What do you get BitCoin for his tenth birthday? A Pizza Party!

A local business owner walked into the Anypay offices a few weeks ago.

“Would be awesome to take bitcoin at my restaurant. Do you guys… do that?”

Turns out he owns a pizza shop and likes bitcoin. Well isn’t that good timing? Bitcoin Pizza Day right around the corner, and a guy walks in ready to sell me pizzas for bitcoin. It was fate.

He downloaded Anypay, set some addresses, and took a payment.

“Cool! That’s it?”

Yeah, that’s everyone’s reaction the first time they use Anypay.

I asked him if we could bring some friends to his restaurant and use bitcoin. He was like, “Yeah!” So a week later, we went to try it out. Bought some spicy chicken wings and a case of cold Guinness beers to go. Tap, tap, tap. Scan, ding, cha-ching! Easy.

Okay, that worked.

(more…)

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2020

On May 22nd 2010, someone spent 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to purchase two pizzas. This historic first-real-life-usage-of-bitcoin has since been celebrated as “Bitcoin Pizza Day” and here in Keene we celebrated Bitcoin Pizza Day for the fourth year in a row at Little Zoe’s Pizza in Keene. Little Zoe’s has been accepting cryptocurrencies for years and the weather was perfect for a gathering of those who not only were interested in crypto, but also willing to potentially violate “HIS EXCELLENCY” Chris Sununu’s “executive orders”.

As has been the case for years in Keene, more than several crypto-enthusiasts gathered for Bitcoin Pizza Day, though one did have a mask.

We continue regular meetups, every six days. The next one is Wednesday at 4pm at Thirsty Owl whose porch is so popular, reservations are recommended. So, if you plan to attend, please make sure to RSVP.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2020 at Little Zoe's in Keene

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2020 at Little Zoe’s in Keene

Manchester’s Longest Running Crypto Vending Machine Returns to Murphy’s Taproom on Elm St.

General Bytes

CVM Inside Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester

Recently due to the ridiculous and tyrannical COVID crackdown on freedom that we’ve seen globally over the last two months, Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester closed its doors and the area’s longest-running Cryptocurrency Vending Machine (CVM) had to be moved to the other Murphy’s location in Bedford. Now, a month later, the CVM is back at Murphy’s Taproom in downtown Manchester at 494 Elm St as they prepare to reopen on Monday to their regular hours of 11:30am-Midnight, seven-days-a-week!

Originally installed back in 2016, the General Bytes brand CVM has been offering Bitcoin (BTC), DASH, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and most recently Monero (XMR) to the community at competitive rates, with unparalleled privacy. Since then, the area has seen close to a dozen competing CVMs spring up, many of which are severely limited on the amount available to purchase and invasive of users’ privacy.

Given the economic ruin being imposed by the federal and state government gangs, now may be a really good time to start learning about and acquiring cryptocurrency. The CVM in Manchester makes acquiring crypto as simple as putting cash in a vending machine. If you’re new to crypto, install some wallet software like Edge Wallet or Exodus Wallet and drop by Murphy’s Taproom any day to purchase some cryptocurrency.

“Essential” Manchester Crypto Vending Machine Moves to Bedford Due to Restaurant Crackdown

Murphy's Taproom Bedford

Murphy’s Taproom’s Bedford – Now Home to Manch’s Original Crypto Vending Machine

UPDATE 2020-05-04: This CVM is now back in its original location in Manchester at Murphy’s Taproom at 494 Elm St!

This week we got the bad news that Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester is closed until further notice due to “HIS EXCELLENCY” Chris Sununu’s “orders” destroying the freedom to run a business in New Hampshire. They had tried to stay open for take-out, but word on the street is that there’s virtually no one in downtown Manchester patronizing the various Elm St. restaurants. This is likely due to people conserving their resources and eating at home instead of buying take-out. However, Murphy’s Taproom’s Bedford location is still doing business, so this week we moved Manchester’s original Cryptocurrency Vending Machine to Bedford.

The CVM is located in the basement, where buyers will have far more privacy than they did previously in Downtown Manchester. Murphy’s Taproom in Bedford is at 393 NH-101 and is open seven-days-a-week from 12p-8p for takeout, delivery, and the Cryptocurrency Vending Machine, all of which are “essential” services.

While every business is “essential” to the well being of its owners and employees, the people calling themselves the “State of New Hampshire” have decided they are going to tell people who can be open and under what circumstances. Rather than letting the market of free people decide, the bureaucrats who are known for being dishonest and violent, will decide. In “emergency order 17“, Sununu, who – no kidding – is referred to as “HIS EXCELLENCY”, orders all businesses who are not “essential” to close. Those deemed essential are ordered to implement so-called “social distancing” on their premises. The order expires on May 4th. So, it will be at least another month of economic devastation to New Hampshire business. From this attack on our freedom, many businesses will not reopen.

Basement CVM

The CVM is privately located in the basement at Murphy’s Taproom in Bedford

All of this over a mere virus. People have never freaked out over a virus before, and there have been many over time. For whatever reason, the authoritarians decided this was the time to roll out insane, Draconian restrictions. This crackdown is fear-based attack on our liberties in the name of safety. A certain founding father had something to say about that:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
-Benjamin Franklin

As the federal gang is planning to hand out 2.2 trillion in freshly printed dollars, it would be wise to consider turning dollars into cryptocurrency or precious metals as the inflating of the currency isn’t going to end with the 2.2 trillion. It’s just getting started.

Thankfully the Shire Free Church operates the most affordable Cryptocurrency Vending Machines in all of the region. Currently the CVMs offer the original Bitcoin (BTC) and privacy coin Monero (XMR). In addition to the one at Murphy’s in Bedford, there are machines are located in Keene at the Thirsty Owl bar across from Keene State College at 141 Winchester St. and also the Bitcoin Embassy NH at 661 Marlboro St. Thirsty Owl is open seven days a week, though you may want to call first to make sure they are open. The Bitcoin Embassy is open by appointment and regular trusted customers can be let in remotely. Contact information for each business is located here.

Amazing Caller Declares “Fed Officially Lost Control”

Last night I tuned into Free Talk Live, and there was a caller sharing his professional commentary as a financial advisor that he believed that we could mark March 12, 2020 as the day that the Federal Reserve officially lost control of the dollar, and by extension, the entire American economy.

As far as I can understand from a laymen’s perspective, the stock market started to tumble because of panic and fears related to the corona virus — specifically, interruptions in “supply chains” because of factories and warehouses and transportation businesses telling workers to stay home. The idea is that some time needs to pass for people to be isolated and prevent the transmission of this deadly virus. After a while passes, and the number of new cases starts to decrease rather than increase, then life can begin to resume as normal. But until then, the economy is shutting down. There is a panic in the market, causing the biggest point drop in Dow history this week.

In response, the Federal Reserve (aka “The Fed”) injected (aka “printed”) $1.5 Trillion dollars into the economy. A trillion is a thousand billions, or put another way, a trillion is a million millions. It’s a lot!! And the market ate it up, rallied for a moment, and then continued its downward spiral. Woops. That wasn’t enough. If that wasn’t enough, then what WILL be enough? Can anything boost the confidence of the market? It seems not. And the only tool left in the Fed’s toolbox is money printing. They are talking about buying stocks now to help save the stock market. Will that work? Is that even a good idea? What if they are just trying to keep a sham economy going, and the jig is up? Uh oh.

So! Listen to this amazing call by Tim Picciott of TheLibertyAdvisor.com — I am not affiliated with Tim in any way other than we met at a conference one time and exchanged pleasantries. I think he’s a cool, smart guy, and his call into FTL was historic, so I ripped it from YouTube and uploaded it here for your enjoyment:

NH’s Top Crypto Payments Platform Suspends Bitcoin (BTC), Calling it “Worthless for Payments”

Anypay Logo

Anypay Disables BTC Payments

As Bitcoin (BTC) is once again making headlines for crossing the $10,000 price point, the world’s premiere multi-cryptocurrency, real-life payments platform Anypay has announced they are disabling BTC from their system. Based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Anypay’s co-founder Steven Zeiler said in an announcement today that BTC was “worthless for payments”, now that transactions can be easily canceled.

Originally, when Bitcoin (BTC) launched in 2009, and for several years into its life, one of the major selling points that set it apart from other electronic payments like credit cards was that Bitcoin transactions were irreversible. Once the buyer hit send, there was no way for the buyer to undo it. There was no “authority” like a credit card company or bank that the buyer could contact to have them reverse the transaction. Business owners are very familiar with the concept of the dreaded “chargeback”, where a dishonest customer can use the credit card company’s ability to undo transactions to scam a merchant and receive money back AND keep the product. Chargebacks were impossible under Bitcoin (BTC) and this was a major reason why businesses wanted to accept BTC.

However, midway through its first decade, after its anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared and development was taken over by others who did not share Satoshi’s vision, the newer programmers introduced a “feature” called “Replace By Fee” or RBF. The purported reason for this was to allow a sender – after they’d already sent a transaction – to update the associated fee and help it get through the network faster. However, this also allowed them to cancel the transaction entirely, as long as the transaction had not yet received its first confirmation. This RBF “feature” broke one of the fundamental tenets of the original vision of Bitcoin – irreversible transactions.

Satoshi Nakamoto, Anonymous Creator of Bitcoin

Satoshi Nakamoto, Anonymous Creator of Bitcoin

For a while, this cancellation “feature” was only accessible through the “full node” Bitcoin Core software, which meant it was relatively tough to use in a real life payments situation. However, as shown by this video here, now more mobile wallets are incorporating the “feature”, which means that accepting Bitcoin (BTC) at point-of-sale is now highly dangerous and increases the risk of fraud. Hence, Anypay has announced they are no longer going to allow Bitcoin (BTC) payments on their platform.

In a video posted today, Zeiler announces that BTC has been disabled on the Anypay Cash Register app until further notice, as he’s had a “final revelation that it’s worthless for payments”. This, after having seen the new video that shows how easy it is now to commit fraud against real-life payment systems using BTC.

While some BTC-only fanatics will be disappointed by the news, the reality is most people don’t use BTC for payments via Anypay’s platform anyway, given BTC’s ridiculously high fees compared to other, more useful cryptos that were designed for payments like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and DASH or even Bitcoin SV (BSV), which Anypay is now supporting. Plus, when paying with BCH or DASH on Anypay at a real-life business one will usually receive 10% back instantly thanks to Anypay’s “Bitcoin Cash-Back” and “DASH-Back” programs.

I think Anypay has made the right choice here to protect merchants from potential fraud. It’s too bad the Bitcoin (BTC) programmers forced Anypay’s hand, by making BTC less useful over time. Once upon a time Bitcoin was useful for payments, as it was originally intended. Sadly, those days are long gone. Bitcoin (BTC) may still be the king crypto, but if it’s not useful for payments, is it really a currency?