Darryl W Perry addresses the crowd during the conference.
Video of the conference has now been posted, and while the quality could be better, it’s better to have it than not. Of special note is the presentation from Keene-area cryptocurrency business-owner Chris Rietmann (2:02:50) and Free Keene‘s Darryl W Perry on a panel discussion about the future of blockchain (4:47:00).
Looking forward to next year’s conference!
Area 23’s Bitcoin Vending Machine
Now, Area 23 and the Concord BVM are back in the Monitor, with a piece published Friday in the Granite Geek column about why very few people are actually spending bitcoin these days.
Brooks’ gets it right when pointing out that people are reticent to spend a thing with a tendency to go up in value. However, he brings up a supposed environmental objection to the power consumed by the world’s bitcoin miners, claiming mining consumes significant power. I’d ask, what about all the banking infrastructure? How much power do their countless buildings with their lights and computers consume globally? I’d be willing to bet it’s FAR more than bitcoin – to the point of being incalculable. Cryptocurrency decentralizes money and threatens that old structure.
If it gets too expensive to run miners, people will stop. Meanwhile, there’s no need to fear power will run out. Necessity is the mother of invention and energy is neither created or destroyed. The market will keep finding ways to make energy cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient. Cryptocurrencies’ rise may further such development.
Thanks to David Brooks for his story. People are talking about bitcoin!
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…)
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.
DASH, Now Available at the Crypto Vending Machine in Keene, NH!
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…)
New Hampshire’s Committee to Study Cryptocurrency meets for its required 2017 meeting. They question state regulators after the Cryptocurrency Protection Act has been in place for a few months. They ultimately decide to recommend no further actions against or for cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Here’s the full hearing video:
I explained to the panel that Bitcoin businesses had opened or moved to NH because of the buzz about the cryptocurrency protection act that passed this summer. Regardless of whether the statutory change would have affected those businesses, the publicity surrounding it was good for NH’s image in the crypto-sphere.
Looks like it’ll be a while before New Hampshire has financial freedom across-the-board. When I offhandedly suggested to the panel that all money transmitter regulations should be repealed, they unanimously acted like their rules somehow stop terrorism and drug dealers. Pointing out that South Carolina has no money transmission statutes made zero impact.
It wasn’t the place to take the discussion any further, but it’d be great to see a libertarian state rep introduce such a repeal. South Carolina doesn’t have any more drugs or terrorism than anywhere else.
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