This week, social media was exploding with various posts of a breathless, alarmist piece on a bitcoin news website called DinBits: “Bitcoin Sales Now Prohibited In the State of New Hampshire“. Things looked quite dire from the headline and the article itself was also misleading. “How could you liberty activists let this happen?”, cried many on the facebooks.
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” – Bitcoin
There’s no doubt that HB 666 (yes, 666) is not a good bill. However, it did not prohibit the sales of bitcoin, as the headlines have claimed. What it actually does is adds a definition of “convertible virtual currency” to the “money transmitter” statutes. Money transmitters are companies doing business selling and sending “stored value”, which now includes virtual currency in New Hampshire.
Despite that broad definition, state banking department attorney Emilia Galdieri told the Union Leader (in a sane, excellent article on this) that the new statutory changes affect money transmitters, like Western Union, Coinbase, or MoneyGram, but is not aimed at person-to-person transactions, consumer-to-business, or bitcoin ATMs.
Bitcoin Vending Machine at the All-New “Route 101 Local Goods” at 661 Marlboro Rd in Keene
Somehow, the changes did sneak under the libertarians’ radar, which is a hard thing to do in NH, where we have the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance that has a batch of volunteers reviewing as many bills as possible each year. However, they didn’t spot this one, which means they need more help! Even if you’re outside of NH, you can volunteer for the NH Liberty Alliance and review some bills.
NH’s liberty and bitcoin activists are not happy they were caught off-guard on this and are already working to repeal it and help protect bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into the future. If you are one of the people who’s acting shocked that this could happen in the “Free state”, I’d like to remind you that despite the amazing groundwork the early movers for the Free State Project have laid here, the official move has yet to begin. This is not a free place yet – it’s just better off than others and a good starting point for a freedom movement. We need more people to join the FSP and move to New Hampshire. The FSP is nearing 90% of our goal of 20,000 liberty activists pledging to move to NH, so completion is right around the corner. If you’ve been on the fence about joining the most amazing and successful liberty migration, just DO IT.
FOX 25 Boston’s Kathryn Burcham filed this excellent report on the continuing assault on peaceful Seacoast UBER driver Stephanie Franz, the 63-year-old grandmother who has now been ticketed several times for driving people places without a government permission slip.
She, despite facing $3,500 in fines from the city for her peaceful civil disobedience, is remaining steadfast, and is demanding her trial. Kudos to UBER for providing Stephanie with legal representation, gratis. Here’s the FOX report, which is very positive and fair towards her:
In the continuing saga of Portsmouth v Uber, the Portsmouth City Council was slated to do a First Reading of a proposed ordinance that was requested by Uber, that would make it easier for Uber to operate in the city. The Council hearing (from opening until the vote on the Uber ordinance) can be seen here, here, here & here. The City Council will meet on December 21 for Second Reading, and a possible Third Reading and vote on the proposal.
Free Uber founder Christopher David was kind enough to speak to me, about some of the history of the saga, before the meeting.
And after the meeting, he had this to say: (more…)
Recorded November 17th 2015
The Rebel Love crew discuss the Rebel Mistresses first time… Watching Star Wars! The young padawan shares her perspective and what she thinks will happen next. Other topics include Shire Sharing, bad dates, Uber activism, the Creamy D discovers the RLS commercial, domination and submission. The Rebel Love Show airs every Tuesday night on LRN.FM, IPMNation, and RebelLoveShow.com
Tonight at 7:00pm EST, FreeUber.org activists will be attending Portsmouth’s city council meeting. Some plan to testify against the anti-Uber transportation ordinance. City council members have not yet agreed to call for a halt of the enforcement of said ordinance. Tonight, we will see if the council upholds their taxi cartel protectionism.
As long as Uber drivers continue to be harassed, activists will continue to protest. Shire Dude will be livestreaming this event.
This live event will feature multiple broadcast updates. If the video below is not live, you can access archived footage on Shire Dude’s Bambuser account.
UPDATES:
Regarding the prohibitive transportation ordinance, the council voted (6 yes, 3 no) to move forward with the 3-part amendment that Uber requested. The amendment was read by the City Attorney in this video. During this council’s final session, on December 21st, each part of the amendment will be voted upon separately.
Councilor Lown spoke with both the police chief and with Uber’s attorney, but it was an activist’s testimony that sparked the councilor’s interest in the difference between background checks performed by Uber and by Portsmouth. The town’s police department performs a vastly inferior check, but councilor Kennedy still argued that both checks were necessary.
Several activists spoke in favor of Uber (starting with Uber Grandma Stephanie Franz herself), including Free Uber founder Christopher David, who envisioned 10 Uber Grandmas taking the place of Franz. “Walls may chase away law-abiding entrepreneurs, but they attract black market entrepreneurs,” said David, highlighting the market opportunity for a darkweb-style adaptation of ridesharing.
“You have to follow the rules!” said an exasperated Mayor Lister. All three “no” votes (Lister, Morgan and Kennedy) will not be returning in 2016, which bodes well for the future of Portsmouth ridesharing.
This week’s installment of the AKPF #1 local access series, ‘Refugess‘ features fresh footage from the capitol area of New Hampshire. Images, speeches, and verbal conflict illustrate this episode as we get an on the ground look experience from the December 05 2015 Stand With Refugees rally sponsored by numerous pro-peace and human rights organizations. All of the footage featured can be viewed in its raw form at the new Free Concord Raw YouTube channel. Additional videos from the event are also available at the AFSCNH YouTube channel.
In Dave Ridley‘s recent two-part video, he explains that people outside of NH can still focus their activism efforts here, and reap greater benefit for liberty in general. If you can’t move to New Hampshire, spending your activism time doing things for NH’s freedom from afar, like reviewing bills for the NH Liberty Alliance – would be a more efficient way for you to spend your time.
He also critiques the perceived ratio of activism to social events in NH, though admits he can only observe activism that’s publicized. It’s an important two videos, and as usual, Ridley’s commentary is right on:
