Isabelle Rose, owner Bon Vivant – Gourmet Street Food
Big news! Keene now has Vietnamese cuisine available Wednesday through Sunday 11am-7pm on the side of Route 101 with the recent opening of “Bon Vivant – Gourmet Street Food“!
Chef and entrepreneur Isabelle Rose is cooking up delicious Vietnamese, French, and Vegetarian fare at reasonable prices. She told me that the food truck had been a dream of hers since 2009 when she started to make Vietnamese food for the local farmers market. Her food was very popular there and she started saving money up to launch Bon Vivant without going into debt. Smart lady! I stopped in this week for the first time and enjoyed a large bowl of steak pho noodle. It was delicious and very filling. I’m excited to have more ethnic food available fresh in Keene!
Not only is the food excellent, but Bon Vivant is accepting payment in bitcoin! Isabelle says she decided to accept bitcoin after reading about it here at Free Keene and being encouraged by Chris Rietmann, the owner of next-door Route 101 Local Goods. Just today she says three customers have noticed the bitcoin sign and asked what it is.
Steak Pho Noodle @ Bon Vivant
Bon Vivant is the newest member of a growing community of area businesses that accept the evolutionary crytpocurrency. The food truck is located right next door to Route 101 Local Goods which also accepts bitcoin for purchases and even has the area’s only public bitcoin vending machine!
Keene’s Bon Vivant is already visible on the CoinMap – a website that shows the locations of bitcoin-accepting businesses around the world. Per capita, Keene has more bitcoin-friendly businesses than does San Francisco, the supposed #1 place for bitcoin acceptance. With a population of over 837,000, San Francisco has, according to CoinMap, about 114 bitcoin-accepting businesses – that’s one for every 7,342 population. By comparison, Keene has over 23,000 population with 13 bitcoin businesses – that’s one for every 1,769. Keene has four times the concentration than does San Francisco.
To learn more about bitcoin, the amazingly successful decentralized cryptocurrency, visit Bitcoin.com and to join the local network of bitcoin-accepting merchants and customers, check out the Keene Bitcoin Network on facebook.
The following is a summary and analysis of a graduate thesis paper written by Michael Russo. It’s titled, “Satoshi’s Broken Promise: Conflicting Rhetorics In The bitcoin Ecosystem.” Russo calls bitcoin, “…yet another digital artifact promising revolution while at the same time instituting its own brand of control.” He claims bitcoin fails in its principles of decentralization, bitcoin as property, and anonymity. That being said, the following is highly critical of bitcoin, but not a dismissal of the technology. I only request that you keep an open mind in considering the points below, as I believe they are worth the attention.
Bitcoin was, and is, the response to a financial disaster, as indicated by Satoshi’s referencing the following headline from the Financial Times: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” (“Genesis Block”). -Russo
I once argued that bitcoin is not and should not be held to libertarian principles. If we are to accept it as an open technology, as a true alternative to the current banking system, we need to accept creative uses of the blockchain that are both apolitical, and pro-establishment. Limiting the currency to a specific ideal and infighting about its adoption and use can only stagnate its rise. However, Russo makes a compelling argument for the fact that as bitcoin gains popularity, it becomes more vulnerable. (more…)
It’s beautiful and simple, yet transformative. Convert paper currency into cryptocurrency with a single button. Spend it in the bar, diner, or dozens of other bitcoin-accepting businesses in Manchester. Check it out at Murphy’s Taproom today!
Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.
People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.
Bitcoin Vending Machine at Twin Mountain Country Store
Many a liberty activist have made a pilgrimage to Twin Mountain Country Store as it has long been known as the only place in NH one can buy gasoline with bitcoin. It’s also a shrine to liberty – the store is decked out with various liberty propaganda and signage. Looking at all of it would take some time. It’s a fun trip to make when in the White Mountains and now you have one more reason: it’s the third public location of a Bitcoin Vending Machine in New Hampshire! (Keene and Manchester being the others.)
Store owner Bill Bochynski decided to install the “General Bytes” brand BVM, the same type found at Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester after seeing the unit in operation there. He cited the Keene BVM, operated by the Shire Free Church, as his original inspiration for adding a BVM to the North Country. When asked for comment, he quoted Black Swan author Nassim Taleb:
Bitcoin is the beginning of something great: a currency without a government, something necessary and imperative.
Bochynski thinks its important to bring easy access to bitcoin to the impoverished North Country, where the financial freedom bitcoin can bring could have a real positive impact.
You can visit the Twin Mountain BVM seven-days-a-week from 7am to Midnight. NH is still the only place in New England to feature a Bitcoin Vending Machine open to the public – and now we have three! NH’s bitcoin community just keeps getting better – when are you moving here?
The “General Bytes” Bitcoin Vending Machine at Twin Mountain Country Store in NH
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Get your own pin and support AntiWar.com by buying a Poppy pin at AntiWar.me — they take bitcoin! And paypal, too. AntiWar.com is the best source for antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities. Dig it!
