The Bitcoin Conference 2025<\/a> in Las Vegas, projected for the final week of May, features various prominent political figures set to speak, including returning participant and Bitcoin supporter Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). Also on the roster is Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cA.I. and Crypto Czar,\u201d David Sacks, and Bo Hines<\/a>, the \u201cExecutive Director of the President\u2019s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, a less-anticipated and somewhat otherworldly delegation may also be present \u2014 at least within the audience, if not digitally transmitted and gazing directly into the stage\u2019s illumination. Like fire descending from the heavens, an unpredicted $3,000 bitcoin contribution that nobody requested crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico, earlier this year, leaving city council members grappling with whether to once again heed history\u2019s beckon by creating the United States\u2019 inaugural strategic bitcoin reserve<\/a> \u2014 at the municipal level or otherwise \u2014 before other U.S. states or even the U.S. Congress itself acts definitively (following President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a>).<\/p>\n Roswell is the site of a few unexpected treasures \u2014 internationally-acclaimed dairy agriculture and one of the largest mozzarella cheese manufacturing facilities globally; aerospace and aviation sectors featuring a notorious \u201caircraft graveyard\u201d that once housed Elvis Presley\u2019s personal small plane, \u201cHound Dog II,\u201d for 35 years; a lively artistic, museum, and cultural landscape \u2014 but additionally a bustling tourism sector<\/a>, principally centered around what Roswell is truly<\/em> famed for: flying saucers.<\/p>\n However, Roswell is indeed recognized globally for the 1947 \u201cUFO incident.\u201d In early July 1947, a presumably once-ascending object of unknown origin crashed and was obliterated, landing nearby at Corona, New Mexico, later retrieved and brought to the now-defunct Roswell Army Air Field\u2019s 509th, a World War II-era military base, still storing the United States\u2019 only nuclear weapons at the time along with the U.S.\u2019s sole pilots, mechanics, and officers trained to handle them.<\/p>\n The conjecture continues regarding whether the recovered vessel and its supposed pilot and passengers \u2014 accounts of oddly shaped bodies persist but remain highly contested \u2014 hailed from a purported extraterrestrial source or were the consequence of a U.S. military undertaking<\/a>.<\/p>\n At that time, the local newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, a family-owned entity since 1891 and still in circulation today, reported the headline that resonated globally:\u00a0<\/p>\n RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Vicinity<\/strong><\/p>\n Readers now realize that the Daily Record issued a follow-up retraction, restating the military\u2019s adjusted assertion that the downed object was \u201cmerely\u201d a high-altitude weather balloon. Twenty-first-century analysis<\/a> of a zoomed-in image from the 1947 \u201cflying saucer\u201d staged press photograph indicates otherwise, according to Donald Burleson, cryptanalyst and former professor of mathematics at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell. Burleson is also a published author who has penned \u201cLooking Up,\u201d<\/a> one of the Daily Record\u2019s enduring columns on UFOs, for 25 years.<\/p>\n The city of Roswell hosts the International UFO Museum and Research Center, which opened in 1992 and attracts over 220,000 visitors each year, as Executive Director Karen Jaramillo informed The Associated Press during a 2023 interview<\/a> commemorating the museum\u2019s 5 millionth visitor. Additionally, Roswell holds an annual UFO festival<\/a>, which, according to the city\u2019s website in 2023 \u201c\u2026 had a $510,205 direct economic impact for Roswell \u2026\u201d during a year of recovery from lockdowns.<\/p>\n https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roswell,_New_Mexico#Local_industry <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Stranger in a Strange Land<\/strong><\/p>\n Roswell broadly and the newspaper alike is today a haven for various peculiarities, myself included. A Nashville transplant with a unique missionary calling<\/a>, last year the Record welcomed me as their in-house evening copy editor \u2014 complete with a desk, landline, sick leave, and all \u2026 it feels somewhat surreal. (I\u2019ve been informed the desks originate from the WWII army air base. And the chairs? I brought my own on day three.)<\/p>\n Relevant to current affairs, I also hold certifications in bitcoin and have been enlightening individuals about it for years. The newspaper eventually permitted me to pursue that second ambition by contributing as a writer as well, through a Sunday column where I began discussing bitcoin, for the Record<\/a>. I\u2019m privileged to have serendipitously joined just in time to chronicle the entire \u201cnarrative arc\u201d of President Trump\u2019s initial anti-bitcoin stance and his 2024 turnaround<\/a> in my October 2024 opinion column \u2014 as well as Trump\u2019s unexpectedly well-received \u201cNever sell your bitcoin<\/a>!\u201d remark, while campaigning at the 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Conference. Through \u201cWorld War Bitcoin<\/a>,\u201d I communicated to \u201cnormie\u201d newspaper readers the strategic race occurring among multiple nations now striving to amass and mine \u201call the remaining bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n And through it all, I haven\u2019t even been terminated. Yet. But being involved in the bitcoin news domain and observing the trend, in January I proposed a strategic bitcoin reserve<\/a> for Roswell, given that the city received a $3,000 bitcoin contribution from an anonymous out-of-state reader of the newspaper column. To my perspective, with or without governmental \u201capproval\u201d or bitcoin media industry acknowledgment, I have a verified blockchain transaction dated January 3, 2025, confirming that the Roswell Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has been established. Period.<\/p>\n Who safeguards and administers it remains uncertain, but I pose the question to others, \u201cAre we Bitcoiners or not?\u201d<\/p>\n But fine, the concept is currently being contemplated by some city Council members who\u2019ve taken a moment for me, as I aim to contribute the donation to the city as our starting point, and subsequently pursue individual and corporate sponsorships from there (to avoid imposing any new expenses or taxes on the city). We\u2019re facing challenges<\/a>, to be candid.<\/p>\n While the city council can undoubtedly be a hard nut to crack, and bitcoin remains unfamiliar and perplexing to many, Roswell City Attorney Hess Yntema graciously communicated with me via email recently: \u201cRegarding the acceptance of a Bitcoin gift, in New Mexico, municipalities have the authority to acquire real and personal property. NMSA 1978, \u00a73-18-1(C). \u2026 Personal property is extensive and encompasses both tangible and intangible assets; this includes Bitcoin. The City is always appreciative of donations made to enhance the public good.\u201d<\/p>\n To assist with the decision-making process perhaps, I\u2019m pleased to share that Bitcoin Magazine has invited all 10 members of the Roswell City Council along with Mayor Timothy Jennings to participate in the event, regardless of whether the council endorses the custody and management of a city-held bitcoin reserve. Mayor Jennings\u2019 office kindly informed us that he would be unable to attend on those occasions, while as of this writing at least one other council member, Cristina Arnold, has expressed she is \u201cconsidering it.\u201d City Councilor Ed Heldenbrand and City Attorney Hess Yntema are, alongside Arnold, eager to guide Roswell\u2019s next phase, for the benefit of future generations: \u201c\u2026 a significant step for what lies ahead,\u201d said Heldenbrand in a text message.<\/p>\n The Roswell City Council is set to convene next on Thursday, May 8, at 6:00 p.m. Mountain time, with meetings livestreamed via YouTube<\/a>, where it remains uncertain whether the proposed donation will be a topic of discussion. Prior to this meeting, however, two Roswell city councilors, one from the city’s finance committee, have arranged a meeting with myself and Hess this week to discuss \u201cthe process for accepting the Bitcoin,\u201d according to a group text message from my ward\u2019s councilor coordinating the meetup.<\/p>\n
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