A year ago, Bitcoin (BTC) was in pretty bad shape with its fees climbing to ridiculous levels due to some arbitrary network limitations. This caused a lot of problems in the marketplace with people not wanting to use their BTC to make purchases at local businesses around the Keene area who were accepting the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency.
Thankfully, Portsmouth-based Anypay came along to save the day at retail with the launch of their Point-of-Sale crypto merchant payment processing system that added DASH as an alternative to BTC. With the ability to choose what to accept at their POS for the first time ever, local merchants eagerly jumped onboard with Anypay and got set up to accept DASH in addition to BTC. As a result, customers were able to avoid the BTC fees by paying with the sane, fast, affordable DASH.
However, only retail’s problems were fixed by Anypay. Cryptocurrency activists in the area were still hurting because the BTC fees had killed one of the most effective forms of direct outreach – printable Bitcoin tips! We had for many months been giving away printed Bitcoin (BTC) tips to local restaurant servers and others with whom we wanted to gift BTC. These tips were made possible by an innovative site called BCTip.org. Sadly, the insanely high Bitcoin fees at the time made using BCTip impossible to justify in late 2017. Since BCTip had at one time been an advertiser with Free Talk Live, my radio show, I reached out to the operator and asked if he were considering adding any other cryptos to the site and he said he was not but pointed out the site was open source.
Creating six $10 Cryptotips with Bitcoin Cash.
So, I teamed up with Michael Hampton of Ringing Liberty and he actually programmed a whole new site from scratch to do the same thing that BCTip did for Bitcoin (BTC), except do it for the alternative cryptocurrencies like DASH and Bitcoin Cash. We launched quietly with a public beta early this year with DASH as the only initial crypto available to print as tips. This month, I’m happy to announce we’ve now added Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to the site and it’s now the default option when creating new tips.
These printed, business card-sized tips are super-easy to use. Just visit Cryptotip.org and create a batch of tips in the US Dollar value of your choice (or international currencies including GBP, EUR, RUB, JPY). Choose which crypto you want to use to fund the tips, DASH or Bitcoin Cash, put in your refund address and print up the tips. Cut them out and then put your tips in your wallet so you can easily give them out wherever you go.
When your recipient visits the URL on their tip, they’ll be given a brief introduction to cryptocurrency and instructed on installing a wallet so they can redeem their tip into their crypto wallet. If they never redeem it, YOU GET YOUR CRYPTO BACK! When you create the tips, you choose the expiration time. THe default is one month. Once the tips expire, you get any unclaimed tips back in your wallet. Cryptotip is a killer app for crypto and a low-risk way to spread cryptocurrency to new people.
They make great stocking stuffers or other gifts as well. Maybe you can think of new, fun ways to give away your Cryptotips!
Don’t forget, a Cryptotip should only be given as a bonus on top of an already good cash tip. You want the server to take you seriously and look at the Cryptotip so be sure to be a good representative of crypto and leave your Cryptotip in addition to your cash. Visit Cryptotip.org to create and print as many tips as you’d like!
Redneck Muslim Imam Will Coley and his co-host Aria DiMezzo of daily libertarian talk show “The Call to Freedom” announce the new “Help ICE Kick the Bucket Challenge” to benefit pro-immigration organizations like the ACLU, CATO, the Libertarian Party, Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, National Immigration Law Center, United We Dream, and the Refugee Right Coalition. Here’s a combo of two videos originally streamed earlier today in front of the LRN.FM studio in Keene:
Darryl W Perry interviews Porcfest head organizer Rodger Paxton in the LRN.FM Tent at Forkfest 2018
Forkfest 2018 was a success! From those I spoke with on the subject, we had way more attendees than last year (which was the first year of the new, decentralized libertarian camping festival). Numbers were noticeably heavier on the first day this year and we hit an estimated over 100 by Saturday. 150 more arrived Sunday for Jay Noone’s wedding and many stayed until the final day, Monday, which included parties thrown by Darryl W Perry and the now annual final night bash at Jim and Chris Babb’s campsite.
The attendees were much more geographically diverse with attendees from across the United States and even from as far away as Lithuania!
Of course, since Forkfest is decentralized and has no organizers or tickets, we really have only estimates of attendance based on observing the state of the campground. That said, it was clearly up maybe three times more than last year, and that’s if you don’t factor in the 150 wedding attendees.
The weather was excellent until the very last day when we were hit with a pounding storm during Free Talk Live‘s recording. Like last year, we broadcast from the event every day from one of the RV sites. Initially it was the opening night hangout for the hardcore campers who showed up for the always-least-populated first day of Thursday.
Rich Paul leads the traditional 4:20 celebration at Forkfest 2018.
On Saturday, we gathered at the LRN.FM broadcast tent for 4:20 with Rich Paul performing his invocation over the PA system. Much cannabis was smoked and a good time had by all.
Sunday was Jay and Shalon Noone’s beautiful wedding and reception, attended by a good portion of the entire park. You can see photos from the wedding as well as the LRN.FM tent broadcasts on my Google Photos album here.
Monday included the parties I mentioned above and many vendors arriving for the Porcupine Freedom Festival which is the long-running, centrally-organized, ticketed libertarian festival that begins at the end of Forkfest.
Speaking of vendors, with the exception of a couple of heroic breakfast vendors, food vending was largely a missed opportunity. Many Forkfest attendees had to acquire their own food throughout a good portion of the festival. Luckily, the restaurant at the just-down-the-street Cabot Inn, “The Olde Bostonian Tavern & Grill” had recently started taking cryptocurrency like Bitcoin (BTC) and DASH! Some of us ate there on multiple evenings!
Shalon and Jay Noone, shortly after getting married – the first ever at Forkfest.
Word has definitely gotten around about Forkfest and many attendees were only planning on staying for Forkfest rather than staying all the way through the Porcupine Freedom Festival (Porcfest). Attendees I spoke with seemed to appreciate the fact that no one was in charge, the decentralization, and the freedom found at Forkfest as a result. (Porcfest, as an organized, board-directed festival, has acquired a number of undesirable rules and vendor fees that has turned many away over the years.)
As with last year, this year’s festival had different names, depending on whom you asked. Whether Forkfest, Somaliafest, or Banned Camp, it’s intended to be the five days prior to the start of the Porcupine Freedom Festival. Forkfest is five full days of no rules (beyond what Rogers Campground already has, and they are pretty hands-off) and just good liberty-oriented company at a beautiful site located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Each attendee decides what to do, bring, or create for others.
Pencil in Forkfest on your calendar for 2019 from June 13th until the 18th. Those are tentative dates, based on what Porcfest organizer Rodger Paxton said about Porcfest 2019’s likely dates of 6/18-23. For the latest info and to plan for next year with other attendees, please join the unofficial Forkfest forum and Telegram chat, which you can find via the unofficial website at Forkfest.party. You can also RSVP via the Forkfest 2019 entry on Liberty.menu. Given we only promoted this year’s event for three months prior and we’ll be promoting 2019 for a full year, it should be even bigger next year! See you in 2019!
Yesterday morning I took a trip to the NH Secretary of State’s office in Concord and was the first candidate from any party to file for the NH Senate District 10 race. It was also my first time in the dozens years I’ve lived here that I’ve been able to actually file as a Libertarian! In 2014 and 2016 I ran as a democrat in the gubernatorial primaries, since at that time it was insanely difficult for the Libertarians to qualify for ballot access. Thankfully, all that changed after the 2016 election, when (probably thanks to the awful Trump and Hillary choices at national) the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire regained full ballot access status on par with the two big parties, for the first time in two decades!
As a result of this change, hopefully you’ll be seeing more Libertarian candidates on the ballot this year than ever. My campaign platform is the same as it was when I ran for governor:
End All Prohibition of Victimless “Crimes”
Secede from the United States
Make Taxes Voluntary
As before, I will not be accepting campaign contributions. This is a decentralized campaign. If you want to support it somehow, that’s up to you. I appreciate your support, in whatever way you choose to express it.
My goal with the campaign, as always, is to give voters the option to choose freedom and communicate the ideas of liberty in any media appearance, debate, or wherever I’m given the opportunity to do so. As a principled voluntarist, I advocate for the Non-Aggression Principle, which means that I believe that aggressive force should not be used against peaceful people. I’ll be explaining that during the campaign and what it means when applied to government, which is an agency with a monopoly on aggressive force. (more…)
“Free Talk Live” Moves up to #27 on the TALKERS “Heavy Hundred” for 2018!
Keene, New Hampshire-based nationally syndicated talk radio show Free Talk Live has done it again! We’ve moved up higher on the list of the “Heavy Hundred” most important talk shows from #29 in 2017 to #27 on the 2018 rankings. Our first appearance on the list was in 2009, and we’ve been moving up year after year.
Originally founded in 2002, and syndicated in 2004, Free Talk Live is the only nationally syndicated radio show on the list that is delivering a principled, voluntaryist, pro-peace, pro-cryptocurrency message every night. We also hit another record recently, crossing over 185 radio affiliates on AM and FM from coast-to-coast.
It’s an honor to have TALKERS Magazine recognize what we’re doing here. Thank you to publisher Michael Harrison and the rest of the TALKERS crew for including us again.
Of course, we never could have done it without the direct support of our listeners via the Free Talk Live AMP program, where people who support what we do for $5 per month. Thank you for listening and for your support!
Now that Keene’s original Bitcoin and DASH vending machine has been majorly upgraded to the top-of-the-line General Bytes brand, the Shire Free Church was able to move the popular and rock-solid Lamassu brand Cryptocurrency Vending Machine to a new location in Keene!
I’m excited to announce that Thirsty Owl, directly across Winchester St from Keene State College, immediately stepped up to take the Lamassu. Thirsty Owl, (formerly known as D’s Cafe) offers beer, wine, and liquor along with excellent and affordable food like sandwiches, tacos, burgers, and even breakfast all day. Owner Darren Humphrey began accepting cryptocurrency at the register in 2017, including Bitcoin Core (BTC) and DASH and was excited to host the area’s third public CVM.
Now, two of the area’s three CVM’s are open seven days a week in downtown Keene, with Thirsty Owl extending cryptocurrency availability into the late night in Keene, as it closes at 2am Thursday through Saturday and 11pm Sunday through Wednesday. You can see full location detail, machine info, and hours on the Thirsty Owl’s new Coin Radar entry here.
The cryptocurrency-accepting bar in Keene, Thirsty Owl, now features a CVM!
Thirsty Owl is also the destination for this week’s Keene Crypto Network Meetup group. We’ll be there at 2pm today (Sunday) so if you have questions about cryptocurrency, there’s no better place to go than our meetup. If you can’t make it, we have meetups every eight days.
This also means Keene continues to be the dominant cryptocurrency hotspot in the Northeast United States and one of the top on the planet. Not only do we have a high amount of cryptocurrency-accepting businesses per-capita (more than major cities worldwide), Keene also trounces bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Manchester on CVMs per-capita!
If you’re into cryptocurrency and you aren’t living in New Hampshire, especially the hotspots of Portsmouth and Keene, you’re missing out.
