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!
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!
I still can’t believe it. I just watched this video by CNN about a New Hampshire man who is able to live his entire life on cryptocurrency. I’ve come close, but he’s got even me beat. Truly an impressive feat. To learn his secret, watch this video:
All Cryptocurrency’s Total Global Value Over $420 Billion!
What a ride! The total market cap of Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies combined passed $420 billion for the first time yesterday! For some perspective, keep in mind that the global market cap passed $100 billion for the first time in early June. It hit $200 billion five months later in early November, then about three weeks later hit $300 billion. It only took ten more days for the total market cap to pass $400 billion.
With some exceptions, overall, the rest of the cryptocurrency prices trend upward when Bitcoin Core (BTC) is going up. Bitcoin Core has been on a meteoric rise, with nearly a 2000% increase in its US dollar value in the last twelve months! Yesterday, BTC eclipsed over $16,000 according to BitcoinAverage.com. Two days prior to that, it was at $12,000.
When will these steady gains come to an end? Hard to say. Many fear a huge crash is coming, but then again cryptocurrency is uncharted territory. Just because there was a big crash in bitcoin in 2013 doesn’t mean anything for what’s happening now. The market was so small then by comparison to today. If you look at the market cap chart above, you can see that “big” crash at the end of 2013 – but it barely registers as a little speed bump, peaking then at around $13 billion, when compared to the monstrous $420 billion of value in all cryptos today.
Corner News’ owner Roberta Mastrogiovanni poses with her store’s brand new Bitcoin Vending Machine!
Obviously, rule number one of investing is don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. If you’ve got money in cryptocurrency and you’re spooked and want to cash out, go ahead, just don’t cash it all out. Also, consider diversifying into other cryptocurrency besides BTC. That said, rule number one of bitcoin has always been to hold on for the ride. Don’t let the downs get to you. They will come at some point; the only question is how deep the price drop will be and for how long. It’s important to keep perspective – we’re still in the early days of this. Even though bitcoin is coming up on its ninth year of existence, it’s still young compared to all other forms of money that have been with us for centuries. This is new territory and anything can happen.
We’re all subject to our emotions and beliefs. I got spooked and sold some of the Shire Free Church‘s bitcoin for cash prior to the much-feared “Segwit2x” fork of Bitcoin that was supposed to happen in November, but never materialized. That bitcoin would now be worth three times as much USD had we held it. (more…)
This weekend, the Free State Bitcoin Shoppe went mobile for the first time. We attended a bitcoin conference happening in our hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The occasion is the arrival of bitcoin powerhouse Bruce Fenton, his businesses, and his family, to move to NH as part of the ongoing freedom migration that’s been happening for almost 2 decades. The conference attracted some of the most exciting and important minds from across the country to talk about the latest in digital assets.
The Free State Bitcoin Shoppe had an enormous presence, being one of the event’s sponsors. A booth loaded with crypto-themed shirts and accessories, plus pocked-sized secure bitcoin vaults, and a towering bitcoin vending machine kept busy all day as items were flying off the shelves. We sold out of many items, and were delighted to see our last digital vault go to a customer who asked to pay in encrypted Zcash. We still haven’t heard of any other retail store in the world doing that. (more…)
For Immediate Release:
Manchester, New Hampshire. Nov. 28, 2017.
New Hampshire is home to many early adopters and users of cryptocurrencies. One recent example is the purchase/sale of a used Lexus automobile for crypto, half Dash and half Bitcoin. Parties used their phones to easily transfer funds within a Jaxx wallet—no bank involved!
Seller Mark Warden, broker of Porcupine Real Estate, works with property buyers and sellers who will transact in Bitcoin. Buyers Matthew and Brittany Ping, of Ledgeview Commercial Partners, run a residential property management firm, manage over 100 units in Southern New Hampshire and their company accepts rental payments in both Bitcoin and Dash. Both parties moved to the Granite State because of Free State Project.
New Hampshire is home to dozens of businesses that accept payment in cryptocurrency. There are multiple BVM (bitcoin vending machines) around the state. There is even a store in Portsmouth that transacts solely in crypto: Free State Bitcoin Shoppe.
Luckily, thanks to an NH-based upstart from the Seacoast called Anypay, now merchants can accept DASH at point-of-sale. In fact, here in Keene, New Hampshire, local mom-n-pop retailers Corner News, Hot Hogs BBQ, D’s Cafe, and Route 101 Local Goods all now accept DASH at the register via the Anypay app.
It’s a relief to be able to use cryptocurrency again retail in real life, with fees that are sane. Fees for sending are usually no more than 1-3 cents’ worth of DASH per transaction, and they’re expected to get even lower with DASH’s next upgrade. Compare that with Bitcoin’s recent, insane $10+ median fees recently. Over the last couple of days they’ve dipped, but are still over $6 worth of BTC just to send a transaction. It’s sad – Bitcoin is broken, yet amazingly continues an upward trend in value, just today setting a new record high of over $8,000 USD per BTC.
Right in the midst of the DASH retail explosion happening in both Portsmouth and Keene, Lamassu, the manufacturer of Keene’s first Bitcoin Vending Machine released a long-awaited system update that has expanded their software to allow for multiple cryptocurrencies to be vended. Since DASH is uniquely positioned as “digital cash” and has growing point-of-sale support in the Keene area, it is now the first additional cryptocurrency besides bitcoin to be offered as a vended product in this region. (more…)
