Cryptocurrency and crypto mining brought more than 40 people to the Columbia County Library last week to hear presentations from attorney Mike Boyd and Columbia County Judge Doug Fields.
The presentation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 included Boyd’s remarks on Bitcoin. Boyd invests in Bitcoin but said several times he was not giving financial advice.
Fields has been working with residents off County Road 12 in Macedonia to monitor the noise level of a crypto mining facility there.
“We thought this was going to be popular, but this is our most popular (community meeting) so far,” said a smiling Columbia County Librarian Holli Howard, who along with staff, brought in rows and rows of extra chairs to accommodate for the larger-than-expected crowd.
Boyd told the audience that Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, is often misunderstood by people. As with other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoins are not physical paper currency or coins. Rather, they are lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to another.
According to Fidelity.com, crypto mining is a process blockchain networks, like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, used to finalize transactions. It’s called “mining” because this process also releases new coins into circulation. Put simply, crypto mining is really just guesswork with a monetary incentive – also known as proof of work. But you need a lot of computer power to do it.
“I’m going to provide some basic information about Bitcoin,” Boyd said. “It’s like many things people know and have strong opinions about and some have these opinions without knowing about it.”
Although Boyd had prepared a PowerPoint to go along with his presentation, he said he wanted to open the meeting with discussion about people’s questions and concerns with Bitcoin.
GAMBLING STAGE
William Wood, a Certified Public Accountant at Wood and Wood, Ltd. Certified Public Accountants, spoke up about cryptocurrency and his opinion about it not having enough weight to invest in.
“It’s still in the gambling stage -- it’s not like a dollar,” Wood said. “I think people are wasting their money on it.”
Boyd asked the audience if they knew if it was real, and if it had the same value as a dollar and told them the investing system of Bitcoin has been around for 15 years.
Before he could go further, one woman from the audience who could not be identified after the meeting asked, “But what is it? You talk about mining, is it amethyst or emeralds? You call it mining and I think of picks and shovels.”
Boyd quickly tried to fill in the gaps.
“Bitcoin is a unit of an account. It is also a method of exchange. It can be used as currency,” Boyd said. “A lot of places in the U.S. and around the world you can buy something as small as a cup of coffee with Bitcoin. It holds value and can be exchanged for goods and services.”
Boyd then said something which peaked the ears of some people in the room looking for a new way to invest.
“Bitcoin is a digital gold except it is better than gold,” he said. “The creator did make it possible to receive a cryptographic stream (a unique identifier) and how to send digitally without using a bank,” Boyd said. “The Bitcoin network means all transactions are verifiable.”
Retiree John Ed Stewart asked Boyd how that would work if the account wasn’t identifiable.
Boyd said the account doesn’t attach by a person’s name, but companies track it to an address. Stewart said he would be concerned this would make it an investment that would attract criminal activity.
“But the U.S. dollar is the king of that,” Boyd quickly replied.
Boyd next explained Blockchain, which according to PR News is a digital ledger where cryptocurrencies transactions are recorded. It works like a chain of digital blocks that contain records of transactions. Each block is connected to those before and behind it, making it difficult for hackers to disrupt it.
“A block is a public check book register that once confirmed cannot be changed,” Boyd said. “It can’t be double spent.
“You can’t sell your Bitcoin and then turn around and sell it to someone else,” Boyd said.
Boyd said his son buys $10 of Bitcoin every other week as an investment.
“But that is not me telling you to buy it,” he emphasized.
An example of Bitcoin as an investment that could be a visual for the audience was about the economy of Venezuela and how Bitcoin could help them in a time of economic crisis.
“In the U.S., we have a robust financial system, you can use your debit card at the store,” he said. “But what if you live in Venezuela and your money is worth less than 80 percent of what it was the day before and it takes two sacks of money to buy a loaf of bread?”
Boyd said with Bitcoin, a person in a foreign country could buy groceries or other supplies with their cryptocurrency or at least store their value, meaning they could at least tuck it away and leave it in Bitcoin so it would not suffer a double digit decline in value that could happen in times of severe inflation, he said.
Other countries such as China, which has banned Bitcoin, do not like the concept of their people having an access to such a financial stream.
“They absolutely don’t like this because they can’t control their people,” Boyd said.
Columbia County Deputy Clerk Devonna Powell spoke up and said she might prefer gold in a situation where there was no electricity or cell service and traditional money couldn’t be used in exchange for goods.
“I would argue that gold is not going to work in that situation. The value would be for guns and ammo. It would be a problem for everybody,” Boyd said. “I don’t know if they would take gold or silver for a loaf of bread if you are preparing for that kind of end-of-days scenario,” Boyd said.
Boyd presented one slide to show the beginning of Bitcoin and said it was introduced in 2008. The name is widely believed to be a pseudonym and could have been a small group of people working together.
Also on the slide, Satoshi Nakamoto is credited as the author, and thus the creator of Bitcoin.
Boyd said in its creation the first Bitcoin started out as a penny but 21 million has always been the hard cap that can ever be created.
“There is a finite amount of Bitcoin and around 2140 is when the last bitcoin will be made,” he said.
COLUMBIA COUNTY CRYPTO MINING
Also at Wednesday’s presentation, Fields spoke to residents about the crypto mining facility in Macedonia just off County Road 12. He told the audience that Columbia County had taken the advice of the Arkansas Association of Counties prior to the facility being built and proposed an ordinance to keep the noise level at 65 decibels or below.
However, Stewart, who lives across from the crypto mine, has bought his own decibel reader and claims the noise level has exceeded 65 decibels on multiple occasions.
“Who is responsible for enforcing the law?” Stewart asked Fields. “To me it’s like I should be able to call the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.”
Fields said a specific company which has not been selected by the county yet would be responsible for monitoring the decibels of the Macedonia facility.
Stewart seemed to be glad when Boyd told him that if he and other residents near the Macedonia facility could prove it was a nuisance -- which he said is not a well-defined term and can be challenging -- they could go in together and file a civil lawsuit.
“Well, that’s a ray of hope,” Stewart said.
CRYPTO REGULATION
State Sen. Steve Crowell (R-Magnolia) said he was pleased the Senate approved two amended bills, Senate Bill 78 and 79, meant to place stronger regulations on crypto mining in Arkansas.
“I am very confident that a lot of members of the House know this industry has to be fixed and I’m very excited that it will pass through their committee and off their floor and to the governor’s office,” Crowell said.
The bills are supposed to help regulate the industry which was not done originally in the state by legislators and Governor Sarah Sanders. But Crowell said work is being done now that will make things different.
“Any new industry we have to regulate and find the good and bad actors and we have to do that for the people of our state,” he said.
According to the ArkansasAdvocate.com, both bills contain emergency clauses meaning they would go into effect immediately if Sanders signed them into law. Six more potential crypto regulations policies passed the Senate but failed in the House within the past week.