oklahoma have taken legislative steps in recent days that, if passed, would provide a tax benefit to cryptocurrency and BTC miners who want to establish a business presence in the region.

Oklahoma Supports Crypto Mining 

A bill introduced by state legislator John Montgomery and the representative of the state, Ryan Martinez this year titled “the Commercial Digital Asset Mining Act of 2022”, seeks to minimize the costs of hardware and power required by industrial mining operations in the region. Cryptocurrency mining is known to be very expensive in terms of power consumption and capital spent on buying supercomputers for minting crypto.

‘The initial aim of the Parliament was to acknowledge the continued establishment of innovative and enhanced industrial processing and manufacturing technologies,’ as stated in the bill. “In order to promote the development and extension of such activities in this region other than in rival jurisdictions, blockchain technology, utilized in the large-scale mining of virtual currencies, should be levied in a way comparable to past kinds of production and industrial processing.”

According to a report by the state’s regional news source KOKH, quoting statements from Sen. Montgomery, bonuses worth a total of over $5 million are now being considered instead of taking a harsh stance against crypto mining activities in the area. Harsh regulations would only lessen the state’s chances of becoming very attractive to crypto miners.

Legislators Vote In Favour Of Bill

According to public records, the proposal was approved by the Oklahoma Senators on the 22nd of March. Over 29 lawmakers voted in favor of the tax incentive bill while 16 persons voted against citing power consumption reasons. Following the vote, the legislation was sent to the lower house of the legislative arm on the 23rd of March and submitted to the technology committee on the 30th of March.

Oklahoma is joining a rising number of states in the United States that are taking an interest in the rapidly developing BTC mining industry. States such as Georgia and Illinois are considering similar legislation, while the state of Kentucky enacted tax breaks of this kind in 2021.

Furthermore, New York legislators are attempting to impose limitations on the region’s mining industry, claiming worries about the environment. The subject of cryptocurrency arming the environment has been a huge debate with several countries enforcing legislation to reduce crypto mining activities. Several mining companies are currently sourcing greener energy such as coal to use for mining purposes. There have also been movements advocating for proof-of-work protocol to be changed to other protocols that are less harmful to the environment and consume less power to process transactions.