Alaskan lawmakers have proposed regulatory changes that would require certain businesses engaging in digital currency services to obtain money transmission licenses, CoinDesk reported.
Introduced by state representative Zach Fansler and Sam Kito, House Bill 180 seeks to bring firms that exchange, store or transmit digital currencies such as bitcoin under the state’s money transmission laws.
The bill includes an expanded definition of "virtual currency", which includes both decentralized and centralized:
“virtual currency shall be broadly construed to cover digital units of exchange that
(1) have a centralized repository; in this paragraph, "centralized repository" means a single third-party administrating authority that controls the system, issues the currency, establishes the rules for the currency's use, maintains a central payment ledger, and has authority to redeem the currency or withdraw the currency from circulation;
(2) are decentralized, distributive, open-source, math-based, peer-to- 18 peer virtual currency with no central administrating authority and no central 19 monitoring or oversight”
If the proposed legislation is approved, relevant companies would need to obtain license from the state’s Banking and Securities Commission.
