Happy Friday, and welcome back to the Blockspace newsletter!

Before we get to this week’s news, an announcement from yours truly: our tech and scaling conference, OPNEXT, is coming back for its second installment this April! More details below…

We’re bringing OPNEXT back this April

We’re bringing OPNEXT back. And despite Michael Saylor’s comments in opposition to upgrading Bitcoin, Microstrategy is hosting this installment of OPNEXT at its HQ in Tysons, Virginia on April 11th and 12th (yes, you read that right). 

For the next OPNEXT, we plan to feature:

• BIPs and proposals!: We’re prioritizing programming to include presentations on some of the most exciting bitcoin improvement proposals, including BIP-119 (OP_CTV), BIP-347 (OP_CAT), BIP-346 (OP_TXHASH), LNHANCE, and more (C4, C3PO, APO, etc).

• Scaling solutions: We’ll also home in on some of the bleeding-edge scaling solutions like Ark, covenants proposals, rollups, DLCs, and other innovations.

• Hot topics: We’re not leaving out other big topics. Decentralized mining pools, quantum resistance proposals, the Great Consensus Cleanup, and others are all on the table.

No booths, no shills, no tokens – just Bitcoin and honest conversation.

Thanks to our sponsors: Microstrategy, Cleanspark, Luxor. If you'd like to get involved, reply to this email!

Join us:

• Tickets 

• Sponsorships

Visit the OPNEXT website for more.

We’ll see you there!

Brought to you by Luxor

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Bitcoin news

Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht receives full pardon from President Trump

On Tuesday, Ross Ulbricht received a full pardon from President Trump and walked free after 12 years behind bars. Ulbricht was sentenced with a kingpin charge and received two life sentences plus 40 years without parole for operating the darknet marketplace The Silk Road. #FreeRoss has longtime been a rallying cry for the Bitcoin and libertarian movement, and his release marks the first fulfillment of a major campaign promise from President Donald Trump to both camps.

CEO of Ledger and wife kidnapped but now safe

Ledger Co-founder and CEO David Balland and his wife were kidnapped this week by a criminal syndicate seeking crypto as ransom, but Parisian authorities found and released the two hostages on Thursday. The kidnappers took Ballard’s thumb during the ordeal, but he and his wife are otherwise safe and in good health. Authorities have apprehended at least 8 individuals allegedly involved in the kidnapping, and Tether worked with an exchange to freeze 95% of the USDT ransom paid to the perpetrators.

Trump signs Executive Order promoting “Digital Financial Technology”

The Executive Order prohibits US agencies from promoting Central Bank Digital Currencies and establishes a working group to assess and provide clarity on “Digital Asset Markets.” The working group includes many high ranking government officials, including the Treasury Secretary, plus newly appointed Crypt Czar, David Sacks. A “digital asset stockpile” may soon follow from the EO and could include other cryptoassets in addition to bitcoin.

World Liberty Financial buys $370 million of crypto

Final Trump story (promise). The Trump family’s DeFi project “World Liberty Financial” (WLFI) has been on a buying spree for ethereum, wrapped bitcoin, tron, and other cryptocurrencies. The project used revenue from the WLFI token to purchase roughly $370 million in cryptoassets this week.

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