Getting into semantic arguments that don't really matter all that much, but you appear to be confusing price with value. Value is an individual characteristic and very subjective. Price is a collective measure provided by the actions of valuing individuals acting in a market. Or something like that.

IMHO its going to take the hardcore goldbugs longer than the normal person because they have to unlearn some things that are frankly wrong. One of them is the idea that there is such a thing as intrinsic value, and another is that the value is equivalent to spot price.

Heck, it took me over a year after hearing about bitcoins to finally understand the real value.

That was pretty good.

I tried to comment in the chat area, but couldn't log in without clicking the "let us spam your facebook profile with snippets that will be totally out of context and of no interest to anyone" box.

I was waiting to register until they had bitcoin acceptance. Now all I need is enough Shire Silver orders in bitcoins so I can pay it. I have about 1500 cards to make today, but they were all paid for in dollars.

Bitcoins are going to be a big hit at this year's PorcFest. Anyone who wants to see what free commerce looks like should definitely attend this.

Yes. Having multiple versions, that don't contradict each other, for different audiences would be helpful. Having links to further explanations is good too but the table itself should be kept simple and easy to read.

All you folks saying gold can't be used in trade because the coins would be too small please look at this.

Its worth about $4 and you can buy them with bitcoins.
Also, about $8

and for the muslims we have
, , and

Yeah, bitcoins are awesome and solve most problems with money, but Shire Silver cards solve the rest.

I also tried to make it not be biased towards my own product, at least to the extent that I can :-)

I'm trying to learn how to better market both bitcoins and my Shire Silver. There's a decent amount of Austrians who do care about stuff like sound money and inflation and all that, but most folks really don't care. Gotta work the angles they are interested in like that bitcoin transactions can't be reversed. I talked to a local convenience store owner the other day and just casually brought up bitcoins. His ears really perked up when I mentioned that there's no charge-backs and then I talked about the really low fees. [I had brought it up by asking him if I should use my card as debit or credit so as to save him fees. Apparently the formulas make a difference depending on the amount you're spending.]

I made a similar chart not long ago at http://shiresilver.com/currency_comparison
I know it could use better wordsmithing, but there might be some ideas of use.

http://www.oregonlam.com/ - got burned on an order on Amazon, and went with these guys ever since. Fast delivery.

I was a Liberty Dollar Associate for years - from 1999 to the raid. It was a great idea with just a few flaws. The main one was the centralized aspect of it. That made it easy to take out all at once.

It could have been marketed better too. I know he was using the politicized aspect of it as an attempt at protection (the idea being that the certificates should be safe to use as they were "free speech") but that didn't work out so well.

But if it hadn't collapsed I never would have come up with Shire Silver.

PHP, Python, Ruby, HTML5, CSS, SASS&LESS, Javascript, SQL/MySQL. At the minimum you'll need PHP, HTML5, CSS, Javascript, MySQL - I use all these regularly to some extent or another.

If someone threatens you with PERL, run away.

Inkscape is cool, and if there are classes in Illustrator then yes to that too. If you can be a developer AND a designer you'll have it made, assuming you actually like doing it. If you find that you don't like doing it, find another line of work.

The microsoft tools have always been great for developers, but most of the interesting stuff is open source.

She wasn't going to be interested in firing a gun of any kind, that was obvious from talking to her. No big deal, I'm not going to try to force people to do the things I might like to do.

And it also goes to show that if you don't approach things with an antagonistic attitude, it is a lot easier to work things out. She had feared that we would be a bunch of gun-crazy militia types that would treat her badly, but once she saw that the owner of the house was that guy that walks the nice dog that her dogs liked to play with, she was put at ease. That made it possible to come to a peaceful and voluntary agreement.

LOL, I just popped over to my local expenso-mart to get some stuff I shouldn't eat. When I was paying, with my card, I asked if paying with credit or debit was cheaper (figuring whatever saves the merchant more means less to the big banks). He mentioned that it depends, and started talking fees. I mentioned that bitcoins have really low fees, and when I mentioned no charge-backs he got real interested. I just brought it up in casual conversation while I was the only one in the store (so he had time to talk). It also helped when I mentioned that I knew of maybe 50 people in the area that want to buy things with bitcoins. No talk about sound money or my libertarian/anarchist beliefs, just plain talk about the benefits it would bring his business.

Then when I got home I posted it on the local bitcoin FB page so the guys can all give him a visit. I imagine if a dozen or so folks walk in, grab a coke, and ask if they can pay in bitcoins then he'll be a good prospect and might just come on board.

FYI, I came up with the idea for Shire Silver because of the raid on the Liberty Dollar. I was trying to figure out a way to decentralize bullion production but couldn't get traditional bullion minting to be cost effective for small production runs, which led to the card model which can be cost effective. Its also much easier to use than traditional bullion. So the govt/fed shot themselves in the foot - again.

I am a big proponent of multiple avenues of attack - that way the enemy can't allocate defensive resources efficiently and they will lose because at least one of the avenues of attack will succeed. Bitcoin just seems to be the one most likely to succeed right now, which means they'll probably target it instead of Shire Silver.

And if they focus on trying to stop bitcoins, then my Shire Silver model will escape notice until its too late. 

I'm with the OP on this even though I sell silver and gold products that alleviate some of his issues with it. My twentieth gram gold card is really easy to carry in your wallet and is worth around $4 or less than 0.25btc.

A lot of goldbug types are just too rooted in "intrinsic value" and "tangible wealth" fallacies. The smarter ones will see bitcoin for what it is; even if, like me, it takes a year to realize it. In other words, don't waste your time on targeting them as some will come along without help and the rest won't until they're dragged into it.

But we really should be marketing bitcoins to a more general public, highlighting the added value that bitcoins bring. How does it make things easier for merchants and other end-users? Don't worry about its anti-inflation properties or its current value, but how it helps build commerce and enables lower-friction trading.

I'm working on modifying my own marketing from being too "sound money" oriented to being more "here's how it can help you".

I've been thinking that an alt chain tracking property would be the way to go. Maybe start with it being just a sort of title insurance, but as it grows in importance and shows how it does a better job at keeping track of real estate than government does, it can out-perform government's title management and eventually replace it.

Grafton NH. No zoning, the planning board is controlled by free staters and friends. Someone actually got their house plan on a paper napkin (they drew a square) approved, just to prove it could be done. Just a few more free staters moving there and the select board could be solidly pro-liberty. There are other places on NH with no zoning, and a few with no property taxes (combine that with no state income tax and no general sales tax).

Here's a few illustrative anecdotes from Deerfield NH (not the freest place in NH, but indicative of general freedom level).

I built a house across a small pond from the town school. One day one of my roommates was out back shooting at a pile of wood (he's a gun guy and was just practicing). A cop came around the house and my friend waved and said "hi". The cop just waved and said "Someone reported gunfire near the school, so I just had to check it out." The cop then turned around and walked away, and my friend kept shooting.

Another cop incident was when one of the roomies applied for his concealed carry. He paid the $10 and filled out the form at the police station. The next day a cop showed up at the house. We were wondering what for, but he was just bringing the approved license to the guy.

Later on we realized we could use a better berm to shoot into, so we started building one. Didn't ask for permission, just started cutting down trees, moving logs, piling up dirt, etc. A friend (not a free stater but a local) brought over his excavator for free to help. We built up a pretty good berm and started using it every Sunday for what we called "church" AKA church of the gun or church of John Browning. FYI, this was on a 2.2 acre lot.

Anyway, we didn't have any problems for over a year, then one Sunday someone appeared at the door. She was very anti-gun, being a nurse that worked at a trauma center and had been PTSD'd too much. Apparently she'd been spending almost a year going to the police, the town select board, anyone she could to try to get us to stop shooting. They'd all told her there was nothing they could do (and some likely told her they probably wouldn't even if they could). But it turned out she was someone I had met and friended while out walking my dog, so she relaxed and we worked out a deal. She's do all her shopping on Sundays so she'd be out of town, and we'd limit our shooting to Sundays for just a few hours.

If you want proven success, you might check out the NH Liberty Alliance (nhliberty.org). The NH legislature is the easiest to get elected to (about a dozen free staters are currently serving, including a guy who ran as an anarchist). Just check out Jenn Coffey's successes - she got rid of all knife laws in NH.

There's so much going on here that you can't keep track of it all. And we're not even to the point where people are supposed to start moving. Just imagine when the free state project hits its goal of 20,000 signers and the real migration begins.

So yeah, NH might not be the freest state for some particular issue, but overall it is not only the best state in the U.S. to go to but its also the one where you're most likely to see progress in the liberty direction.

http://freestateproject.org/

FYI, I'm mover #103 (out of over 1,000 so far) and I've found a lot of benefits from being an early mover.

I just want to add that the author of the article is a great artist/designer and I highly recommend him. He's done some of the card designs I sell, including







[Disclaimer: the profits on sales of these cards get split with Muslims4Liberty, which the artist is a principal in.]

Yeah, bitcoin hit PorcFest pretty big last year, and I know there's going to be a lot more happening this coming PorcFest. There will be some bitcoin stuff at Liberty Forum, but if you can only do one and really want to *use* bitcoins IRL then PorcFest is your best bet.

Of course bitcoin has a way to go if it wants to catch Shire Silver for PorcFest transactions