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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
blockchain technology; tax; fee; prohibition
Purpose
Declares the regulation of the imposition of a tax or fee on a person or entity running a node on blockchain technology to be a matter of statewide concern and preempts further regulation by a city, town or county.
Background
Blockchain technology is a type of distributed ledger technology that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared and replicated ledger, which may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized crypto economics or tokenless. The data on the ledger is protected with cryptography, is immutable and auditable and provides an uncensored truth (A.R.S. § 44-7061).
A city, town or county may not prohibit or restrict an individual from running a node on blockchain technology in a residence. Running a node on blockchain technology means providing computing power to validate or encrypt transactions in blockchain technology. The regulation of the act of running a node on blockchain technology in a residence is of statewide concern and not subject to further regulation by a city or town (A.R.S. §§ 9-500.42 and 11-269.22).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Prohibits a city, town or county from imposing a tax or fee on any person or entity for running a node on blockchain technology in a residence, except for a tax levied on electricity.
2. Declares the regulation of the imposition of a tax or fee on a person or entity running a node on blockchain technology to be a matter of statewide concern and not subject to further regulation by a city, town or county.
3. Makes technical and conforming changes.
4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
January 26, 2024
JT/AB/slp