“It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks have kicked Hornet’s Nest, and Svermen is on our way to us.”
This message was sent by Satoshi Nakamoto to Bitcointalk on December 11, 2010. A few months later, in February 2011, Silk Road Marketplace was launched, and only a few months after – on April 23, 2011 – Satoshi released its last message.
In October 2013, Ross Ulbricht was caught by the FBI and Silk Road fell – only to be replaced by a thousand more copycat market sites. The rest is Bitcoin story.
Ross Ulbricht chose to center his Bitcoin 2025 head speaker around an experience he had clearing wheat nest in a hut in the forest. Wearing a suit and tie that remembers growing “magic mushrooms” to kick -start activity on Silk Road, Ross kept the attention of the main scene of over 8,000 on Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas in the Venetian EXPO. I sat in one of the best seats in the house: Side phase with his mother Lightning and three other supporters of Ross.
Freedom. Decentralization. Unit.
After over 4,100 days in federal detention and many months in special housing units (lonely containment), Ross boiled it down to these three words to summarize his first message to the community.
Freedom. Decentralization. Unit.
After a “21 ways to hack the Fiat system” key from Michael Saylor, Ross’ three ways to move on and were refreshingly simple.
You would have thought that Ross had been talking in front of thousands of people for years, so how calm and commanding he was on the Nakamoto scene.
Lightning Ulbricht called me a few days after the speech as I drove a U-Haul truck full of the art gallery’s content across the country, including Ross’ auction articles, which fully picked up well over 10 BTC for his fresh start. She mentioned that seeing Ross on the stage that gave the incredible speech gave her closure to the whole experience of fighting for her son’s freedom.
I have been lucky to get to know Lyn Ulbricht for the past few years and helped her plan our conferences. Hearing her say that this conference gave her some closure to the horrible chapter of her life was a moment I will never forget. She was his number one supporter during his 11 years who served a double-life sentence. She struggled mercilessly to raise awareness of her son’s situation, and now she has begun a new chapter performing similar work with Macs, mothers against cruel criminal.
Macs is a nonprofit that is effectively the continuation of the free Ross mission. Lightning says that she feels a call from God to continue to fight for other “crypto pads”, and people who are unfairly punished for their crimes, a violation of the eight change of the constitution of the United States.
She launched Macs on the fourth annual women in Bitcoin Brunch on Bitcoin 2025, in front of an audience of over 300 of the most influential women at the conference.
Later during the event, in the same room, Ross used the same step to tackle a smaller crowd of followers for his official lunch.
This lunch, which was held before his speech, is where Justin Sun famously gifted Ross “The Banana”, which handed over a duct-wallpaper, real banana in a detailed white shade box that fits to show in a museum.
I was also in the lunch room when the banana transaction happened as event staff. Paragraph, Comedian By Maurizio Cattelan was a conceptual declaration of art I explained to the two men sitting next to me. Like Ross himself at the time, these men were confused. (The original art installation, a banana channel wallpaper for the wall, was bought-and ate-by Justin Sun last year.)
When I know the meaning of this banana I assumed at the time Justin Sun officially gave his edition # 2 of Comedian to Ross as a donation of $ 6.2 million. It wasn’t until my phone call with lightning Ulbricht days later that she brought the banana up and its dubious origin that I started asking: gave Sun Really Ross the banana?
On this call mentioned Lightning that they had a relative who worked at Sotheby’s, the auctioneer for Justin’s edition of Comedian. This was an obvious first step towards understanding the banana exchange.
Ross E -emailed me shortly after saying, “Lightning tells me you are investigating what happened to me and Justin Sun. Strike Force Nanner arrives tomorrow with Box Sun Give Me, so I will tell you if it shows something useful.”
And later says “My Sotheby’s connection: talked to just one of the people who worked directly with the artist during the sale. To really own the piece you need to have the document from the artist; because this is where ‘the value’ lies, but will not even share pictures of it in fear of someone who makes a forgery. He wants an answer to whether you have what you have any value but still Answer.
I assured him that I thought his banana was still very valuable. Although this really was just 1/1 press of the banana. Until Sun gives Ross Coa, Ross is not really The owner The banana; Still, a historical event occurred. The sun transferred a kind of magic-decentalized banana claims to Ross as he transferred this banana wallpaper to a frame.
The mere existence of the Strike Force Nanner, an armored vehicle that carries the banana to Ross, must be enough to signal the transfer of origin of something valuable.
So regardless of whether Sotheby’s thinks an official transaction occurred, I think Ross has a rare power to canal tape-bananas for walls now and call it something. The sun will just have to send Coa to Ross later to seal the peel.
Until then, I expand an open invitation to Ross, as the artist in residence in Bitcoin Magazine, to help him His pressure of the banana. Then the banana might be even more decentralized!
Avant-Garde bananas aside, the experience of Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas was unlike any other conference we have thrown, and I can say that having been part of all six so far. The most important difference this year was Ross’ freedom.
The Vibbs were beyond Bullish in Vegas, which usually means the top is in. But this time it really seems different.
We should be aware when Michael Saylor gives us his 21-step cheating to the endless money errors and how he plans to exploit the existing financial institutions to accumulate as much bitcoin as he might. This can be a legislative trap.
We should definitely be aware when the sitting vice president, JD Vance, the conference audience says they will use stablecoins to strengthen the dollar with reference to the new genius bill. This is probably the back door of CBDCs.
But most importantly: After over 11 years in federal hell, we need to pay attention to Ross Ulbricht as he becomes the leader that this space really needs right now.
We are the swarm now.