News of the Month
This month has been great for us here at Maine ₿TC as we continue expanding to meet our growing customer base! None of this is possible without you, and we look forward to helping make your experience buying and selling cryptocurrency as quick and easy as possible! Check out our new locations and drop in to see what all the fuss is about!
New Locations:
Millinocket Variety, 112 Central St, Millinocket, ME 04462
Casco Village Variety, 978 Meadow Rd, Casco, ME 04015
Rumford House of Pizza, 41 Congress St, Rumford, ME 04276
Integr8 Health, LLC, 170 US-1 Suite 200, Falmouth, ME 04105
Sunday River Brewing Company, 29 Sunday River Rd, Bethel, ME 04217 (Under new management)
And last, but certainly not least, we are pleased to announce the opening of our first location "up in the county" at Timberwolves BBQ, 45 Main St, Mars Hill, ME 04758
As you can see, we have been busy and see no signs of slowing down any time soon! Bringing easy to use Bitcoin ATM's to as many locations as possible is only part of our goal, however. We also look to grow the local Bitcoin meetups which provide the opportunity for face-to-face interaction with like-minded people. These meetings are an invaluable part of anyone's bitcoin journey, as they offer not only excellent opportunities to learn, but chances to form lifelong friendships centered around freedom and prosperity. The Portland meetup this past June 20th had a tremendous turnout, and we expect it to only gain in popularity. Check out this list of upcoming events and see if you can make it to any or all of them!
Upcoming Events
Athens Mediterranean Pizzeria, 179 Main St, Thomaston, ME 04861, July 10th at noon
Subway, 255 Main St, Old Town, ME 04468, July 24th at noon
Rumford House of Pizza, 41 Congress St, Rumford, ME 04276, Aug 7th at 1pm
Commercial Street Pub, 129 Commercial St · Portland, ME, Aug 15th at noon
These and more future meetup events can be found by visiting the Maine ₿itcoin Meetup Group website. As always, we hope to see you there, and if you have any questions or are looking for more information feel free to contact us and get sorted out!
"Freedom"
10.3 Home of the Brave
Circumstances may have been fertile for the growth of influential third parties in the not-so-distant past, but those conditions are changing. Concerned citizens and entrepreneurs with an eye on the not-too-distant future are creating tools that will allow us to secure property on our own terms, so that we may freely exercise our rights. The challenge in building these structures lies in formulating a strong alignment between the personal gains of builders and the social gains of users. Additionally, the challenge in maintaining their integrity lies in the need for sustained communal efforts to ward off those that would obstruct the rights they confer.
Bitcoin, of course, is the poster child of this movement. By decentralizing the responsibility for its maintenance (i.e. to miners, node operators, and developers), freedoms are enabled (i.e. censorship-resistant, trust-minimized data transmission) and communal benefits are secured (i.e. verifiably scarce and useful money), reinforcing the rationale to uphold it. As a potent tool for social and economic prosperity, it is inspiring new ventures seeking to propagate its virtues.
Take for example currency exchange Bisq, which facilitates peer-to-peer trade. Its code is open source and transparent for inspection, and its operations, including decision-making and revenue-sharing, are decentralized in order to remain self-sustaining and censorship-resistant. It is an organization with no owners and no headquarters. At no point does it act as a trusted third party to custody funds or store personal data. Instead, it matches trading partners for direct exchange to be carried out using security features embedded in the core functionality of Bitcoin.
10.4 Capital Control
The advantages of using Bitcoin as sovereign money can be learnt by taking a single step. Whether it’s experiencing the quiet exhilaration that comes from independently signing and verifying a transaction; or the latitude that comes from sending bitcoins across borders that fiat is restricted from traversing; or the relief of rapidly sending emergency funds to someone in need when traditional banking options are unavailable; or, perhaps, finding the peace of mind that comes from saving scarce and unencumbered money for the future.
These examples may not seem pertinent to those who enjoy greater civil liberties and relatively stable financial systems, but most people do not enjoy such comforts. Sadly, our world is littered with rigid economies that exert extreme f inancial and social controls, severely limiting personal property rights.
On any given day, money’s accessibility could be tightly restricted through unexpected governance changes. Recent instances of money being held captive by central authorities include Iceland in 2008, Cyprus in 2013, Greece in 2015, and Argentina in 2019, among many others. In these examples, capital controls were implemented to restrict cash withdrawals, or limit and tax wire transfers crossing domestic borders. This ability to exert control over other people’s money is the ability to deny property rights, which only accentuates injustice since it breaks the golden rule.
"Trusted third parties are security holes."
-- Nick Szabo
In last month's newsletter we talked about the importance of custody in Bitcoin, and how holding your own private keys ensured that you were in control of your own funds. One of the main reasons to take this step is, put plainly, freedom. Maintaining personal freedom and individual liberty is no small task in 2021, and shows no signs of getting any easier. Luckily, there are sovereign pockets of freedom springing up here and there which give hope to those of us worried about the direction of civil liberties.
One essential aspect to ensure the people maintain the ability to transact freely is the ability to obtain Bitcoin without being restricted by unnecessary, burdensome regulations. There are several ways to go about this task, and at Maine ₿TC we aim to help keep freedom alive through our Bitcoin ATM's and in-person cash trades. There is no custody involved whatsoever, as the cryptocurrency you purchase is immediately deposited into your own personal wallet. We believe our users are more than capable of taking full control over their finances without relying on us as a trusted third party, and offer more information to ensure this fact.
Part of the beauty of Bitcoin lies in the ability to send and receive money at any hour of any day, in any country, for any reason. If you have Bitcoin in your wallet you can transfer that value without seeking permission of a third party payment processor, instead making use of the decentralized verification process. Any Bitcoin user can have as much or as little part of the verification process as they like, from simply downloading and using a mobile wallet which relies on the full nodes of others in the network for validation, to choosing to mine and/or run your own personal Bitcoin full node to perform the validation all for yourself. There are several different full node implementations for users to choose from and which afford each individual the ability to truly become their own bank. You are able to verify that you have in fact received Bitcoin into your wallet and that there was no attempt to counterfeit or duplicate transactions, and you can do it all from the comfort of your own home with nothing more than a Raspberry Pi computer and an internet connection. This is financial freedom at the highest level.
No more are we as individuals left to the whims of powerful mega-corporation banks and government institutions to certify and facilitate value transfer. No longer must we abide by arbitrary distinctions like business hours, withdrawal limits, or borders drawn on a map. The monetary policy of our means of exchange, for so long dictated by often unelected bureaucrats, is now in the hands of a massive decentralized web of users agreeing to a policy dictated by code. This policy is validated approximately every 10 minutes when a block is found and consensus is reached. This ensures that all the predetermined rules are being followed by all the players before beginning to process the next set of transactions. The system is eloquent in its design and simplicity, yet so complex and resilient at the same time. It takes the collective effort of an enormous amount of computational energy to secure the network, but even as an individual you can still partake in the mining process from your own home. Again we see a radical shift in the power dynamics from the clutches of centrally controlled, dictatorial bodies into the hands of sovereign individuals at every level; opening the gates of financial freedom to everyone, once and for all.
Even as we see more and more erosion of our individual civil liberties in various aspects of our lives, there are beacons of hope springing eternal. So with each new installation of a Bitcoin ATM, with each in-person meetup taking place, we see oases of freedom where those seeking to take control over their own lives and finances can put their hopes and desires into action. With each transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain that is forever etched into the ledger we see silent protest against the radically shifting monetary policies and decisions of political leaders the world over. We here at Maine ₿TC want everyone to have the opportunity to be a part of this growing monetary revolution, and we will not rest until we see this goal through. Come to one of the meetups this month, visit one of our ATM locations, or simply contact us for more information on ways to be involved. No one need be left behind any longer, and the chance to be a part of it all is simply one transaction away.