Bitcoin Policy Institute가 농촌 지역 가구를 위해 연간 $4,500~$8,900의 배당금을 지원할 자금 조성을 제안합니다. (Note: The source sentence appears incomplete—"exi" is cut off. If you can provide the complete sentence, I'll refine the translation.)

The Bitcoin Policy Institute has published a report titled "Data Center Dividends: A Financial Model to Ensure Rural America's Economic Empowerment in the AI Age," proposing that rural counties hosting AI data centers could distribute annual dividends to residents without raising taxes or imposing additional costs on companies building the facilities.

The proposal arrives as local opposition has become the primary constraint on data center expansion. The number of local data center moratoria across the United States has grown from six in 2024 to 294 in 2026. A Gallup poll conducted in March found that 71 percent of Americans would oppose an AI data center in their area, compared to 53 percent who would oppose a nuclear power plant.

Sam Lyman, the Bitcoin Policy Institute's head of research and former senior advisor and chief speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, authored the report. Lyman argues that data center dividends are critical for securing rural America's economic future during the AI era. He stated, "Rural counties are sitting on a digital goldmine. They have the land and the power the AI economy cannot manufacture anywhere else. But they have no mechanism for turning that valuable real estate into an asset that can transform the economic prospects of every family in their communities. Until now. Data center dividends will ensure that every household in a rural county reaps the full benefits of America's AI buildout."

The model is informed by West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, where a developer has agreed to pay approximately 90 million dollars annually to a county of 4,026 households. The Louisiana Legislature passed Act 434 this spring, authorizing the parish's taxing bodies to return data center revenue to residents. Based on expected tax revenues from that project, households in West Feliciana could have received annual dividend payments between 5,600 and 11,200 dollars had the cash option been included in the final legislation.

The report derives a general per-gigawatt price estimate for data center tax revenue from Loudoun County, Virginia, the most data center-dependent jurisdiction in the country. Based on this data, the Bitcoin Policy Institute estimates that an average rural county with a one-gigawatt campus could distribute annual data center dividends between 4,500 and 8,900 dollars to every household.

The data center dividend model draws from the principles of sovereign wealth funds and the Alaska Permanent Fund. Financed by oil royalties collected by the Alaskan government, the Alaska Permanent Fund has paid an annual dividend to state residents for 44 consecutive years and currently manages 91.3 billion dollars in assets. The typical Alaska resident has collected approximately 1,500 dollars in dividend payments annually over the past decade.

The report outlines three delivery mechanisms for data center dividends: direct cash payments to residents, credits against property tax or electricity bills, or deposits into a county endowment to fund scholarships and services. The full report is available at https://www.btcpolicy.org/articles/data-center-dividends.