Montana, Bitcoin and Medical Marijuana Part 1: A brief experience with one the nation's largest government funded Bitcoin mining farms and a visit to the state capital, Helena, to attend a public hearing for Montana's Medical Marijuana Program 11/30/2017

The most unlikely things coming from Montana Part 1: Bitcoin and Medical Marijuana. A brief experience with one the nation's largest government funded Bitcoin mining farms and a visit to the state capital, Helena, to attend a public hearing for Montana's Medical Marijuana Program
11/30/2017

A brief history, currently I am working on several online projects with my business partner / close friend @hhcwebmaster. We launched a basic informational site to give users in our community an idea of what we can offer as web developers. Progress Lives Web Development Group www.progresslives.com is essentially the umbrella corporation for the other activities we are involved in.

By joining a small community that is new to myself and the @hhcwebmaster we have still been able to offer some great online solutions. (I am from a large city Houston, TX and we both have lived all over California as well). From reuniting as old friends to deciding we had some unfinished business to attend, we have come across some great opportunities to help others and put some extra cash in our pockets, individually and as a company. The name of our web development group is “Progress Lives” because commencement almost 3 years ago was a time of turmoil for the both of us in our lives; this mantra as a name and statement was a reminder for us to continue moving forward in life. At that point we chose to propel ourselves and others through our set of skills in small business web development.

Either way, we are working on several projects, currently one of which is involved in the medical marijuana industry based in northwestern Montana. Come to find out, Montana is more 420 friendly that I had ever thought. There truly is a good community where I live surrounding it. Alongside this co-op, we have been offering solutions every time Progress Lives is mentioned.

We decided to better explore the medical marijuana community in Montana by joining our client, at a public hearing in regards to medical marijuana cultivation and consumption. Meanwhile, the @hhcwebmaster and I are marijuana enthusiasts and have worked as well as created our own marijuana websites in the past. Our view on marijuana culture nationwide is positive however from our own experiences across the continent, medical marijuana rules and regulations are very obscure and hard to follow. We hope through our skill set at Progress Lives Web Development Group, we will be able to better shape community standards in Montana concerning marijuana.

So we plan a week ahead of time to visit Helena, Montana on 11/30/2017 to be apart of a public hearing concerning the rules for patients, caregiver, and providers in the Medical Marijuana industry. With that plan in the works, I continued to research more ways to help grow the influence Progress Lives has on society as a whole. I then came up with a way we could , The Acknowledger.io.

The Acknowledger.io idea was inspired by the struggle for factual information we noticed on a daily basis. Media outlets constantly bombard the world with “news” that is not only negative but bias as well. The decision is ultimately up to audience to accept it or not; however, what if the world around the audience was geared toward biased information and generating revenue? Maybe, you would look to the world we live in toady. If you seriously take a look at what I am talking about I hope you will understand the problem.

My solution is blockchain technology, follow the journey on my Steemit and by visiting Acknowledger.io to learn more about what Progress Lives Web Development Group is doing to secure information worldwide and reshape communities.... The reasons why I chose blockchain technology as a solution will be revealed as you follow us!

SO, now it is 7:10 am and we know what time it is, to begin the journey from Flathead County, Montana to Louis and Clark County, Montana to attend the public hearing for the shaping of the new Montana Medical Marijuana Laws. I thought before my departure, to check the location of the bitcoin mining farm, turns out it is on the way to Helena.

Progress Lives saddled up and headed southeast. After nearly two hours, we ended up in Bonner, MT about an hour east of Missoula, MT and an hour west from Helena, MT. It took some online research to find the location to this Bitcoin Mining camp. We found an article disclosing the name of the mining operation on Steemit actually and online as well. The group name is Project Spokane LLC , they are located at 9800A Bonner Mill Bonner, MT . No online numbers or public information was really displayed online but after some deeper research with the State Secretary, currently Project Spokane LLC is inactive as business in the state of Montana as of 11/1/2017. Not sure what the heck is going on there because supposedly they received a stimulus grant from Big Sky Economic Trust Fund in June 2017 for $500k. Obviously Bitcoin is worth $10k right now, so they must have made a bunch of money.

We searched google for the location, and google took us to street entrance to Bonner Mill that does not exist. Continuing to search we found an entrance into the industrial park with a guard station. Formally, we approached to booth to request access however no one was available and no signs indicated otherwise. We drove to the directory ahead and found a simple direction to “Project Spokane LLC”. On the way to the back end of the industrial park, large warehouse boasted a very loud hummmmm (sounds like fans) and we noticed large containers of bio-fuel. At the back end of the park there was a location publicly displayed as “Project Spokane LLC”. As a group, we approached the second floor entrance to discover what was behind it.

We knocked, no answer, door was unlocked so we began to enter. To the left was a large storage room. Toward the back of the room was what looked like a large shelf of small mining rigs. Obviously we are in the right place. Before we continued beyond the entry way, we yelled out to alert anyone in the offices our presence. We heard a voice and were directed down the office to a back room. Looked like a break room for their sector of the industrial park and was filled with a couple of people that seemed as though they just got out of a coal mine. We let them know the nature of our visit, to have a tour, and shared our enthusiasm towards cryptography and crypto currencies. A man came from around the corner and I again explained myself respectfully. We were then directed out of the door and informed no tours will be given to the public. He watched us drive off.

Please listen to the short conversation attached and watch the video to see our departure. You will be able to see what the warehouse looks like and their general operations. Even though we were not allowed inside the warehouse, we gained some knowledge about this private group operates. Progress Lives and The Acknowledger will continue to explore the advances cryptography can bring for the release of information and technology worldwide despite this occurrence. We hope to one have our own crypto currency that will support the release of factual information to the public. Organizations like this seemingly do great for the government but provide no transparency to the cryptography community as to their operations.

I understand trade secrets but not when hidden behind political clout and inactive business licenses. And when is the state of Montana going to see public returns? Will those reports be released? I might have to do some more research in regards to this Project Spokane LLC.

The journey after this will continue in part 2 of this documentation. Please check back soon for updates , follow me, resteem me, reply, upvote, like , dislike, just please speak your mind! Lets curate factual information, that is my search!