Sarah Huckabee Sanders was the first White House press secretary to address cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin) when she took on the topic in a 2017 press conference. She reported: “I know this is something that is being monitored by our team here” and “I know this is something he [President Trump] is keeping an eye on.”
In April 2023, as the Governor of Arkansas, Sanders signed into law the Arkansas Data Centers Act a.k.a. the ‘Right to Mine’ law, which clarifies “the guidelines needed to protect data asset miners from discriminatory industry specific regulations and taxes.”
[Arkansas was the first state in the country to pass a ‘Right to Mine’ bill through both its House and Senate.]
The law was reportedly co-written by the Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit organization which was co-founded by Mandy Gunasekara, who also worked in the Trump administration as Chief of Staff of the EPA.
[Note: Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym for the person who invented and developed Bitcoin.]
While the Right to Mine law offers Bitcoin miners legal protections, some Arkansans living near the noisy cryptocurrency mines — there are currently three — are protesting.
Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a #BitcoinMine
— green soul 🌎🌻Climate/Humanity #BidenHarris (@carolleisa) February 3, 2024
Pushed by an advocacy group, #Arkansas became the first state to shield noisy cryptocurrency operators from unhappy neighbors. A furious backlash has some lawmakers considering a ban. https://t.co/g1QTRXlsO5
Residents told The New York Times that “the noise generated by computers performing trillions of calculations per second ruins lives, lowers property values and drives away wildlife.”
Arkansas State Representative Jeremiah Moore, a Republican whose District 61 includes a Bitcoin operation, told the Times that he and other lawmakers are “drafting a proposed statewide ban on industrial-level cryptocurrency mining.” Note: Moore was one of the 93 representatives who voted in favor of the Right to Mine law signed by Sanders. (Eighty-two of the 100 Arkansas House Representatives are Republican, so it’s an argument taking place largely on one side of the aisle.)
Moore now says that the law’s impact on communities is far different from what was presented when lawmakers were considering the bill, which he now says has resulted in “intolerable noise with no regard for neighbors or wildlife.”
Another conflict brewing in the Arkansas crypto mining argument centers on the ownership of such protected data assets. As seen below, Arkansas’s Secretary of Agriculture Wesley Ward is concerned about the ownership of one cryptocurrency mining company in particular (Jones Digital), which according to Ward “might have significant ties to China.”
Such alleged ties, Ward believes, should be of special concern to Gov. Sanders considering her history of standing up against China-owned assets in Arkansas.
[Note: In 2023, Governor Sanders signed Act 636 which prohibits foreign-controlled parties — including China — from acquiring or holding public or private land in the state.]
If a state-owned, Chinese company is looking at coming to Arkansas, they are not welcome. Gov. @SarahHuckabee has lead the nation in removing these communist entities from our great state, & she’s just getting started. CCP crypto mines are no different & must go. #arleg #argop pic.twitter.com/HgXaVzL5ZB
— Jeremiah Lee Moore (@JeremiahMooreAR) December 12, 2023
Rep. Moore acknowledged Sanders’s work on the issue, and sharing Secretary Ward’s letter to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, Moore wrote: “Gov Sarah Huckabee Sanders has lead the nation in removing these communist entities from our great state, & she’s just getting started.” Moore added that the Governor should have the same concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged crypto involvement, writing, “CCP crypto mines are no different & must go.”
