Bitcoin fees are WAY down! What happened, and why is virtually no one talking about it?

by | Jul 4, 2017 | 9 comments

Charlie Shrem, COO of Jaxx, stumbled onto the lower fees, he told Free Talk Live.

Charlie Shrem, COO of Jaxx, stumbled onto the lower fees, he told Free Talk Live.

I saw the headline in Coin Telegraph and couldn’t believe it: “Bitcoin Transaction Fees Significantly Decrease, Charlie Shrem Pays $0.25 Fee”. Even though I know and trust Charlie Shrem, I still thought this news was a fluke.

For those who haven’t been following the ugly geek war happening behind the scenes of Bitcoin, here’s a recap, oversimplifying a complex situation:

As little as two years ago, Bitcoin’s median transaction fee was as low as $0.02 worth of bitcoin. That means half of all bitcoin transaction fees cost less than $0.02 and the other half cost over $0.02.
With Bitcoin, there are fees to send, not receive. (This is the reverse of credit cards, where the merchant pays a fee to receive.) In the past, if one wanted, one could send bitcoin with no fee and it would go through, just without any priority. As you can see from this chart, the median transaction fee has shot up mostly in the last six months or so, and it has risen has high as $3.00 worth of bitcoin!

That means that had I wanted, in the last few months, to go buy a $2.00 drink at Corner News with bitcoin here on Main Street in Keene, NH, it might cost me $3 just to send the $2, making it a $5 drink! No sane customer would pay a crazy fee like that. This dramatic rise in fees has destroyed bitcoin’s previous usefulness for microtransactions. No more bitcoin-operated snack machines, no more using bitcoin for small online tips, no more Watch-my-Bit micro-donation video streaming service. (more…)

The New Secessionists Declare Independence!

by | Jul 4, 2017 | 4 comments

This Independence Day, I am pushing the meme of New Hampshire Independence. It is its own country of 1,331,000 people with a unique set of cultural, economic, and philosophical values. It’s about time you and I start referring to NH as a country. Forget “draining the swamp” — Leave the swamp!

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Ether: 0xf0afa74a5545c0147261b7bade75a228c6a28ec7

Bitcoin Capital of the World: New Hampshire

by | Jun 30, 2017 | 16 comments

When most people think of New Hampshire, a few images come to mind: colorful trees, maple syrup, covered bridges, people with guns, and the great outdoors. They probably don’t think of high-tech cryptocurrency. But that’s changing, thanks to the great libertarian migration of the 21st century.

Anarchists and libertarians are moving en masse to escape oppressive political masters in their homelands to find peace and prosperity in tax-free, freedom-loving New Hampshire. With them, they are bringing their favorite freedom-enhancing technology: blockchain-based money.

Overstock.com reported that the day they started accepting bitcoin for payment, a third of all their orders came from New Hampshire. New Hampshire is only state that explicitly exempts crypto-currency businesses from requirements to register as money transmitters, attracting job-creating startups like Lamassu, LBRY, AnyPay, and more. No longer does Silicon Valley hold a monopoly on tech: the Swarm.City team could have launched from anywhere in the world, and they chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This week the Monadnock Shopper, a New Hamphire newspaper with 40,000 readers, published a front-page above-the-fold article about bitcoin and all the businesses in the area that accept it.

It can be hard to keep track of all the cryptocoin development happening in New Hampshire. That’s why David Jurist started Shire Cryptocoin, a website that tells you the closest businesses where you can buy and spend your cryptocoins, which ones they take, and when there are meetup groups in your area where you can learn and get your questions answered.

Shire Cryptocoin recently appeared at SomaliaFest 2017, and they were the best vendor there in my opinion, because they helped people get better money than what they had in their pockets. I used their service to trade bitcoin for litecoin, dash, and ethereum. I had a great experience, and I wanted to spread the word. Here’s a video I made about them:

Shire Cryptocoin Facebook

Bitcoin Hits Front Page of Monadnock Shopper News, Delivered to 40,000 Homes in Cheshire County!

by | Jun 28, 2017 | 9 comments

Monadnock Shopper News

Bitcoin Front Page Article Delivered to 40,000 Homes!

Since 1958 the Monadnock Shopper News has been connecting the people of this region with local businesses on a weekly basis. They deliver to over 40,000 households via postal mail – basically every home in Cheshire county. How exciting to see a feature article about local bitcoin-accepting businesses here in the Keene area as their headline, front cover story in this week’s issue!

The Shopper News’ reporter went to visit with Chris Rietmann, one of the proprietors of Route 101 Local Goods, a unique store featuring locall-sourced products that’s also where bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) can be spent, plus bitcoin can be purchased from the region’s only Bitcoin Vending Machine, and you can even buy delicious Vietnamese food from the “Bon Vivant Gourmet Street Food” truck parked just outside at 661 Marlboro Road in Keene. (more…)

Third Sitting New Hampshire State Rep Flips to Libertarian Party!

by | Jun 27, 2017 | 11 comments

Libertarian State Representative Brandon Phinney

Just-Flipped-to-Libertarian State Representative Brandon Phinney

The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire held another press conference today announcing the awesome news that now a THIRD sitting state representative has flipped parties to the LPNH!  The LPNH has already made two previous historic announcements earlier this year with state representatives Caleb Dyer of Pelham and Joseph Stallcop of Keene changing from republican and democrat respectively to the Libertarian Party of NH and then forming a Libertarian caucus in the state house for the first time in twenty years.

Representative Brandon Phinney, who was elected in 2016 as a republican, said during his official announcement at today’s press conference, that the republican party leadership has been chastising their legislators for not following the leadership’s demands.  Phinney said in his speech that he was stifled by party leadership and that he and the other liberty minded reps were labeled “terrorists”!  He said, “What I found was that both parties were seeking to manipulate the potential legislation and the legislative process for political gain…I was not elected to do the bidding of a political party at the expense of my principles.” He finished his speech by saying, “Integrity and a clear conscience is desperately needed in the New Hampshire house and together with representatives Dyer and Stallcop, I believe that our cause will ignite a shift in political affiliation in this state”.

Phinney was joined in speaking by the chairman of the national Libertarian Party, Nicholas Sarwark, who came up from their offices in DC to help commemorate the occasion.  In his speech, Sarwark delivered an invitation to legislators, politicians, and others saying, “if you’re tired of living a lie, if you’re tired of standing up for things you don’t believe in, come out of the closet. Become a libertarian. Come home. ”  It was Sarwark’s first time visiting the Live Free or Die state.  Here’s the full press conference from this morning in Concord:


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