rent in the popular retail destination of Portsmouth, NH. He launched what he believes to be New Hampshire’s, and possibly the country’s, first retail store to only accept cryptocurrency as payment.
Free State Bitcoin Shoppe is located at 56 State Street in Portsmouth, near popular Prescott Park. The small space is outfitted with local hand-crafted items, books, pins, and promotional materials promoting New Hampshire, liberty, and various forms of digital currency. Also sold at the space are t-shirts, mostly promoting science, crypto, and politics.
The most popular items are the t-shirts with slogans such as “NOT MY PRESIDENT” and “ACT IN DEFIANCE, EMBRACE SCIENCE”. Another popular, and hilarious item, is the Doge pillow, fashioned after the popular Doge meme dog.
Asked why he chose to locate in Portsmouth Steve explained “Portsmouth is my home and my great desire is to share with my neighbors the wealth that comes from the adoption of better money. Our town has the great benefit of being not only wealthy and liberal-minded, but also is an obvious choice for any Bitcoin venture since the New Hampshire legislature embraces the use of Bitcoin with America’s leading protections for digital currency freedom.” New Hampshire is known as a popular place for many Bitcoin businesses.
Inspiration came, Steve says, from visiting a store in Prague which was “Bitcoin-Only”. Steve explains this inspired him to open the Portsmouth store. “For over a decade I have participated in expanding use of alternative currencies and began using and promoting Bitcoin five or six years ago. Our mission is to help as many of our neighbors as possible learn to use Bitcoin and the benefits of superior global currency.”
Steve says that many curious shoppers are surprised they are not able to spend their US dollars. Instead the store only accepts Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ether, Monero, Encrypted Zcash, and Dogecoin (20% off dog-themed gifts when paying in Dogecoin).
To ease newly interested customers into the cryptocurrency process, the store will soon have a two-way Bitcoin vending machine and will be providing Bitcoin training on site at regular intervals.
When asked about if many customers had known about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency Steven explained “So far the positive reception has exceeded my expectations! There have been a good number of foreign and local Bitcoin users who were astounded to discover a Bitcoin-Only shop in Portsmouth and buy real-life gifts with crypto currency. A handful of tourists and locals were pleased by our science-themed shirts but were frustrated they couldn’t buy them since they didn’t have Bitcoin to spend. While a few have never heard of Bitcoin, the majority of people coming through the store day-to-day know about it and want to learn more, or impress their friends with their knowledge of the superior money.”
Those wanting to learn more are encouraged to stop by the store Tuesday through Sunday, or visit the local Bitcoin meetup which meets every 8 days.
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