“To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration for certain non-controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a safe harbor exempting blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services from treatment as money transmitters (under state or federal law), financial institutions (as defined in 31 U.S.C. §5312(i.e., entities subject to Bank Secrecy Act reporting and anti-money laundering requirements, including banks, money transmitters, and certain nonbank businesses)), or other licensing/registration designations—thus avoiding related liabilities—unless, in the regular course of business, they exercise "control" over users' digital assets to which users are entitled. (Control means the unilateral ability to access data needed to spend such assets without third-party approval.) The section defines key terms (blockchain developer, blockchain network, blockchain service, control, and digital asset); preempts inconsistent state or local laws while preserving enforcement of consistent state laws; and states it does not affect intellectual property law.