At Bitcoin Amsterdam on 13 November, Alderney politician Edward Hill delivered a direct pitch to the BTC community: help turn his tiny Channel Island into a Bitcoin-first jurisdiction, anchored in renewable energy and a pro-BTC regulatory stance.
From there, he moved quickly to why Alderney is now courting Bitcoin. Hill stressed that the government is actively seeking a strategic partner from within the ecosystem: “Why do we think Alderney could be attractive for potential Bitcoin entrepreneurs? We’re looking for somebody to take us on this journey.” He added later, “We are not Bitcoin specialists. I am from the government of the States of Alderney, but we are here to listen and learn.”
A core part of his pitch is that Alderney already knows how to build digital industries under regulation. “Most importantly, we already have an established e-gaming industry which produces a GDP around about 84 billion million,” he said, tying that to an institutional template: “We want to mirror all these success in e-gaming where we have our own e-gaming commission and we have professional staff who handle that […] and ditto we’ve done the same with our renewables as well. So what we’re looking to do is extend that to Bitcoin.”
Hill repeatedly framed Alderney as a flexible, low-friction jurisdiction for BTC companies and individuals. “We’re small and [a] stable government and we have a big appetite to diversify our economy,” he said. “We have an open canvas for you to match the business lifestyle requirements that we know that you’re looking for and have been unable to find without having to travel probably thousands of miles to more remote offshore centers.”
He hammered home Alderney’s fiscal offer in plain terms. “We’re also very attractive from a tax point of view. No corporation tax, no capital gains tax, no VAT, no inheritance tax, and personal income tax of only 20%. I’m sure you all like that.” On top of that, the island imposes no wealth-based hurdles for newcomers: “We have no financial entry requirements for residency or house purchase. So you can come, you can buy a house. You do not have to pay vast fortunes in early buying expensive houses.”
On regulation, Hill emphasised that Alderney sits under Guernsey oversight but is actively engaging to make the regime fit BTC better. “We also are regulated by the Guernsey Financial Service Commission and they’re open to engage with us and with you about making the regulatory framework more usable for Bitcoin.” He drew a clear boundary around the initiative: “We will only be working with Bitcoin, no other asset.”
He then outlined the scope of what Alderney is looking to build with the right partner: “Attracting new Bitcoin businesses to our island […] establishment of [a] Bitcoin research engineering campus, some kind of business park, a potential neo bank.” Education and values are part of that package. Hill said the island wants “public and government Bitcoin education to teach our community all about what you’re really about to dispel some of the skepticisms and rumors.”
For that, he insisted, Alderney needs a deeply involved counterpart, not just registrations. “We’re looking for a production of some kind of strategic document… someone who could implement a plan and provide local education in Bitcoin and capacity building and also execute that plan with mutual agreement from ourselves as the States of Alderney.”
At press time, BTC traded at $96,799.
