Seasteading project revived in Panama

This libertarian Bitcoin trader wants to build a city on the sea | Decrypt - Adriana Hamacher:

Jun 25, 2020 - "Chad Elwartowski, an American software engineer turned Bitcoin trader, is one of the leading lights of the 'seasteading' movement — a libertarian drive to build independent floating cities on the high seas. Right now,  he's constructing a prototype for 'the world’s first 3D-printed, smart, floating home,' off the Caribbean coast of Panama. A prior effort, in Thailand, was towed off by the Thai navy in 2019.

"Interest in seasteading is enjoying a renaissance among libertarian tech millionaires, keen to escape the threat of increasing government surveillance. The movement has come a long way since entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Patri Friedman (grandson of eminent economist Milton) launched the Seasteading Institute in 2008.....

"But Elwartowski’s vision has changed since his first attempt at seasteading in Thailand, when he and his Thai partner Supranee Thepdet were forced to flee, dodging Thai patrol boats. He was tipped off that the authorities had determined that the fiberglass cabin, on top of a floating pole, posed a threat to the country's sovereignty — punishable by death.

"Now, they’ve settled in Panama and joined a local business called Ocean Builders, which is creating 30 'seapods,' and selling them on the open market for between $200,000 to $800,000 each. The pods will be registered as boats under the Panama flag for legal purposes....

"In 2017, the French Polynesian government approved the Seasteading Institute’s plans for an autonomous community near the French Polynesian coast, using a cryptocurrency called Varyon. However, the authorities rescinded ... approval a year later, in response to objections of 'tech colonialism' by the residents of Tahiti....

"Friedman is now involved in the Marshall Islands’ scheme to introduce a sovereign digital currency.... He and Thiel have moved on to self-governed 'charter cities' in developing countries, allowing international firms to set up shop in the semi-autonomous zones. The project takes the form of a venture fund, bolstered by $9 million in funding from Thiel, as well as investors and Bitcoin heavyweights Marc Andreessen, Roger Ver, and Balaji Srinivasan."

Read more: https://decrypt.co/33468/this-libertarian-bitcoin-trader-wants-to-build-a-city-on-the-sea

Thai navy dismantles world's first seastead

Bitcoin Couple's Seastead Dreams Sunk by Thai Navy - Wes Messamore, CCN:

April 23, 2019 - "By CCN: The Thai Navy has dismantled the floating sea cabin of U.S. bitcoin investor and seasteading advocate Chad Elwartowski. His Thai girlfriend Supranee Thepdet was living with him in the seastead. The Thai Navy boarded the boat over the weekend and returned its pieces to shore in three boats. The Thai government plans to use the dismantled floating home as evidence in a case against Elwartowsi and Thepdet.

"The two are on the run and have engaged the U.S. embassy. The couple says that the Royal Thai Government is pressing to have them tried and killed for violating the Southeast Asian country’s national sovereignty. It’s a crime that carries the death penalty in Thailand. Luckily, when the authorities moved to seize the vessel, the two had fled; Elwartowski had spotted a surveillance plane flying overhead the day before.

"Although the government of Thailand maintains the seasteaders violated its national sovereignty, the couple most certainly did not. They did not engage in sedition against the government. They did not attempt to overthrow it, nor did they encourage anyone to break its laws. They simply chose to peacefully withdraw from its territory. In the style of history’s millions of homesteaders who left their countries and built something for themselves in unexplored and unsettled lands, this couple is a pair of explorers and pioneers. They are obviously not criminals.

"In a statement released Monday, Patri Friedman, the chairman of the Seasteading Institute, 'urged compassion' for the pair. Friedman insists 'their actions were no threat to Thai sovereignty.'

"The Thai government’s response to the seasteading couple has sent shock waves throughout the international community and media. These events have likely spurred the most mainstream media coverage that the burgeoning seasteading movement has ever received. It is unfortunate that this publicity has come at so great and unfair a personal cost to two of the movement’s pioneers."

Read more: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-couple-seastead-thai-navy
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Seasteading community may be reality by 2020

Seasteaders to bring a libertarian floating community to the South Pacific - Archpaper.com - Audrey Wachs, The Architect's Newspaper:

October 27, 2017 - "Right now, engineers, scientists, and officials from one country in the South Pacific are hashing out ... an ambitious experiment in aquatic living that’s shaped by libertarian dreams, a pragmatic response to climate change, and a novel architectural experiment.

"'Seasteaders want voluntary societies based on choice, not force,' said Joe Quirk, Seasteading Institute communications director and author, in a YouTube video on the subject. The San Francisco-based organization is on the front lines of the seasteading movement, a Libertarian-influenced crusade that borrows from the language of the American frontier to frame its freewheeling settlement at sea. Decentralized dwelling, the thinking goes, permits members to join or leave the autonomous association at will by simply detaching their dwellings and floating off,... If this sounds far-fetched, well, the first seasteaders may hit the water in just a few years.

"The community could be afloat soon — like, 2020 soon. The Floating Islands Project, as it is officially known, ... found a partner in French Polynesia, an island country in the South Pacific. This January, French Polynesia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Seasteading Institute in San Francisco to build a floating island prototype. The project, off the coast of Tahiti, has to demonstrate it won’t adversely impact the environment, and show what it will contribute to the island’s economy, and then the nation will establish an offshore economic zone for the seasteaders.

"Although seasteading’s libertarian ideals perhaps make French Polynesia — well, any nation — an unlikely partner, ... the country’s thousands of islands are flat and narrow, a topographic combination that is particularly susceptible to climate change. Floating islands could be a vital survival strategy if (but really, when) the seas rise. In turn, the area’s shallow water and ocean conditions that don’t include high waves make the current technology — which has been pioneered on flat water — more adaptable to ocean conditions.

"By the end of this year, the Institute, which was founded in 2008 by libertarian activist Patri Friedman, is working with French Polynesian officials to pass a seazone act. If the rules pass, the group will head to Tahiti to develop a pilot program....

"Dutch firm DeltaSync has built a prototype on a lake in Rotterdam. The Floating Pavilion Research suggests that buildings up to 164 feet (15 stories) tall can be built on the seas and are able to withstand storms and choppy waters. Four years ago, DeltaSync debuted a preliminary plan which estimated that a series of platforms for 20 to 30 people would cost around $15 million. With one-fifth of the space reserved for open greenery, the firm estimates living space would cost about $500 per square foot, which is just over half as much as the average price per square foot in New York City....

"It’s no surprise that the project has — or had — high-profile fans in Silicon Valley. Gawker shutter-downer and Trump supporter Peter Thiel funneled a cool 1.7 million dollars into the initiative, but has since dismissed the concept as 'not quite feasible.' Quirk and others at the Institute have a new company, Blue Frontiers, whose mission is to develop and build the floating seabeds."

Read more: https://archpaper.com/2017/10/seasteading-institute-floating-libertarian-ocean-cities/#gallery-0-slide-0
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Seasteaders, French Polynesia sign agreement

A Floating Libertarian City Is a Step Closer to Reality - David Roos, Seeker:

January 20, 2017 -  "When Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, helped launch the Seasteading Institute in 2008, it sounded like a libertarian pipe dream — floating cities free from government meddling (no regulation, no taxes) that would be testing grounds for technological, social and political innovation.

"But this past January 13, the dream came one step closer to reality when the Seastead Institute signed a deal with French Polynesia that lays the legal groundwork for the world's first semi-autonomous floating city-state.

"French Polynesia is a cluster of more than 100 islands in the South Pacific, the biggest and best-known being Tahiti.... French Polynesia is courting investment in the so-called 'blue economy,' the sustainable development of offshore energy production, wild-catch fisheries, aquaculture and tourism....

"Joe Quirk is the Seasteading Institute's staff 'Seavangelist' and author of the forthcoming Seasteading: How Ocean Cities Will Change the World, written with Seasteading Institute co-founder Patri Friedman. Quirk was part of a 10-person team who visited French Polynesia back in September.

"'This was a Polynesian-initiated project,' Quirk told Seeker. "They reached out to us. It's an ideal country for seasteading, and they think we're the perfect industry for what they want to do with regard to the blue economy'....' [F]or this first, proof-of-concept project, the Seasteading Institute was searching for an island partner with protected shallow waters and an openness to new type of economic model called a SeaZone.

"Over the next year, the Seasteading Institute will be negotiating the legal terms of the SeaZone with the government of French Polynesia, which may include not only economic incentives, but a certain measure of political autonomy.

"The deal signed last week was just a memorandum of understanding between the Polynesian government and the Seasteading Institute. Before construction can begin on the pentagonal concrete platforms that would support the floating city, the Seasteading Institute and its Dutch engineering partner Blue21 must conduct economic and environmental impact studies....

"If all goes smoothly with the Polynesian negotiations, Quirk said that construction could start as early as 2018 and the first units could be sold starting in 2019."

Read more: http://www.seeker.com/a-floating-libertarian-city-is-a-step-closer-to-reality-2203456955.html
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Seasteaders negotiating with French Polynesia

Seasteaders Plan to Build a Libertarian Utopia on the High Seas | Big Think - Philip Perry:

December 22, 2016 - "Looking at the world today ... one might easily dream of escaping to their own small, well-designed utopia.... Usually, religious persecution was the push factor. For a group of modern day libertarians, it's government overreach. But today, with almost all the land on Earth accounted for, this group has set their eyes on a different kind of real estate, the high seas.

"The idea is to build a floating city at least 200 miles off of a country’s coastline. This is international waters by UN treaty, out of the reach of the world’s governments. But creating a seafaring utopia isn’t so simple. The Seasteading Institute is now in friendly talks with French Polynesia. Among the movements bigwigs is PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who is currently helping the Trump campaign in their transition into the White House. Jim O’Neil, who worked for the second Bush administration and is a possible Trump FDA appointee, is another.

"Thiel is a co-founder of the Seasteading Institute, along with Patri Friedman, a former Google software engineer and grandson of famed economist Milton Freedman. Thiel and Friedman announced their plan in 2008. Should the president of the French territory sign off, the project could begin as early as 2017. It is slated for completion in 2020. Thiel, who invested $1.7 million in the project, has spoken of the settlement as a libertarian utopia. Though no longer on the board, he continues to support the project financially.

"Originally, the plan was to be completely independent. But the estimated cost of such a project was $225 million, with an annual operating cost of $8 million. Soon, seasteaders were starting to see the benefits of having a nation to partner up with. French Polynesia was chosen because it has a fiber cable run from Hawaii which allows for the same kind of bandwidth would-be residents are used to, and it’s only an eight hour flight from Los Angeles. For French Polynesians, whose land is being threatened from sea level rise due to global warming, the idea of a floating city has tremendous appeal. Though for a period there, it looked as if the project may never see fruition, the plans are now awaiting the signature of the French Polynesian president....

"The plan entails building two or three platforms off the island chain, each about half a football field long. These will have on their surface communities housing around 30 people each. One model displays streamlined buildings reminiscent of a tech campus, along with a beachfront area, and a full size swimming pool....

"As it stands now, construction alone is projected at $30 million. Each platform will cost $15 million. A small group of anonymous investors are said to be footing the bill, all of whom will become residents. In 2013, the project raised $27,000 via a crowdfunding campaign. But according to the institute’s director, those funds have already been paid to Norwegian design company DeltaSync, seemingly to engineer models for the platforms....

"It was former software engineer Wayne Gramlich’s 1998 book, SeaSteading: Homesteading on the High Seas, that inspired this current venture. Gramlich and Friedman together developed the initiative, which Thiel initially funded. Though a long and strenuous process awaits, one with an unknown outcome, seasteaders are in it for the long haul."

Read more: http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/seasteaders-plan-to-build-a-libertarian-utopia-on-the-high-seas
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Seasteading Institute raises $54K via Indiegogo & Thiel Foundation

Soon You May Be Able to Live on Crazy Libertarian Billionaire Island - Nitasha Tiku, Gawker:

September 23, 2013 - "On Friday, the Seasteading Institute — a non-profit group cofounded by Peter Thiel and Patri Friedman (grandson to Ronald Reagan advisor Milton Friedman) — successfully closed its Indiegogo campaign to design “the world’s first floating city” for “pioneers who wish to demonstrate new ways of living together.

"The campaign exceeded its $20,000 goal, raising $27,082 in tax deductible funds from 291 donors: a sum that will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by the Thiel Foundation....

"Back in 2008, Friedman himself estimated that it could cost hundreds of millions to build a seastead for just a few thousand people. Now, seven years later, the proceeds from amateur investors who backed this crowdfunded campaign are going towards a white paper exploring 'feasibility' of the idea — with any leftovers allocated toward 'diplomacy' with countries that might 'consider hosting a seastead within their territorial waters, while still granting the city substantial autonomy.'

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Brian Doherty, Patri Friedman et al discuss Libertarian New City schemes

Brian Doherty Discusses Libertarian New City Schemes on Huffington Post Live with Seasteading Institute Founder Patri Friedman - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

February 11, 2013 - "Libertarians have long dreamed of escaping the depradations of modern states through creating new countries, cities, or other communities with their own sets of rules....

"I chatted about some such ideas in the works now (including Seasteading, Honduran free citiees, Glenn Beck's Texas redoubt, and a hoped-for libertarian buyout of Detroit's Belle Island) on Huffington Post Live on Friday, with host Jim Poulos and fellow guests Patri Friedman (founder of the Seasteading Institute) and Christina Heller, maker of the documentary Libertopia, which focused on the Free State Project.

You can watch the HuffPost Live segment here" (http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/libertarians-plan-belle-isle-city%2C-seasteading%2C-citadel%2C-plus-glenn-beck/510c0d24fe34440336000292).

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Billionaire to build new countries at sea

Billionaire to build new countries at sea | The Sun | News - Carl Stroud:

August 25, 2011: "PayPal founder Peter Thiel is funding a project that intends to create new societies governed in a radically different manner from conventional states.

"The communities would be run according to libertarian ideals and be housed on gargantuan ocean platforms ... a 'kind of floating Petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage and few restrictions on weapons'.

"Thiel, 43, who is worth an estimated $1.5 billion — or £910 million — has given £763,000 to the Seasteading Institute planning to build the floating nations.

"The institute is run by Patri Friedman, the grandson of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3774868/Billionaire-to-build-new-countries-at-sea.htm


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