The Shire Free Church launched our Bitcoin Vending Machines in Keene and Manchester with the intention of spreading Bitcoin in furtherance of our mission to foster peace. With both machines now fully paid for, phase two of our outreach project has begun – advertising Bitcoin on local media!
Keene is unique in that it has a higher bitcoin-accepting-business-per-capita ratio than even San Francisco, the purported #1 city for bitcoin-accepting businesses. As you’ll hear in the radio ads, bitcoin is a powerful local currency that can also be used internationally. “It’s Keene to buy local”, and Bitcoin empowers local business owners to keep more from each sale, rather than sending three percent outside of the area to credit card companies.
The Peak’s Three FM Transmitters from Keene to Western Vermont
That means more money staying here in the Keene area, which benefits the entire community.
In addition, the first ad in the series specifically mentions several local mom-and-pop businesses that are accepting bitcoin, at no cost to those businesses. The entire budget for the ad campaign, which starts on October 10th, is directly sourced from our bitcoin vending efforts.
The first ad will start immediately and the second ad will be put in rotation a few weeks in. The first ad is an introduction to Bitcoin for the Keene area consumer and the second targets local business owners. Here they are:
“The Peak” (heard on 101.9 WKKN-FM Keene, 100.7 WTHK-FM Wilmington, VT, and 104.7 W284AB Jamaica, VT) will be the only radio stations where the ads will be heard for now, as we can’t afford to air them on every local station. The Peak seemed like the best choice as its “Adult Album Alternative” music format and local branding likely attracts listeners who deeply appreciate the buy local message. Listeners will be able to hear the Bitcoin ads multiple times from 3p-6a, seven days a week, starting today.
This is a historic moment for Bitcoin. While Bitcoin has had radio ads in the past, they were purchased (by Roger Ver aka “Bitcoin Jesus”) on my radio show, Free Talk Live and its network, LRN.FM. Though FTL is heard on over 160 radio stations, this Keene ad campaign marks the first time bitcoin has ever been promoted heavily in one geographic area via one of the oldest forms of media, radio. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest from the bitcoin capital of the New Hampshire and maybe even the world, Keene.
If you’re a bitcoiner who’d like to contribute to this ad run, please send bitcoin to 137bAdkwoqzVMoR6WUR6Qn9vqvuG991wFH
Representative Barbara Biggie of Milford Vows to File Bill Repealing NH’s Lone Cryptocurrency Regulation
A week after their first meeting, the “Commission to Study Cryptocurrency” has made their official recommendation to the full legislature. In the conclusion of this week’s meeting, commission chairman and state representative John Hunt of Rindge said, “Some states have done a lot of regulation. New Hampshire has chosen the seemingly most de minimis regulatory authority of what all the states have done. Obviously, the maximum de minimis would be to repeal what we’re doing and that can be left up to the next legislature. But at this time, this committee will take no position on what is the right answer.”
However, when asking each commission member what they want to do, representative Barbara Biggie of Milford said her concern is that regulation will “snuff the industry, the cryptocurrency industry in New Hampshire and around the country, so I think we should stay out of it right now, regulating-wise”. Hunt asked Biggie if she’d sponsor a bill to repeal the lone existing regulation which authorizes the banking department to license businesses as “money transmitters” who transmit “convertible virtual currency”, and she said she would!
While banking department representative Maryam Torben-Desfosses claimed they are not considering Bitcoin Vending Machines or businesses or individuals who accept and spend bitcoin as “money transmitters”, that did not assuage the concerns of the bitcoiners in the room. Those who attended the previous meeting were surprised at Desfosses’ claim that attendees at the last meeting saw value in the banking department’s regulation. Just in case the state representatives also misremembered the last meeting’s public comments, the people at this meeting (which included new faces from last time) again spoke firmly against any regulation whatsoever.
It’s frequently said that working inside the system is a waste of time, but in New Hampshire many state reps will listen to you and showing up and being heard absolutely made a difference here. That said, we need more liberty-oriented crypto-enthusiasts to move here and get active. Please join the Shire Society today and start planning your move to New Hampshire.
All speakers were pro-liberty and against regulation.
A half-dozen liberty activists from Keene carpooled up to the Legislative Office Building in Concord yesterday for the first publicly-attended meeting of the New Hampshire state house “Commission to Study Cryptocurrency”.
The audience was filled with mostly liberty-friendly folks. There were a few lobbyists present, but the only one who spoke was Darryl W Perry of the new Liberty Lobby LLC. The overall message from the speakers was against any regulations whatsoever, and the chairman of the committee, Representative John Hunt of Rindge, spoke favorably of the free market and seemed against any regulations. There was only one real proponent of regulation, Maryam Torben-Desfosses. She was representing the NH Banking Department and it’s her job to regulate, so it’s no surprise she was there speaking in favor.
The goal of the commission is to either recommend for or against regulation of cryptocurrency. After hearing from several speakers, the commission scheduled its next meeting for October 6th at 10am, room 302 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord.
Civilly Disobedient UBER Driver Stephanie Franz, courtesy CBS Boston
It’s been almost a year since Stephanie Franz aka “UBER Grandma” was the first UBER driver cited for driving people safely to their destination in Portsmouth, NH. The city has been targeting brave UBER drivers with tickets for operating without government permission slips. In the Summer of 2015 the city gang declared UBER drivers who did not jump through the city’s hoops in addition to UBER’s background check and sign up process, would be targeted for ticketing.
UBER has provided Stephanie with an attorney and she’s ready to face down the city gang in court. However, there have been multiple reschedulings of the date, so hopefully this is the final one: Please join UBER Grandma at Portsmouth District Court at 8am on December 13th (here’s a facebook event) and support her courageous stand for your freedom to drive people places without having to ask government permission!
I’m the only democrat for governor to receive an A rating by the NH Firearms Coalition!
Though sidelined by much of the NH mainstream media, my campaign has not been ignored by various interest groups across New Hampshire. I’ve responded to a bunch of candidate questionnaires thus far, more than I was sent in 2014. As a result my campaign spending has increased from about $2.50 last year to just over $5.00 here in 2016. Some of the results are in!
The New Hampshire Firearms Coalition selected me as the only democratic candidate for governor to receive their “A” rating. Derek Dextraze received a C- and the others didn’t bother to reply to the questionnaire.
Granite State Taxpayers ranked me as the best-scoring democrat in the five-way contest, with an 83%. Derek Dextraze was the next on the list at 61%, with the others failing to respond to the survey.
Hopefully more ratings will come out publicly – if so, I’ll post them here as I find them! To learn more about my low-budget campaign for governor as a democrat, visit my page on the NH Liberty Party website.
