Consuming Juneau: What businesses in town accept cryptocurrency?
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 6
- 3 min read
There’s an ATM at Safeway, a window washer and a cookie/lemonade stand; a few other stores tried it for a bit and went back to conventional currency
(Editor’s note: This story may very well be updated with something(s) we missed or that starts up in the near future.)
Denali Schijvens allows people to buy cookies and spruce tip lemonade at his stand for what as of this weekend equates to 0.0000092 Bitcoin. But he said there’s been almost no takers, until he set up shop at the ideal locale of the first-ever Bitcoin Alaska conference at Centennial Hall on Saturday.
"It works exactly like Venmo," Schijvens said, describing the app he uses for transactions. "You just have a QR code, you scan it, and you put in how much money you owe them and you send it over. It happens instantly, happens faster than Venmo and there's not a transaction fee."
Among the initial customers was Elise Gavitt, who bought what in traditional currency amounts to $20 of cookies (at $4 each), who as an attendee at the Bitcoin conference said "I would buy anything I can with it if people would accept it."
But other than Schijvens’ snack stand and the Bitcoin merchandise displayed on tables inside the convention center there aren’t many commodities one can buy with cryptocurrency from Juneau merchants.
You can’t pay property taxes, buy gas or shop at supermarkets with cryptocurrency — but there is an ATM-like Coinstar kiosk at Safeway that does cash/card/crypto exchanges for a 4% transaction fee.
People can get their windows washed, gutters cleared, and driveways and decks cleaned with cryptocurrency at Capital City Windows (the same folks who cleaned the State Office Building in 2023). Brick Engstrom said he took over ownership of the company a year or so ago when his father retired on his Bitcoin earnings, and while such payments are accepted by his business there’s not much interest from customers yet.
"There’s not a whole lot of base there," he said. "Hopefully if I put it out there, there will be some base."
There are, of course, plenty of online options for outlets that have locations in Juneau where residents can conduct transactions (The Salvation Army, for instance, will accept cryptocurrency donations).
But in terms of stores with physical locations, a Google search for "Bitcoin" and "Juneau" results in a list of about half a dozen merchants involved in such transactions. But that seems to be in the past for most or all of them, based on a check of those businesses Saturday.
Alaska Robotics tried such transactions a decade ago, but found customers weren’t taking the bit.
"It was an interesting new technology in 2014 so we tried it out," Pat Race, the store’s owner, wrote in a text message Saturday. "But it quickly became apparent the electronic waste and energy consumption were going to become problems. Then the grifters started rolling in and any ounce of social promise it had was diluted by a million gallons of snake oil. It's also just kind of impractical for a small business, I think that's why no one else started really using it around town."
"The fact it hasn’t really taken off since then speaks volumes about its utility," he added.
Among the other businesses listed, a gold and silver exchange at the Nugget Mall no longer exists there, a downtown CPB/vape store no longer transacts with crypto, and a jewelry/gift shop near the cruise ship dock no longer lists cryptocurrency as a valid payment method at its website.
Wade Hoek, a Juneau resident who organized the Bitcoin Alaska conference, said in response to Race’s remarks there’s literally a world of difference in cryptocurrency during the past decade. Hoek cited as examples government-level actions such as "nation-state adoption" of cryptocurrency and a bill introduced this year by Rep. Nick Begich III (R-Alaska) — the convention’s featured guest — to establish a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve."
"So the whole world's changed from then and maybe he hasn't," Hoek said about Race, noting "he'll probably take on a different view here as it gets adopted."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
