Perhaps you’ve heard about New Hampshire’s top cities for real-life cryptocurrency use, Keene and Portsmouth. Both small cities are global hotspots where various food and services are available for purchase with Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptos like DASH or Bitcoin Cash (BCH). It’s not random chance that this has happened. The reason these two cities are world capitols for local businesses accepting cryptocurrency at the cash register is because of the New Hampshire Freedom Migration that has been going on for many years.
This month Keene got another boost as an anonymous libertarian cryptocurrency user moved to town and a bunch of us came out to help him move a huge load of stuff into his new home in Keene, Given the love for anonymity of many crypto users, it’s undertstandable why he and some others in the group photo wanted to stay anonymous. The fact is people like this are moving to New Hampshire all the time. Where else will total strangers come help move you into your home?
Another anonymous cryptocurrency user moves to Keene, NH and is helped move-in via strangers who also use crypto.
As has been the tradition with these move-ins over more than a decade, the mover orders pizza and provides refreshments and local libertarian cryptocurrency users show up and help move the person in. This particular move in set a record for most stuff and longest time. Normally we’re done unloading a full size 26-foot moving truck in under an hour. This was six hours of moving stuff in from a series of eight packed-full moving pods that had to be towed in by truck. It was basically a whole day of moving, but this is the level of dedication to this migration these people have. It’s an honor to be part of such a movement.
The ongoing NH Freedom Migration has brought libertarians to New Hampshire in large numbers over the last fifteen years, and libertarians were the ones there at the beginning of Bitcoin. Gavin Andresen, the libertarian programmer chosen as successor by Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is a longtime supporter of my radio show, “Free Talk Live” and even spoke on the Bitcoin panel at 2015’s Keenevention.
People who care about liberty and cryptocurrency have been moving to New Hampshire and Keene has always been an activism hotspot. It’s no wonder that Keene is where the crypto-explosion in New Hampshire began. Portsmouth has risen as a major competitor to Keene as the top crypto city, but that’s just because longtime Keeniac Derrick J Freeman moved to Portsmouth, where he and his partner Steven Zeiler then launched the Free State Bitcoin Shoppe as an epic outreach project. Since then, they’ve recruited dozens of Portsmouth-area businesses into cryptocurrency acceptance and then created the Blockchain Institute for Technology and merchant crypto-acceptance provider Anypay.global.
Since then, both Keene and Portsmouth have become close competitors with Caracas, Venezuela for the highest amount of cryptocurrency-accepting businesses per-capita on the planet.
It’s been in the cryptocurrency news over the last several weeks, but many do not know what the world’s first-ever “Hash War” is all about. Thankfully Bitcoin Embassy New Hampshire is now here and Head Ambassador Chris Rietmann scheduled an event that happened yesterday afternoon to talk about it.
What is the history of the conflict brewing between rival factions of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community, and what might happen in the all out “Hash War” that’s supposedly to begin this morning at just before high noon today (11/15), Eastern time? If you watch the video, you’ll find out all we know:
Chris Rietmann Gives “Bitcoin 101” Class at Bitcoin Embassy NH
Keene, New Hampshire has already established itself as a world leader in real-life businesses accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at their cash register. Now local area cryptocurrency advocates have taken the next step and opened an educational center to help people learn about crypto – the Bitcoin Embassy New Hampshire.
The Bitcoin Embassy NH joins others around the globe, and is the second in the United States. The first Bitcoin Embassy in the US was Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy, which opened earlier this year.
With the goals of education, networking, and inspiration, head ambassador and instructor Chris Rietmann opened the doors to the Bitcoin Embassy NH in October and has already created a “Bitcoin 101” class that is free to take! Though, donations are certainly welcomed if you find the class valuable. Classes are also available for those looking to learn how to accept crypto at their businesses.
The Bitcoin Embassy New Hampshire is open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday and is located inside Route 101 Local Goods at 661 Marlboro St. in Keene, NH.
Of course, the Bitcoin Embassy NH is just the latest development in the area. We already have an active Meetup group with meetings every six days and Telegram chat room, so please connect with either or both of those to join the cryptocurrency community in the Monadnock region.
Libertarian Jilletta Jarvis Announces Run for NH Governor in 2018
The 2018 election is over and Jilletta Jarvis, the Libertarian candidate for Governor of New Hampshire has failed to reach the 4% required for the Libertarian Party of NH to retain ballot access, which it achieved in 2016 for the first time in two decades. I want it to be clear, I really like Jilletta and she was a much better candidate than the 2016 offering from the LP, Max Abramson. Jilletta ran a good campaign and was much more active than Abramson, but didn’t even come close to Abramson’s 4%. She got 1.46%. What happened?
It’s pretty clear that 2016 was a fluke. I’d speculated then that Abramson, who barely existed as a candidate, and other “Libertarians” like Gary Johnson at the national level had benefited from people’s frustrations with Trump and Hillary being their main presidential choices. It’s pretty clear this palpable frustration benefited all third parties in 2016, with the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates getting three times their vote totals from 2012. People weren’t voting for the Libertarians and Greens, they were voting against Trump and Hillary.
Add to that the fact that major media entities WMUR and the Union Leader set their debate rules to exclude the Libertarian candidates like Jilletta, and it’s pretty clear she didn’t get a fair chance from all New Hampshire media. Shame on WMUR and the Union Leader for excluding their viewers and readers from knowing about their third choice.
Libertarians Protest Unfair Debates Outside St. Anselm College
Of course, the two-party duopoly has long been complicit in excluding libertarians politically. In the 90s when the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire got ballot access for the first time by getting over 3% of the vote, the Republicans and Democrats voted to raise the bar 33% higher to its current level of 4%.
Not all the blame can be placed on the media and government, however. While Jilletta is a wonderful person and a far better candidate than we had in 2016, she wasn’t the most principled libertarian. Doubt my claim? Even the Keene Sentinel knows what a libertarian is supposed to sound like. In a recent piece in the Sentinel, opinion page editor Wilfred Bilodeau said:
She seems enthusiastic and smart, but we were struck at how her libertarian vision differs from some of the party’s more orthodox candidates. She says she’s for smaller government but outlined several programs that would necessitate spending more money. To improve education, she pitched the concept of centralizing public education, with the state collecting all education taxes and determining how to best spend them. That strikes us as anything but a libertarian approach. Overall, we feel Jarvis has some worthy ideas, but her vision for the state seems unfocused, perhaps due to the pressure of trying to appeal to enough voters to garner the 4 percent of the vote needed to keep the party on the ballot.
The good news is the media, at least in Keene, has learned what a libertarian is supposed to say. A true libertarian should be advocating the non-aggression principle and applying it consistently across all government programs. That means eliminating coercion from the system, or eliminating the system entirely. That’s it. If Jilletta believes in some government coercion, she really shouldn’t be the party’s nominee. Watering down the message does not win over votes. Staying true to principles is what the LP is supposed to be about. Hopefully the LPNH will offer more principled state level candidates in the future so we can see how their vote totals compare to Jilletta and her similarly – as the Sentinel described it – “unfocused” predecessors. (more…)
This past primary was the first primary in New Hampshire in which the Libertarian Party (LP) was a recognized party. The LP has less to do with libertarianism than I would like, but many people’s conversion stories seem to start there, however brief their stay, so if “we” can get the State to draw attention to the fact that libertarianism exists that seems like a good to me. It also seems to diminish the legitimacy of the system, and that’s always a good thing. In the interest of full disclosure I will point out that my conversion story starts with walking into the first election held after I turned 18, seeing more than two presidential candidates, looking up all the parties, and Googling “non-aggression principle’ after reading the LP platform. (more…)
Of the three candidates in the race for NH Senate District 10, I was the only one to receive a recommendation from the Marijuana Policy Project, while the Republican and Democrat in the race received a middle “unknown, uncertain, or less favorable” rating. You can see MPP’s full state senate voting guide here.
I also received a “A” from the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition, once again, as they’d previously endorsed me in my 2016 run for the Democrat gubernatorial primary. Here’s their ratings PDF for Western New Hampshire.
For those unaware, libertarians believe in the non-aggression principle which says we don’t support the use of aggressive force. Prohibitions should therefore be ended and people who want to own/produce/sell weapons and chemicals or plants should be free to do so. Live free or die.
As part of my near-zero budget campaign for NH Senate District 10, I’ve been posting my responses to the various candidate questionnaires that I’ve been receiving. Now, on the eve of the election, I’m surprised that neither of my opponents, Republican Dan LeClair nor Democrat Jay Kahn have yet replied to the League of Women Voters’ questionnaire, as shown on their VOTE411.org voters’ guide website. I received their questionnaire over a week ago and it’s relatively short so I was surprised that when I submitted my answers that I was the first candidate in the race to respond and now a week later am still the only candidate to respond!
There’s not a direct link to my answers I can share with you, but if you’d like to see them, just put in an address in Keene, like 63 Emerald St, Keene, NH 03431 in their VOTE411.org website. Then it will show you the races and issues on the ballot for the address you put in. Choose “State Senate District 10” and you’ll see me there.
Also curiously, Libertarian Jilletta Jarvis is the only gubernatorial candidate to respond to the LWV and in the Keene-wide house race for Cheshire 16, Libertarian Darryl W Perry is also the only candidate who responded to the LWV survey.
Thank you to the League of Women Voters for playing fair and inviting all ballot qualified candidates to participate in their voters’ guide. For voting recommendations for Keene from Libertarian Darryl W Perry, click here. Don’t forget to vote tomorrow, November 6th and remember that in New Hampshire you CAN register and vote same day at the polls.
