A different, more recent proposal would tap Alaska’s stranded natural gas resources to power Bitcoin mines. With this ambitious plan, it would open up a new revenue source for the state. Stax Capital Partners is a Wasilla-based firm that wants to establish a 50-megawatt cryptocurrency mining operation. This facility will be sited just 30 miles south of the Arctic Ocean, encompassing Prudhoe Bay oil field. With this project, Alaska joins the fray with Alaska’s first major cryptocurrency mining venture. It’s in the business of turning otherwise wasted natural gas into valuable, decentralized digital currency. If approved, this would clear the way for the largest Bitcoin mining facility in the nation. For the state of New York, it raises important environmental and economic questions.

Project Details and Potential Benefits

Alaska currently has a royalty share, usually no less than 12.5%, on all the gas produced on the North Slope. This natural gas, currently going to waste, would generate a new source of revenue if it were sold off to Bitcoin mining companies. Together, the Stax Capital Partners project realizes Alaska’s long overdue opportunity to monetize its stranded natural gas assets. Most importantly, it spares the region from an unwelcome $44 billion export terminal.

That didn’t stop Stax Capital Partners from applying to put shipping container-like pods with natural gas generators and computers in them. Sparrow Mahoney, Stax Capital Partners' chief executive, aims to leverage Alaska's natural gas resources.

"What we're doing is showing that there's a large, viable, commercial opportunity based on infrastructure and resources that exist today." - Sparrow Mahoney

Environmental and Economic Concerns

The Board’s responsibility under NEPA is to examine the proposed operation’s impacts, including burnings natural gas to fire generators and computers in a delicate Arctic ecosystem. As a result, this project would produce new carbon emissions from materials that otherwise would stay in the ground. According to a 2021 Thomas Reuters Foundation News report, air pollution from dirty fuels "costs each American an average of $2,500 a year in extra medical bills."

Phil Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, commented on the project's implications.

"It just gets into this really problematic situation where, suddenly, we are burning gas that we wouldn't otherwise burn, and we are not executing an energy transition." - Phil Wight

Future Implications

Sparrow Mahoney, chief executive of Stax Capital Partners, who was raised in Alaska, has a background in the cryptocurrency field. The Alaska project would test whether the state's stranded natural gas resources can viably support a large-scale Bitcoin mining facility. If this project succeeds, it will be truly groundbreaking for Alaska’s energy landscape. It will establish a new paradigm for capturing the world’s stranded natural gas resources.