Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a landmark bill into law earlier this month which would prohibit a local government from taxing or imposing restrictions upon the use of the blockchain technology. The bill recognizes blockchain technology as a type of electronic record under state law.

Nevada Senate Bill 398 states:

"A local governmental entity shall not: (a) Impose any tax or fee on the use of a blockchain or smart contract by any person or entity; (b) Require any person or entity to obtain from the local governmental entity any certificate, license or permit to use a blockchain or smart contract; or (c) Impose any other requirement relating to the use of a blockchain or smart contract by any person or entity."

The move has been welcomed by the incumbents in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. Filament CEO and Founder Allison Clift-Jennings stated:

“Governments can be slow to adopt and digest this sort of technology. Nevada is setting a precedent for how states should be approaching blockchain right now. I believe it will be instrumental in attracting top technologists and startups to the state. It’s really exciting to be at the forefront of that change.”

Speaking to EconoTimes, Jaron Lukasiewicz, SONM advisor, stated:

“This proactive legislation helps support the effort many of us are undertaking to build a large blockchain developer community in Nevada.”

Lukasiewicz has been a prominent bitcoin and blockchain industry leader since 2012. He founded and served as CEO of Coinsetter, a New York City-based bitcoin exchange, which was acquired by leading digital asset exchange Kraken in January 2016. The sale was, at the time, the largest M&A deal in Bitcoin history. Lukasiewicz also served as CEO of Cavirtex, the oldest and largest Canadian bitcoin exchange, which was also acquired by Kraken in 2016. Since the acquisition, Lukasiewicz has served as Executive Vice President at Rhodes Corporation, responsible for managing the corporate finance activities of a diverse group of businesses with assets exceeding $1 billion.

Lukasiewicz recently joined the board of advisors of SONM, a Russian company that has developed a universal fog supercomputer powered by blockchain technology. Commenting on how Nevada is setting a precedent for other states, Lukasiewicz said:

“Progress is dependent on people. Nevada’s leadership will help other state governments feel comfortable taking similar steps, but progress in those states will ultimately come down to people promoting pro-blockchain legislation in their own state.”

Lukasiewicz further explained that blockchain regulation is different from bitcoin regulation, stating:

“I would like to see people stop comparing blockchain regulation to bitcoin regulation. While there is technology overlap, these are two completely separate industries from an operations and regulatory standpoint. For example, the money transmitter framework surrounding bitcoin is not very relevant to a blockchain company building a corporate governance protocol.”