Blockspace: Matt Odell on OpenSats’ 17th Grant, $270M Drift Hack, Charles Schwab Eyes BTC Trading

The BlockSpace live show dives into a range of critical Bitcoin and crypto developments, starting with a deep dive into the $270 million Drift Protocol hack, attributed to a year-long social engineering attack by a North Korean state-linked group. The attackers built trust through fake quant trading firms, exploited vulnerabilities in development tools like Cursor/VS Code, and compromised multisig keys—highlighting the growing threat of sophisticated human-based cyberattacks. The episode then shifts to OpenSats, where Matt Odell discusses the organization’s 17th grant wave, distributing $1 million monthly in Bitcoin to open-source developers. Odell emphasizes the importance of privacy tools like PayJoin and DIY hardware signers, and advocates for sustainable, recurring corporate donations to support the ecosystem. Ben Carman joins to reflect on the hiatus of the long-running Austin BitDevs meetup, citing declining engagement, burnout, and a shift toward AI-focused conversations. He questions whether Bitcoin’s era of grassroots, DIY development is waning, though AI is lowering entry barriers for new developers. The show also covers Kiel Infrastructure’s rebrand from BitFarms, its pivot to AI services, and Charles Schwab’s upcoming spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, signaling growing institutional adoption. Finally, a solo miner’s rare $210,000 block reward underscores the lottery-like nature of solo mining. The episode closes with a defense of journalistic integrity amid baseless accusations of bias from a crypto commentator.