Keene Dentist, Vape Shop, Indian Restaurant, & Hair Salon Now Accepting Bitcoin & DASH!

Dr. Drower Dentistry Now Accepts Cryptocurrency

Dr. Drower Dentistry Now Accepts Cryptocurrency

Longtime readers here know that Keene and Portsmouth New Hampshire are two hotspots in the world of cryptocurrency. The Western and Easternmost cities in New Hampshire are living proof that cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or DASH can be used successfully at retail, with multiple downtown local mom-n-pop businesses accepting crypto at point-of-sale. Though real life crypto usage is not all about delicious handmade pizza, BBQ, Indian food, burgers, or alcoholic beverages that you can buy with crypto in downtown Keene, it’s also about products AND services.

Keene’s newest vape shop, Lineage Vapors recently opened in the Center at Keene on Gilbo Ave and is accepting both Bitcoin (BTC) and DASH. While Corner News has been selling vaporizers and accessories for years (and accepting crypto for longer than anyone in Keene), Lineage Vapors is a full-on vape-only shop and worth checking out. That makes Lineage Vapors the third business in the Center at Keene that accepts crypto. Little Zoe’s Pizza was first and was recently joined by Curry Indian Restaurant who serves excellent Indian and Pakistani cuisine seven-days-a-week for both Bitcoin (BTC) and DASH. Not only is the food great, it’s also nice to know that cryptocurrency helps local merchants by keeping more money in their pockets and therefore in the local economy but can also easily be sent internationally if needed, for next to no cost. This can surely help families like the Alis who run Curry Indian send money to relatives worldwide, bypassing the expensive, slow, old money methods of remittances like Western Union and the big banks.

Keene Defeats Major Cities in Per-Capita Businesses Accepting Crypto

Keene Defeats Major Cities in Per-Capita Businesses Accepting Crypto

In addition to food, convenience items and vaping, and even auto repair (all available for crypto in Keene), you can add dentistry to the list with Dr. Drower Dentistry receiving coverage in the Keene Sentinel for accepting cryptocurrency. In his press release announcing the welcoming of cryptocurrency-paying patients, Dr. Sean P. Drower said, “For digital coin to become useful in everyday life people need to be able to use it as currency, for something besides speculative investing.” Kudos to Dr. Drower for helping lead the way into the future of money.

Dr. Drower Dentistry, Curry Indian, and Lineage Vapors are all part of the DASH-Back program active now in Keene, where customers get an instant rebate in DASH whenever they spend DASH in Keene and at other New Hampshire merchants. DASH-Back is really cool and only happening in New Hampshire, thanks to Portsmouth-founded Anypay.global, the merchant point-of-sale crypto processor.

Also joining DASH-Back in Keene is longtime crypto-friendly Main St. hair salon, Moda Suo. Proprietor Nicholas Sansone was one of the original Bitcoin-accepting downtown businesses, however their original merchant provider, Coinbase, just wasn’t built for retail. So this week Moda Suo upgraded to the Anypay Point-of-Sale system, enabling DASH-Back for any customers who pay with DASH.

The Keene Crypto Network Meetup Group at Hot Hogs

The Keene Crypto Network Meetup Group at Hot Hogs

One of the really cool things about living in a place with a high concentration of crypto-accepting merchants is there’s a business-to-business crypto economy already developing. Business owners who are accepting crypto are finding ways to spend it with other crypto-accepting Monadnock businesses. For instance, one local business owner is currently ordering a shed from Route 101 Local Goods with her crypto she’s been saving up. Multiple local businesses have purchased advertising in the Monadnock Portal Map with cryptocurrency. Even radio ads are now available for crypto in Keene thanks to the sales manager at classic rocker 101.9 The Peak and sports radio 93.5 WEEY.

Plus, the local cryptocurrency Meetup group recently surpassed over 100 members and the group regularly attracts crypto-newbies to its real-life meetups held every eight days.

It’s really an exciting time of expansion for cryptocurrency in one of the top global hotspots, Keene, NH. According to Coinmap.org, Keene already handily beats major cities like San Francisco and New York when ranked per capita for crypto-accepting merchants. It’s only going to get better as more liberty-friendly cryptocurrency advocates move to New Hampshire as part of the NH freedom migration and add their economic strength to the area! Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest news on the developing crypto scene across New Hampshire.

Forkfest Update: New Restaurant in Lancaster Announces Cryptocurrency Acceptance

Five-Hour Rave at Somaliafest & Shirefest 2017

Five-Hour Rave at Forkfest 2017

The fifteen-year libertarian camping event in New Hampshire, Porcupine Freedom Festival aka Porcfest has long been renown as a cryptocurrency hotspot. It’s the place where Bitcoin’s early successful investors like Roger Ver, Erik Voorhees,and Charlie Shrem have all come to hang out with the New Hampshire libertarian activists and hundreds of visitors, all considering a move to the Shire for more freedom. One year, Roger Ver (aka “Bitcoin Jesus”) famously gave away dozens of Casascius “physical bitcoins”, which became a collectors item and are now worth significantly more than a bitcoin!

Porcfest, like all growing groups of people eventually had a schism, or “fork” as its called in the cryptocurrency world. Out of that, Forkfest was born in 2017 (under different names). While both are libertarian camping festivals held at Roger’s Campground, Forkfest is a decentralized event, meaning that each attendee decides what to do or create for others to do while at the festival. There are no organizers and no board of directors. Given the name of the event and those planning to attend, it will likely be a very cryptocurrency friendly event as Porcfest is. Last year for instance, crypto point-of-sale provider Anypay‘s founders came and helped throw a rave.

The Olde Bostonian Tavern and Grill in Lancaster, NH

The Olde Bostonian Tavern and Grill

This year, I’m excited to announce that cryptocurrency acceptance has now migrated off the campground and will now be year-round in Lancaster, NH thanks to the new restaurant just down the street from the campground: The Olde Bostonian Tavern and Grill located in the Cabot Inn. The restaurant was created by Rogers Campground’s longtime manager, Laura Hardiman. She was instantly interested in taking cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and DASH due to her exposure to the various libertarian campers she’s met over the years. As of this week, she’s up and running and accepting multiple cryptos including BTC, BCH, ZCH, and DASH with the slick, easy-to-use, NH-based Anypay POS. If you’re planning to attend Forkfest and/or Porcfest, make sure you plan a dinner at The Old Bostonian at 200 Portland St and bring your cryptocurrency wallet. I recommend you pay with DASH and then watch your wallet to see what happens after the payment is sent.

Forkfest 2018 will be held this year from June 14th through 18th and Porcfest is immediately afterwards from the 19th through the 24th. That’s eleven days to give you a taste of what it’s like living around more liberty people than you could possibly know. You already know about the exciting NH Freedom Migration that’s been happening here – this is your chance to really experience it.

Unofficial Forkfest Logo

Unofficial Forkfest Logo

In other Forkfest news, more self-organizing is happening with two competing calendars springing up. One on Google Calendar, the other on Liberty.menu. There are discussion threads on the unofficial Forkfest forum about the calendars as well as food vendors announcing they plan to attend! Plus, according to one post on the forum, the lon

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 Celebrated in Keene at Little Zoe’s Pizza

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at Little Zoe's Pizza

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at Little Zoe’s Pizza

As we did in 2017, Keene cryptocurrency fans got together yesterday, May 22nd, to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day. What is Bitcoin Pizza Day? On May 22nd of 2010, a computer programmer made the first recorded real-life bitcoin purchase – two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin. Today, that 10,000 BTC is worth over $80 Million dollars. A year ago, it was worth $25 Million.

We gathered at Little Zoe’s Take and Bake and ordered several pizzas. However instead of paying with BTC, as we did last year, this time we paid with DASH. Why DASH? Last year during the dramatic spike in fees on the Bitcoin Core network, several local businesses began accepting DASH as an alternative to BTC, to give their customers a choice.

In order to spend cryptocurrency, it’s the buyer who pays the network fee for processing the transaction (this is the opposite of the credit card system, where the merchant takes the fee out of their profit). Given that today fees to send BTC are typically about $0.40 and to send DASH about $0.01, it’s a no-brainer. No one would choose to spend BTC when a better option is available.

That better option is DASH, aka “Digital Cash”, a cryptocurrency that confirms four times faster than BTC and has really taken off at retail locations across southern New Hampshire. It proliferated because NH-based crypto point-of-sale merchant processor Anypay introduced DASH first with its release of their POS software in 2017. In fact, in an interview with Albert, the operator of DiscoverDash.com, a website that shows the physical locations of DASH-accepting businesses across the world, he told me that Keene is number three in the world for real-life DASH acceptance, behind Caracas, Venezuela at number one and Portsmouth, NH at number two!

So, happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!

Dash Steals the Show on Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 in Portsmouth

Well well well. The 8th Anniversary of the first-ever cryptocurrency purchase (10,000 Bitcoins for 2 Papa John’s pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida), and digital cash enthusiasts everywhere are celebrating by gathering to eat pizza and and spread their favorite money. Portsmouth, New Hampshire (aka “Bitcoin Village“) was no exception!

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

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Keene’s Original Cryptocurrency Vending Machine Gets Major Upgrade

Keene's Original Cryptocurrency Vending Machine Gets Major Upgrade

Keene’s Original Cryptocurrency Vending Machine Gets Major Upgrade

In 2014, Keene’s first Bitcoin Vending Machine launched at what was then a thrift store at 661 Marlboro Rd (Rt. 101 across from Cheshire Oil). The machine is part of the Shire Free Church’s project to spread cryptocurrency in the region. In 2015, the machine was upgraded to the Lamassu brand – an excellent quality unit and a major improvement over the original Skyhook brand – which is long since out-of-business. (Lamassu was originally developed in New Hampshire!)

Now we’re proud to announce another major upgrade. As of today, Route 101 Local Goods will now be home to a top-of-the-line General Bytes brand Cryptocurrency Vending Machine selling both BTC and DASH. (You can check it out on the CoinATMRadar site here.) The new CVM is massive and attractive, with a huge touch screen interface and beautiful color-cycling LED lighting. General Bytes is the top CVM manufacturer in the world today and they’ve really earned that distinction.

Keene has also earned its distinction as a cryptocurrency hotspot, having the longest-operating CVM in the Northeast United States and one of the highest concentrations of cryptocurrency-accepting-businesses-per-capita in the world! For a while, our CVM was the only one northeast of New York City, until the Shire Free Church launched our machine in Manchester in 2016.

Route 101 Local Goods sells cool NH-made products and accepts crypto!

Route 101 Local Goods sells cool NH-made products and accepts crypto!

In the last several years, people have traveled from across the Northeast United States to use our machine. Its low price in comparison to other BVMs is worth the trip, plus the customer service from its location, Route 101 Local Goods, is unmatched. Store owner Chris Rietmann is a huge cryptocurrency advocate and even gives his customers 5% off any item in the store – if they pay with cryptocurrency – and Rt. 101 accepts a BUNCH of them.

In late 2017, we added DASH (aka “Digital Cash”) to the machine, making it the region’s first Cryptocurrency Vending Machine! In fact, both DASH and BTC are accepted by multiple businesses in the Keene area. More announcements about that will be coming soon, so stay tuned here to the Free Keene blog for the latest on the cryptocurrency evolution happening here in New Hampshire.

By the way, you haven’t seen the last of the Lamassu. It’s still an excellent unit and in great shape after serving customers day-after-day. It’s staying in Keene, but I can’t announce the new location yet. Soon!