HR1747-118

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.

2. Safe harbor for non-controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services No blockchain developer or provider of a blockchain service shall be treated as a money transmitter (as defined under State licensing laws), a financial institution (as defined under section 5312 of title 31, United States Code), or any other State or Federal legal designation requiring licensing or registration as a condition to acting as a blockchain developer or provider of a blockchain service, unless the developer or provider has, in the regular course of business, control over digital assets to which a user is entitled under the blockchain service or the software created, maintained, or disseminated by the blockchain developer. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any State from enforcing any State law that is consistent with this section. No cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section. As used in this section: The term blockchain developer means any person or business that creates, maintains, or disseminates software facilitating the creation or maintenance of a blockchain network or a blockchain service. The term blockchain network means any system of networked computers that cooperates to reach consensus over the state of a computer program and allows users to participate in the consensus-making process without the need to license proprietary software or obtain permission from any other user. The term includes, specifically, a public network of computers that cooperates to reach consensus over the state of a distributed ledger describing transactions in a digital asset. The term blockchain service means any information, transaction, or computing service or system that provides or enables access to a blockchain network by multiple users, including specifically a service or system that enables users to send, receive, exchange, or store digital assets described by blockchain networks. The term control means the legal right, authority, or ability to obtain upon demand data sufficient to initiate transactions spending an amount of digital assets. The term digital asset means any form of intangible personal property that can be exclusively possessed and transferred person to person without necessary reliance on an intermediary.