Participants call inaugural Bitcoin Alaska rewarding, even if some still aren’t sold
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 8
- 7 min read
Lessons about cryptocurrency technology, human rights uses among payoffs for some newcomers
Shar Fox says she still isn’t sure what cryptocurrency is all about, but hearing how it's helping support human rights efforts in places like Africa is encouraging.
Jim Simard says he wants to know more about cryptocurrency’s energy-use issues and how they affect climate change.
Aparna Dileep-Nageswaran Palmer says she’s interested in how cryptocurrency technology can be used for other purposes such as archiving important documents — and as the chancellor at the University of Alaska Southeast "I'm interested in helping our students learn and be prepared for the future."
Those three Juneau residents might not fit the stereotype of expected attendees at the first-ever Bitcoin Alaska conference at Centennial Hall on Saturday and Sunday. But they — along with hardcore cryptocurrency supporters seeking to further what they’re already sold on — were who conference organizer Wade Hoek sought to bring together for a non-virtual exchange of ideas and values.
"This was not a profitable event," he said, noting the total registration of 125 to 150 people — including about 20 featured speakers — didn’t cover the costs of the conference. "I never had a dream of making a bunch of money. I just had a dream of making people think about how we can fund state services because I hear these politicians on the hill — because I work up there — fighting about how to rob Peter to pay Paul when we don't have to rob either of them."
Regardless of what one thinks of cryptocurrency — future of global finance, overhyped and unstable, a predatory scam — the website CoinGecko asserts the market cap for all cryptocurrency as of Tuesday is $3.43 trillion. Which means it’ll most likely be around for a while whether people buy into it or not — and so will the computer infrastructure for "mining" virtual funds such as Bitcoins, the evolution of who transacts with such currency, and the payoffs and ripoffs.
"I think a university should be open to a lot of different ideas — that’s the essence of a great university," Palmer said after the conference concluded on Sunday. "And so I'm interested in helping our students learn and be prepared for the future. And so Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Blockchain — those are things that people need to know about. It's becoming more and more prominent — and what are some great ways in which we can enrich people's education using that technology? That's what I'm interested in."
Palmer was at the conference on Sunday at the invitation of a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor who was a panelist discussing cryptocurrency’s technology achievements.
Fox and Simard said they attended some of the sessions out of curiosity for free — which organizers started permitting as the weekend progressed since there were seldom more than 40 people in a main convention room set up for 300 (sessions were also made free to view online). They said they came away satisfied with the experience, if not solidly sold on buying Bitcoins.
Fox said her curiosity was piqued because "I hear about it and this current president is all about crypto, and what's the relationship between Bitcoin and what the president's doing?" (The meme coins marketed by President Donald Trump are described by NBC News as offering "little technical innovation or practical use…relying on cultural cachet and symbolism," whereas Bitcoin advocates refer to their product as "a decentralized digital currency and a store of value.")
"I think it's important for all of us to learn from one another," she said. "I might not agree with everything, but I want to try to understand what it's about. There's a lot of divisions in our country right now, right? There's an opportunity for me to try to bridge some of that and talk to people. These are all humans doing what they believe in."
"There were a lot of things that I found quite reassuring when they talked about," Fox added, referring to cryptocurrency funding for causes in cash-scarce areas, and a presenter who "spoke about education with children and having them learn values of caring for one another."
Simard said he came away with mixed impressions since there were discussions about how cryptocurrency facilities could potentially be a way to bring renewable energy projects to communities, with the surplus energy generated used for crypto mining. Conversely, some of the main presenters focused primarily on large-scale mining using Alaska’s fossil fuels.
"If it's simply going to be a way to selling more fossil fuels then I see it as very negative, but I don’t see it has to be that way," he said. "The overall climate is really my concern, because that's the economy that everything else lives inside."
The conference sought in part to highlight features that make Juneau and Alaska ideal for cryptocurrency production.
"We have something that Bitcoin miners around the world are desperately seeking: the conditions for abundant and affordable energy," Alaska Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, one of the conference’s featured speakers, told the audience Sunday. "Our state produces more energy per capita than anywhere else in America."
Using some of that power to build data centers in Alaska — which could be used for purposes such as cryptocurrency and AI — is supported by Rep. Gov Mike Dunleavy. A startup company is proposing to build a large Bitcoin mining operation powered with natural gas on the North Slope later this year. In Juneau, Democratic state Sen. Jesse Kiehl says small- to mid-scale cryptocurrency projects may make sense since the city’s hydropower is the cheapest in the state.
But Bitcoin Alaska’s bigger theme was summarized by the conference’s most notable guest, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III (R-Alaska), who in closing remarks on Sunday declared "we're trying to give people their freedom back." When it comes to cryptocurrency that means "it's about making sure that you are in control of your own financial destiny."
"I think it's really remarkable that Bitcoin leadership from around the country has come to Alaska," Begich said. "They've recognized that, as our revenue commissioner said, Alaska does have values that are consistent with what Bitcoin is trying to do. We do have an entrepreneurial spirit. We do have a risk-taking spirit in Alaska and we have some fundamental comparative advantages as well."
"What we recognize is that there is a fundamental paradigm shift when it comes to our monetary system, and it's going to happen whether we believe in it or not. Whether someone wants to bury their head in the past or move forward in the future, the market is deciding for us and as regulators — whether at the state level or federal level — we've got to adapt to what's happening."
Grand pronouncements aside, cryptocurrency at its simplest level remains a bunch of zeros and ones on computer servers that have value because a sufficient number of people say so. Begich, when asked about that by the Juneau Independent during a break in the convention, said the same principle of faith applies to currencies such as the U.S. dollar as well.
"I challenge the idea that dollars are not the same thing," he said. "So (Bitcoin’s) kind of a hybrid in some respects. It's a hybrid store of value that's sort of updated to current technology standards. Yes, gold is a physical asset. It's also a drawback. When I try to move gold from, say, one country to another, one holder to another, they have to validate that what I'm giving them is 100% pure as advertised. I have to physically move it from one place to another. That creates a lot of friction as we move stores of value around. So Bitcoin doesn't have those friction points and so it's got some components to the technology that are advantageous relative to our historical value."
About a dozen protesters gathered outside Centennial Hall on Saturday morning — when Begich was originally scheduled to speak — and a handful more showed the following day when the congressman arrived after being delayed by attending a bill signing in Washington, D.C., on Friday night. The bill was the federal budget that makes drastic spending and policy shifts, which Begich supported and the protesters wanted to challenge him about.
"I do not know a lot about cryptocurrency and I’m technically not protesting Bitcoin," Gina Chalcroft, the leader of the protesters, said Saturday. "We’re really here to talk to Nick about the bill."
They didn’t get their chance since, after Begich showed up Sunday, conference organizers responded to the presence of a few protesters by moving the registration tables to barricade the main entrance and posting a burly-looking staffer to stand guard. However, organizers also set up containers of coffee and cups outside the entrance both days for protesters who were frequently exposed to various amounts of rain.
While the inaugural Bitcoin Alaska may not have sold many people not already committed to the cryptocurrency — especially given the unprofitable level of attendance — some of the featured presenters said the event achieved its purpose as they look ahead to another one already scheduled for next year.
"We have to start somewhere," said Matthew Carson, CBO of Hash House Technologies, a Dallas-based company that provides liquid cooling systems for data centers. "I've been to Bitcoin conferences the first time they do one in states over the years that have been smaller than this their first time around. I'm actually quite pleased in how well and how many people turned up, given the (Fourth of July weekend) dates and everything. It took many, many, many years for Bitcoin conferences to get more than a couple hundred people showing up, even in places like Miami and New York City. It was all about education, messaging and just getting it out there."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
