On Friday, New Hampshire's new governor John Sununu signed a bill, HB 436, which makes NH the first state to explicitly protect cryptocurrency like Bitcoin from regulation!
This is a historic day and this move clearly positions New Hampshire as the most bitcoin-friendly state in the United States. NH was already the #1 most free state according to the "Freedom in the 50 States" study and this makes it even more free. New Hampshire also now stands in even more stark contrast to New York, the least free state, since New York a couple years ago did the opposite and attacked cryptocurrency businessess with their oppressive "bitlicense", which drove bitcoin businesses OUT of NY. Now those businesses can escape safely to NH as this just-passed bill offers them a safe haven from the ravaging, destructive effects of government interference.
NH's new cryptocurrency protection language is very simple and clear. It adds an entry to the money transmitter statutes that exempts:
Persons who engage in the business of selling or issuing payment instruments or stored value solely in the form of convertible virtual currency or receive convertible virtual currency for transmission to another location.
Liberty Lobby's Darryl W Perry, who headed up a campaign to contact the governor about this issue said, "After nearly three years of trying to get virtual currency explicitly exempt from money transmitter laws in the Live Free or Die State, I am happy to see this first major obstacle cleared."
In 2015, a bill (HB 666) was passed that spooked many in the international bitcoin community as it added cryptocurrency to the "money transmitter" statutes. This caused at least one bitcoin business to cease doing business with customers in New Hampshire and quite a bit of buzz about New Hampshire losing its vaunted crytpo-friendly status. How did this happen in a state with the largest concentration of bitcoin enthusiasts per capita? Honestly, we were caught off-guard, but now that's all changed. In 2016 a state house committee to study cryptocurrency was formed, whose meetings I attended and video recorded.
After hearing from multiple NH bitcoiners in the committee meetings, state representative Barbara Biggie stepped up and filed this bill. As Darryl and I pointed out at the hearing, the bill as filed wasn't quite what we'd hoped for. It created a new definition and exemption for "virtual currency" in the statutes, but still left in statutes a definition and regulation for "convertible virtual currency". We explained to them that this was confusing and they should be striking the regulation for "convertible virtual currency" rather than creating the additional terminology.
You know what? They listened AND did us one better! The commerce committee amended the bill and turned it into the best possible protection for bitcoin businesses in New Hampshire!
This is further proof of the effectiveness of the active, growing libertarian migration to New Hampshire, many of whom are bitcoin/crypto enthusiasts. Thanks to the liberty activists here, we have several Bitcoin Vending Machines spread across the state, Keene has more bitcoin-accepting businesses per capita than anywhere in the world, crypto meetups happening statewide every week, and now this excellent crypto protection from the state government.
Things are only going to get better here and more free as more people who love liberty and cryptocurrency move here. If you're not already planning your move, you really owe it to yourself to spend an hour and watch this documentary, "101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire". You can connect with people who are planning to move and those already here over on the Shire Forum, which has crypto-related subforums. Please stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the cryptocurrency scene here in the Shire.