To be clear, according to the NY state gang’s own website, businesses who accept bitcoin for payment for product and service do not need to get a bitlicense, but if customers can’t get bitcoin because NY has made it insanely difficult to buy and sell bitcoin, what good is it to accept them?
New York is doing their best to strangle the nascent bitcoin marketplace before it gets out of the cradle. Now only the most obedient and wealthy companies will be able to buy and sell bitcoin in New York. It’s protectionism all the way, and it’s likely not going to get any better for the little guy.
In contrast, New Hampshire has somme of the biggest bitcoiners in the world that are participants in the Free State Project and have moved or will be moving here once the project reaches its goal of 20,000. The FSP even put up a special page on their website touting some of the reasons why New Hampshire is a destination for the bitcoin and liberty-loving community.
No one should really be surprised about the bitcoin crackdown in New York. They call it the Empire State for a reason. The Mercatus Center annual study on the freedom of the fifty states continues to rank New York at #50, below the awful California at #49.
Last year, Keene liberty activists manned a bitcoin outreach booth at the Cheshire Fair. In that five days, we installed a grand total of three bitcoin wallets (though we did hand out hundreds of bitcoin flyers). This year, we did it again and installed eighteen wallets, had dozens of great conversations, and shared bitcoin intro flyers with hundreds more fair attendees! Despite a couple of minor issues, the fair outreach booth went swimmingly! A couple of people used the original Keene bitcoin vending machine at the fair, and many others were directed to the BVM at 101 Deals Thrift Store for future purchases.
Fair attendees had plenty of good questions and our professional staff of bitcoin-enthusiasts had answers, including Derrick J Freeman and Chris Cantwell. Thanks to all the folks who helped with the booth and everyone who stopped by. If you want to meet with other area bitcoiners, drop into the Keene Bitcoin Network group on Facebook.
Near high noon today, the first full day of the Free State Project‘s annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, two agents (Phillip Lawrence and Ray Persinger) from the “Department of Revenue” rolled up to Rogers Campground. The sharply-dressed thugs inquired with campground staff if there were food vendors in Agora Alley, a place renown for delicious food available from some vendors who may not have bothered asking government permission to serve their fellow hungry humans.
Upon exiting the office, I immediately began recording and confronted the men. Here’s the video of that encounter:
A crowd of activists quickly gathered, with multiple alerts going out via two-way radio, facebook, and word-of-mouth. They weren’t able to get any further than the first vendor before being told they were not welcome by multiple people in the crowd. A campground staff member ultimately told the criminals to go speak with the park owner, Crosby.
After thirty minutes of meeting with Crosby, the men immediately exited the property. Crosby refused to be interviewed about the conversation, but claimed he was not threatened by them. I suspect he’s not being forthcoming. Porcfest organizers would also not speak on camera, but the conversation I had and overheard leads me to believe that Crosby has been recruited to pass out government paperwork to food vendors. I plan to investigate further with the vendors and see what’s happening behind-the-scenes. Stay tuned here to FreeKeene.com for the latest on this developing situation. Also, Porcfest is just starting, so come out and join us through this weekend!
UPDATE: One vendor reports that Crosby did not hand him the paperwork from the state when the vendor indicated that he’s got his books in order. We’ll be discussing the incident on Free Talk Live tonight at 7pm Eastern. You can listen live at LRN.FM.
Stone Farm on Liberty Acres has provided hospitality to liberty lovers for a bitcoin donation since 2013. Visitors have been raving about the property and it has received coverage in the Keene Sentinel and Bitcoin Magazine for its acceptance of bitcoin, the international cryptocurrency.
It appears that there has recently been a dispute with the property’s landlord regarding an over-full septic tank due to a broken leach field that has on more than one occasion backed sewage up into the shower. Katie and Matt say the landlord has refused to fix the leach field or even pump the septic tank and seemed to not even realize the property has a septic tank. As a result of this disgusting issue, Stone Farm has been closed to visitors for weeks and the duo are planning a move to a new location.
Katie McCall and Matt Roach
Rather than do the right thing and fix the septic issue, the landlord apparently decided to contact the town gang and snitch on their tenants for running a bed-and-breakfast without a government permission slip. That’s why after two years of service and zero complaints, that Katie and Matt received a threat via certified mail last week. Katie also received an additional threat over her midwifery training business, which ended on its own a while back.
Katie and Matt sent a response to Holman’s threat demanding to know the section of ordinance that was allegedly being violated, as it was never mentioned in the supposed “violation” notice.
Ultimately the duo attended this week’s town selectmen meeting, where they were the only two townsfolk in attendance. According to Katie:
The one selectmen [CJ Holman] who spearheaded the aggression against Stone Farm failed to show and the two remaining selectmen oozed apologies for his inappropriate actions. Both violations were dropped…sometimes people feel comfortable being bullies when the person they are bullying is unknown to them. Putting a face to a name sometimes holds people accountable on its own merit.
Success! Stay tuned here to Free Keene for any further developments.
P.S. Stone Farm is moving to another location – please help them by donating to their fundraiser and get perks like a weeklong stay at the new location!
Keene’s 101 Deals Thrift Store is now home to New Hampshire’s first public Lamassu Bitcoin Vending Machine! If you’ve tried the previous machine at 101 Deals and had a frustrating experience, the Lamassu will solve that. Come give it a try! 101 Deals is open seven-days-a-week 10a-6p Mon-Sat and 10a-4p Sundays and is located at 661 Marlboro Rd. in Keene.
Not only is the Keene BVM New Hampshire’s first public Lamassu, it’s one of only two publicly operating Bitcoin Vending Machines in all of Northern New England! Once you’ve got your bitcoin, check out CoinMap to see several local businesses that accept the exciting, international, decentralized cryptocurrency. (Or spend it at thousands of online sites like Dell, Wikipedia, Overstock, and countless others.)
The Uncoinventional Family & Bitcoin Bus Parked at the LRN.FM Studios
In the long tradition of interstate, large-vehicle liberty tours launching from or traveling through Keene including Motorhome Diaries and Liberty on Tour, the Bitcoin Bus kicks off an “uncoinventional” tour across the Eastern United States! Free State Project participants John Bush, Cat Bleish and their two kids have taken possession of the Unschool Bus and have converted it into the Bitcoin Bus!
Today, the family rolled out from the Shire to their next destination in New York and will stop in other places along the way to their home of Austin, Texas. Along the way their goal is to spend only bitcoin. This is the family’s third bitcoin-only tour, but the first for the Bitcoin Bus!
LRN.FM is sponsoring the bus (with bitcoin, of course) as are some other great sponsors including the super-cool new WageCan, which is finally offering a bitcoin-based Mastercard tied to a bank account in Hong Kong.
You can follow them along via their Uncoinventional website which features a podcast and plenty of photos.
