I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1747 
To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration for certain non- 
controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 23, 2023 
Mr. EMMER (for himself and Mr. SOTO) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration 
for certain non-controlling blockchain developers and pro-
viders of blockchain services. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Blockchain Regulatory 
Certainty Act’’. 
SEC. 
2. 
SAFE 
HARBOR 
FOR 
NON-CONTROLLING 
BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPERS AND PROVIDERS 
OF BLOCKCHAIN SERVICES. 
(a) 
PROTECTION
FOR
NON-CONTROLLING 
BLOCKCHAIN SERVICES AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS.— 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:43 Apr 06, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1747.IH
H1747
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
No blockchain developer or provider of a blockchain serv-
ice shall be treated as a money transmitter (as defined 
under State licensing laws), a financial institution (as de-
fined 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 cre-
ated, maintained, or disseminated by the blockchain devel-
oper. 
(b) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.— 
(1) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW.—Nothing 
in this section shall be construed to limit or expand 
any law pertaining to intellectual property. 
(2) STATE LAW.—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 in-
consistent with this section. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section: 
(1) 
BLOCKCHAIN
DEVELOPER.—The 
term 
‘‘blockchain developer’’ means any person or busi-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:43 Apr 06, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1747.IH
H1747
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
ness that creates, maintains, or disseminates soft-
ware facilitating the creation or maintenance of a 
blockchain network or a blockchain service. 
(2) 
BLOCKCHAIN
NETWORK.—The 
term 
‘‘blockchain 
network’’ 
means 
any 
system 
of 
networked computers that cooperates to reach con-
sensus over the state of a computer program and al-
lows users to participate in the consensus-making 
process without the need to license proprietary soft-
ware or obtain permission from any other user. The 
term includes, specifically, a public network of com-
puters that cooperates to reach consensus over the 
state of a distributed ledger describing transactions 
in a digital asset. 
(3) 
BLOCKCHAIN
SERVICE.—The 
term 
‘‘blockchain service’’ means any information, trans-
action, or computing service or system that provides 
or enables access to a blockchain network by mul-
tiple users, including specifically a service or system 
that enables users to send, receive, exchange, or 
store digital assets described by blockchain net-
works. 
(4) CONTROL.—The term ‘‘control’’ means the 
legal right, authority, or ability to obtain upon de-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:43 Apr 06, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1747.IH
H1747
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
mand data sufficient to initiate transactions spend-
ing an amount of digital assets. 
(5) DIGITAL ASSET.—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 inter-
mediary. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:43 Apr 06, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H1747.IH
H1747
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS