Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed two new laws to regulate cryptocurrency mining. Large mining operations employ thousands or even tens of thousands of computers, all connected and all running at the same time. These mines can consume tremendous amounts of energy and emit lots of noise. And those factors have led to an outcry from the public and from state lawmakers.
Bitcoin is the largest and most popular digital currency, referred to more generally as cryptocurrency. There is no centralized bank. Instead, transactions are confirmed by huge banks of computers run by people called miners. All that computing power from the mine is used to generate a cryptographic number that is equal to or less than a number set by the bitcoin network’s difficulty algorithm. And as the financial website Investopedia succinctly explains, “The first miner to find the solution to the problem receives bitcoins as a reward, and the process begins again.”
But when an open-air bitcoin mining operation recently got underway in Bono, Arkansas next door neighbor Gladys Anderson says the sound of 17,000 computer fans just a few hundred feet from her home created a constant shrieking and humming sound.
As Josie Lenora, with Little Rock Public Radio reported this week, Anderson’s story went national, as she described her ordeal to CBS News. “Feels like torture, like a form of military-grade torture.” Anderson says her neighbor takes frequent decibel readings of the mine, with levels reaching as high as 82 decibels. For comparison, a hair dryer is 90 decibels.
Anderson’s personal campaign to regulate the mines eventually led to a new Arkansas law which now requires these facilities to comply with noise ordinances. As one example, Faulkner County, located in Central Arkansas, recently set their noise limit at 60-decibels.
The mines now have to be 2,000 feet from a residence and a crypto mine cannot be controlled by a “prohibited foreign party-controlled business.” That’s because there is some evidence tying the mines, in general, to the Chinese government.
In fact, just this week President Joe Biden issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, calling its proximity to the base a “national security risk.”
A second new law in Arkansas subjects mines which break the noise rules to civil penalties. Lenora also reported that an attorney representing owners of the Bono, Arkansas crypto mine did not respond to requests for comment.
The two bills signed by Gov. Sanders [Senate Bills 78 & 79] handed authority back to local jurisdictions. The legislation amends the Arkansas Data Center Act of 2023, which prevented city and county authorities from passing ordinances that would regulate crypto mines.
