The Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas, scheduled for the final week of Might, consists of a number of notable political figures slated as audio system, together with returning visitor and Bitcoin advocate Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). Additionally showing are Trump’s so-called “A.I. and Crypto Czar,” David Sacks, and Bo Hines, the “Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House.”
This yr, a less-expected and virtually otherworldly contingent will presumably make an look as effectively — at the very least within the viewers, if not beamed up and searching straight into the stage’s spotlights. Like fireplace from the skies, an sudden $3,000 bitcoin donation which no one requested for crashlanded in Roswell, New Mexico, earlier this yr, leaving metropolis council members wrestling with whether or not to as soon as once more reply historical past’s name, by establishing america’ first strategic bitcoin reserve — on the metropolis degree or in any other case — earlier than different U.S. states and even the U.S. Congress itself acts definitively (following President Donald Trump’s govt order).
Roswell is dwelling to some belongings you won’t count on — world-renowned dairy farming and one of many world’s largest mozzarella cheese factories; aerospace and aviation industries with a well-known “aircraft graveyard” which as soon as housed Elvis Presley’s private small aircraft, “Hound Dog II,” for 35 years; a vibrant arts, museums and cultural scene — but in addition a thriving tourism business, largely constructed round what Roswell is actually recognized for: alien craft.
However Roswell is absolutely recognized worldwide for the 1947 “UFO incident.” In early July 1947, a presumably once-flying object of unknown origin crashed and was destroyed, touchdown roughly at close by Corona, New Mexico, recovered later and delivered to the now-defunct Roswell Military Air Area’s 509th, a World Conflict II-era army base, nonetheless housing america’ solely nuclear bombs on the time in addition to the U.S.’s solely pilots, mechanics, and officers geared up to the touch them.
Hypothesis nonetheless rages as as to whether the recovered craft and its alleged pilot and passengers — stories of oddly formed our bodies persist however are extremely debated nonetheless — have been from a supposed extraterrestrial location, or the results of a U.S. army experiment.
On the time, the native newspaper, the Roswell Every day File, family-owned since 1891 and nonetheless in print right this moment, reported the headline seen world wide:
RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Area
Readers now know that the Every day File adopted up with a retraction, restating the army’s revised declare that the crashed automobile was “just” a high-altitude climate balloon. Twenty first-century examination of a zoomed-in photograph from the 1947 “flying saucer” staged press photograph reveals in any other case, in accordance with Donald Burleson, cryptanalyst and former professor of arithmetic at Jap New Mexico College-Roswell. Burleson can also be a printed creator and has written “Looking Up,” one of many Every day File’s recurring columns on UFOs, for 25 years.
Town of Roswell hosts the Worldwide UFO Museum and Analysis Heart, which opened in 1992 and attracts over 220,000 guests yearly, Government Director Karen Jaramillo informed The Related Press throughout a 2023 interview marking the museum’s 5 millionth customer. Roswell additionally hosts an annual UFO competition, which, in accordance with the town’s web site in 2023 “… had a $510,205 direct economic impact for Roswell …” in a lockdowns-recovery rebuilding yr for the occasion(s).
Stranger in a Unusual Land
Roswell by and enormous and the newspaper alike is right this moment dwelling to many oddities, myself included. A Nashville transplant with an odd missionary calling, final yr the File took me in as their in-house night copy editor — with a desk, landline, sick pay, and every part … it’s sort of surreal. (I’m informed the desks are from the WWII military air base. And the chairs? On day three, I introduced in my very own.)
Germaine to right this moment, I additionally possess certifications in bitcoin and have been orange-pilling folks for years. The newspaper ultimately allowed me to satisfy that second calling of mine by contributing as a author as effectively, through a Sunday column the place I started writing about bitcoin, for the File. I’m honored to have providentially been introduced on board simply in time to doc all the “story arc” of President Trump’s first-term anti-bitcoin hostility and his 2024 reversal in my October 2024 opinion column — in addition to Trump’s unexpectedly well-received “Never sell your bitcoin!” exclamation, whereas campaigning at 2024’s Nashville Bitcoin Conference. With “World War Bitcoin,” I described for “normie” newspaper readers the strategic race occurring among the many a number of nations now competing to build up and mine “all the remaining bitcoin.”
And by way of all of it, I didn’t even get fired. But. However being within the bitcoin information business and seeing the development, in January I proposed a strategic bitcoin reserve for Roswell, for the reason that metropolis obtained a $3,000 in bitcoin donation from an nameless out-of-state reader of the newspaper column. To my thoughts, with or with out authorities “approval” or bitcoin media business recognition, I’ve a confirmed blockchain transaction from January 3, 2025, that claims the Roswell Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has been established. Interval.
Who custodies and manages it’s nonetheless up for grabs, however I ask others, “Are we Bitcoiners or not?”
However OK, the thought is at present being mulled over by some metropolis councilors who’ve given me the time of day, as I wish to give the donation to the town as our begin, and search for private and company sponsorships from there (in order to not create any new bills or taxes for the town). We’re struggling, being sincere.
Whereas the town council can after all be a troublesome nut, and bitcoin is new and bewildering to many nonetheless, Roswell City Lawyer Hess Yntema kindly replied to me just lately through e mail, “As for accepting a gift of Bitcoin, in New Mexico, municipalities are empowered to acquire real and personal property. NMSA 1978, §3-18-1(C). … Personal property is broad and includes tangible and intangible assets; this would include Bitcoin. The City is always grateful when a donation is made to further the public good.”
To assist with the decision-making course of maybe, I’m grateful to report that Bitcoin Journal has prolonged an invite to all 10 members of the Roswell City Council plus Mayor Timothy Jennings to attend the occasion whether or not the council approves the custody and administration of a city-held bitcoin reserve or not. Mayor Jennings’ workplace replied graciously that he can be unable to attend on these dates, whereas at press time at the very least one different metropolis councilor, Cristina Arnold, has dedicated to be “thinking about it.” City Councilor Ed Heldenbrand and City Lawyer Hess Yntema are, with Arnold, excited to be ushering in Roswell’s subsequent step, for posterity’s sake if not their technology: “… a great step for the future,” Heldenbrand stated in a textual content message.
The Roswell City Council subsequent meets on Thursday, Might 8, at 6:00 p.m. Mountain time, with conferences livestreamed over YouTube, the place whether or not the subject of the proposed donation can be mentioned stays unknown at press time. Previous to this assembly nevertheless, two Roswell metropolis councilors, one from the town’s finance committee, have scheduled a gathering with myself and Hess this week to debate “the procedure for accepting the Bitcoin,” in accordance with a bunch textual content message from my ward’s councilor organizing the meetup.
“…Trying to front-run the market to ensure New Mexico remains a rich state,” State Sen. Anthony Thornton (R-NM, Dist. 19) offered a strategic reserve invoice, S.B. 275, throughout the current legislative session. The invoice was “narrowly tabled” 5-4, Thornton later acknowledged.
Requested for extra remark this week about “why” a bitcoin reserve, Thornton responded to me in written element: “I do believe that as our debt based fiat currency (i.e., the U.S. dollar) continues to be debased by the Fed central bankers, more people, more corporations, more municipalities, more sovereign governments will decide to store their wealth in assets that cannot be produced by a printing press… hence commodities such as gold and silver will continue to rise in value.
“However, the scarcity of Bitcoin and its digital mobility will likely make it the one asset utilized by the entire world as the best place to store one’s long-term capital.”
It’s under no circumstances stunning that denizens of Roswell may nonetheless be among the many first within the nation to reply to bitcoin’s siren track, calling out world wide to Earth’s extra clever life types for 16 years now.
Roswellians — accustomed as they now are to random new applied sciences of mysterious origin showing from the sky and disrupting all social order, business and established monetary infrastructures — may simply have an unfair benefit over others in “grokking” bitcoin due to such an “incident” already being part of their collective psyche.
Readers fascinated with studying extra about bitcoin firsthand might eerily discover themselves being drawn to Las Vegas this Might to attend the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference 2025’s two-day convention lineup, plus further occasions all through the week.
Disclosure: The creator each holds bitcoin as a financial savings asset, doesn’t imagine in aliens and has unsuccessfully run for public workplace in Roswell 3 times: This content material might due to this fact comprise unintended monetary and/or political biases regarding the subject material, and is the opinion of the creator.
This can be a visitor put up by Man Malone. Opinions expressed are solely their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
