Paraguayan lawmakers this week overturned the president’s veto of an important Bitcoin mining regulation bill.
A total of 33 senators voted on Wednesday to reject President Mario Abdo Benitez’s decision to veto the bill, which wants to regulate Bitcoin mining in the South American country.
In July, the legislature of Paraguay approved the bill to create a clear fiscal and regulatory framework that would allow miners to know where they stand when operating in the country.
President Benitez then vetoed claiming that mining uses large amounts of energy but brings relatively small benefits in terms of employment.
But this week’s vote shows the senators are determined to regulate the industry which currently operates in a legal gray area in the Latin American nation. According to a statement from the country’s Congress, a lawmaker, Senator Enrique Salyn Buzarquis, said it was better to “formalize” the industry so that it could tax it.
Congressman Daniel Rojas added that “new forms of employment” could be introduced in Paraguay thanks to a well-regulated crypto industry.
Lawmakers believe Paraguay can become a crypto hub because it is more and more attractive to Bitcoin miners, mainly due to its cheap electricity.
Bitcoin mining, which involves adding and verifying blocks of transactions to the asset’s public blockchain, is often done on an industrial scale and requires a lot of computers and energy.
Big crypto firms are looking to Paraguay to set up shop: Canadian mining giant Bitfarms said last year it was expanding into the country on a five-year lease with a renewable power purchase agreement annually to secure 10 MW of green hydroelectricity.
The bill will now be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay for discussion.