It’s not a coincidence that New Hampshire has arguably the highest concentration of bitcoin and crypto-friendly people anywhere. For more than a decade there have been active migrations of libertarian, voluntarist, and liberty anarchists moving to New Hampshire. Many of these movers are activists who are into alternative currencies and the bitcoin community here has exploded as a result.
The oldest migration of libertarians to New Hampshire is the Free State Project, which as of September 2016 boasts nearly 2,000 participants already in New Hampshire, with 18,000 more pledged to move by the year 2021. There’s also the more decentralized Shire Society which has been encouraging liberty-loving people to declare their personal independence and move to “The Shire” since 2010.
These early movers are not only users of bitcoin, but are also some of the key developers and creators of the bitcoin world. Liberty migrants to New Hampshire created the iconic, most-installed-in-the-world Lamassu bitcoin vending machine in Manchester. Some are developing the evolutionary “Open Bazaar” and “LBRY” software. Decentralized ride-sharing app “Arcade City” has also sprung up just this year, and within a week of it being announced, signed up 1000 drivers worldwide. Arcade City founder and liberty migrant Christopher David said, “With its libertarian leanings and an influx of free staters, New Hampshire is perfectly positioned to become a major hub for bitcoin and blockchain startups. That’s a big reason why I moved here.”
Bitcoin Outreach Booth at the Cheshire Fair
Here are some more fun facts about the burgeoning bitcoin scene in the Shire: Manchester is home to the world’s longest-running weekly bitcoin meetup, plus regular meetups are being held in Keene and the Seacoast. According to Overstock.com, the highest concentration of their bitcoin orders comes from New Hampshire. Plus, you can actually use bitcoin in real life here, at mom-n-pop businesses like “Corner News”, “Local Burger”, and multiple food trucks in Keene, plus “Pizza 911”, “Dancing Lion Chocolate”, and more in Manchester. It turns out that Keene, the Southwestern NH city of 23,000 people, even outdoes San Francisco in amount of bitcoin-accepting business per capita! Take a look at CoinMap.org to see the dozens of New Hampshire businesses that are taking crypto!
New Hampshire also boasts New England’s only public Bitcoin Vending Machines (BVM), connecting people with bitcoin from as far away as New York and Boston. (more…)
Steven Zeiler started a Meetup group for people interested in learning to use Node.js, a tool for making web apps. They meet once a month in Portsmouth. At their first meeting this week, 8 guys got together and in 1 hour, they installed Nodejs, got it running, and created a chat program and were able to communicate with each other over web sockets. At their next meeting, they’ll be learning about Electrum, a tool for making desktop apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux. As Silicon Valley’s prominence wanes under the heavy burden over overzealous regulators, will the free state become ground zero for the next tech boom?
Friday afternoon a few of us went down to the Post Office in Portsmouth to advocate for New Hampshire secession. Shortly after we arrived a man wearing a DHS uniform and open carrying two handguns approached us, (more…)
Two weeks ago, Porstmouth, NH police chief David Mara announced a coming attack against peaceful UBER drivers who are ignoring the oppressive city ordinance that basically outlaws ride-sharing. The city and its cops are running a protection racket for the existing cab companies and this weekend appears to be the first round of aggression as UBER Grandma Stephanie Franz has announced that she received two tickets for driving people home safely on Friday night.
Stephanie, who has become the face of the Free UBER movement, has now racked up six tickets for at least $5,000 seven tickets totaling $7,500 that she is taking to court soon with the help of an UBER-supplied attorney. All of this for helping people avoid getting DUIs.
She’s now not the only one. At least one other Portsmouth UBER driver reports receiving a ticket already this weekend and Saturday night is just getting started as I’m writing this.
Though Stephanie did not join UBER to become a civil disobedience superstar, she appears to have embraced her role and has even taken to task the four cowardly UBER drivers in Portsmouth who have obediently jumped through the city’s hoops and registered like good little slaves. She wrote today in a post to the Free UBER page on facebook:
Why is it that 4 uber drivers have registered with the town of Portsmouth? Don’t you know what this is doing? Every time I’ve been pulled over, part of the statement from the officers has been why don’t you just go on and register…. 4 others already have. I have stuck my neck out for all Uber drivers in the Portsmouth area. I feel that you four have stabbed me in the back. You’re free to do what you want to do but I take offense to you
registering. I can call you something but I’m not. Just remember the next time you see me pulled over with the blue lights flashing I am taking one for all of us even you.
Just to let you other Uber drivers know, they are going to be pulling over Uber drivers tonight. I will be there anyway.
UPDATED: 9:30pm Eastern – Stephanie reports via facebook that she has received her third ticket this weekend, her seventh total, bringing the total fines to $7,500.
Since the Summer of 2015, multiple UBER drivers in Portsmouth have been regularly committing civil disobedience by driving without jumping through the city’s arbitrary hoops. Effectively the city outlawed UBER by creating ridiculous regulations designed to protect the cab companies from much-needed competition. Despite this, UBER’s app has continued to work, so drivers like “UBER Grandma” Stephanie Franz have continued to take passengers where they want to go.
Franz has been rewarded with several $500-$1,000 tickets from police for her good deeds. Despite facing financial ruin at the hands of the city, she has heroically continued to drive – much to the disgust of the awful cab drivers who have continued a campaign of intimidation against her. She’s had her tail light smashed in previously, has been boxed in by cabbies multiple times, and just today posted this to facebook:
Interesting night in Portsmouth. Taxi drivers are all pumped up over Portsmouth’s temporary threat to “sting” uber drivers. What polite and “manly” men they are. It started last night with a pick up at the Moose. As my riders were entering my car out of the bar walks, the pillar of manhood, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, crabby cabbie [Anchor Taxi owner Merle White]. He sees me picking up my ride and endearing words were yelled “there’s that fucking Uber grandma”. My ride was so ticked off that he started yelling back at him. As the night progressed the rest of the chosen few made their statements too.
Angry Seacoast Cabbies Hate Competition – Photo Courtesy Seacoast Online
They would pull up next to my car, stop or slow down and stare at me as I was waiting for my next ride. Whoever that handsome hunk of manhood , with the well kept gray beard, Beautiful glaring eyes, and tooth was, I hope you got your eyes full as you stared at me from your taxi van.
To the Three Musketeers who stood by their vans at the bus stop on Market Square; Butts hanging out of your mouths, extending those well defined cannons for arms and pointing at me as I would leave my parking position at the end of Pleasant Street to go pick up riders. They guarded my spot four or five times as I would leave and come back. Oh, almost forgot they spoke fluent mumble. Thank you Portsmouth taxis for your enjoyable evening.
The threat of a sting operation that she’s referring to is coming from Portsmouth police chief David Mara who this week announced a coming crackdown against UBER drivers. Assistant mayor Jim Splaine says he supports a crackdown as unregistered drivers should not, “exploit the system”. They are spurred on by cab company owner John Palreiro who claims UBER drivers are “stealing” from him, as though he owns every rider in town. Check out this Seacoast Online article to read the full ridiculousness of this protection racket’s scheming to destroy the innovators in the transport market.
State Representative Kyle Tasker Faces 60 Years for Victimless Crimes
Liberty-friendly state representative Kyle Tasker of Nottingham is currently sitting in Rockingham county jail on $150,000 bail. He’s facing (so far) four felony charges that could result in 60 years of prison. However, he never harmed another human being. You may not want him dating your daughter, but he’s not actually created any actual victims with his “crimes”.
He’s facing three class A felony drug distribution charges for cannabis, psilocybin (mushrooms), and suboxone which were uncovered during a search of Kyle’s home after he was arrested for a class A felony count of “Certain Uses of Computer Services Prohibited”. The computer charge alleges that Kyle had intended to meet for sex with a 14-year-old female, who turned out to be an undercover cop pretending to be the girl.
According to an unsigned five page affidavit allegedly from Nottingham police, Tasker did initially meet S.J., a real 14-year-old female at a breakfast with his parents. After friending her on facebook, the police allege that he offered to acquire for her alcohol and cannabis and further requested a threesome with him and a “lady friend”. The affidavit says SJ unfriended Kyle and deleted the messages. At some point, SJ’s mother, identified as “KJ” in the affidavit, became aware of the communications and she called the police.
While the daughter, SJ, had already solved the problem by unfriending Kyle, the mother, KJ, decided to punish Kyle and the rest of society, by siccing the police against him. Now instead of producing for society by drilling wells (his day job when not serving at the state house), Kyle may be sitting in prison for up to 60 years, which we’ll all be forced to pay for. How does this benefit anyone?
Dylan Gingues and state rep Kyle Tasker with a big jar of primo cannabis outside the State House.
After KJ’s call to the police, they took control of SJ’s facebook account. Detective Chris Gilroy began to masquerade as though he were SJ and conversations allegedly about drugs and sex began. The unsigned police affidavit does not include any full conversation logs, and only the police’s side of the story. They excerpt certain alleged statements made by Kyle, but do not reveal any context around what detective Gilroy might have said to elicit those statements from Kyle.
Despite the conversations between the cop and Kyle, the actual teenager was never in any danger. Her mother could have congratulated her daughter for removing Kyle as a friend and if the mom wanted to go further, spread the word about Kyle’s interactions with her daughter. However, now countless police hours, court hours, and jurors’ hours will be wasted, and potentially dozens of years could be spent in jail, all because of an insane war on drugs and a system that punishes thought crime.
You may not like Kyle Tasker, but he didn’t create any victims. The police are the only ones who have victimized anyone here. They’ve victimized Kyle and all New Hampshire taxpayers by forcing us to pay for his trial and incarceration, while actual violent criminals face a mere fraction of the time Kyle is facing in prison. Selling drugs should not be illegal and neither should talking on the internet. Fraud however should be punished, but the only people engaging in fraud in this case were Nottingham police.
