Chasing the Bitcoin Boys in the Crypto Capital of the World

Today, it’s a place where a Tesla Model X SUV bearing the state’s “Live Free or Die” plates zooms by as I walk to the Seacoast Repertory Theater, the lobby of which houses a Bitcoin ATM.

When I arrive, I quickly discover that the term “Bitcoin ATM” doesn’t mean it’s a thing you stick a debit card into exchange for Bitcoin. Instead, it’s a cube that eats your cash and spits Bitcoin into a cryptocurrency wallet app on your phone. Which means that to buy cryptocurrency at this Bitcoin ATM, I have to find an actual ATM, withdraw cash, then return to the Bitcoin ATM and give it my money.

“It only takes hundreds,” says a guy in the lobby who has borne witness to my struggle. He’s a local who spends a good chunk of time at the theater and says my predicament isn’t uncommon. People come from miles away to use the thing, he adds. “Then they only have twenties… then they have to go find hundreds somewhere.”

Portsmouth is a strong contender for the most cryptocurrency-friendly city in the world.

When the machine was first installed, in December 2016, he says, “it was getting so much foot traffic.” That was around when Bitcoin began looking less like something nerdy anarchists traded for drugs and more like a sound place to park your money. In 2017, its price rose from about $900 per coin to $20,000, and with those monstrous gains came a class of investors, speculators, and entrepreneurs buying in, hoping to ride the cryptocurrency rocket to the moon.

As those interested in emerging technologies (or schadenfreude) are well aware, the bubble did indeed burst?—?with a resounding pop. After a dramatic early 2018 drop, Bitcoin’s price has spent the past few months hovering between $6,000 and $7,000 per, occasionally swinging up but never coming anywhere close to its previous highs.

That drop-off hasn’t stopped Portsmouth, with a population of just 21,000 people, from becoming an unlikely haven for crypto. According to CoinMap.org, the Portsmouth area is home to 24 businesses that accept cryptocurrency, including restaurants, clothing stores, juice bars, regular bars, restaurants, a yoga studio, a dance studio, a hair salon, a vape shop, and a law office. If a grocery store started accepting cryptocurrency, one resident told me, it would be possible for a person to leave the U.S. dollar behind and exclusively pay for things with a jumble of Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, and Zcash. While places like New York City, Amsterdam, and the Bay Area have more businesses that accept cryptocurrency on the whole, Portsmouth is a strong contender for the most cryptocurrency-friendly city in the world on a per capita basis.

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:

• Cryptocurrencies