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 However, the authorities rescinded ...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

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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Herpes vaccine trials go offshore to avoid FDA

Offshore Human Testing Of Herpes Vaccine Stokes Debate Over U.S. Safety Rules - Marisa Taylor, Kaiser Health News:

August 28, 2017 - "Defying U.S. safety protections for human trials, an American university and a group of wealthy libertarians ... are backing the offshore testing of an experimental herpes vaccine.

"The American businessmen, including Trump adviser Peter Thiel, invested $7 million in the ongoing vaccine research, according to the U.S. company behind it. Southern Illinois University also trumpeted the research and the study’s lead researcher, even though he did not rely on traditional U.S. safety oversight in the first trial, held on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

"Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor a safety panel known as an institutional review board, or an 'IRB,' monitored the testing of a vaccine its creators say prevents herpes outbreaks. Most of the 20 participants were Americans with herpes who were flown to the island several times to be vaccinated, according to Rational Vaccines, the company that oversaw the trial....

"'This is a test case,' said Bartley Madden, a retired Credit Suisse banker and policy adviser to the conservative Heartland Institute, who is another investor in the vaccine. 'The FDA is standing in the way, and Americans are going to hear about this and demand action'....

"Agustín Fernández III co-founded­ Rational Vaccines with tenured SIU professor William Halford. He said Halford, the lead investigator, took the necessary precautions during the trial conducted from April to August in 2016. Halford died of cancer in June....

"Fernández, a former Hollywood filmmaker, said he and his investors plan to submit the trial data to the FDA in hopes of getting the vaccine approved for treatment. If the FDA does not respond favorably, he said, the company will continue its trials in Mexico and Australia. Fernández said he hopes to set up an IRB for these next trials. No matter what, he plans to manufacture the vaccine offshore....

"Fernández said he hoped the trials would put political pressure on the FDA to give the vaccine a closer look. He said his vaccine would be initially aimed at helping patients who experience the 'worst of the worst' symptoms. He believed the vaccine eventually would be shown to be effective in preventing the spread of the disease. According to the CDC, about 1 in 6 people ages 14 to 49 have genital herpes....

"Before the trial, Halford tested the vaccine on himself and Fernández. After he failed to secure federal funding and an IRB, Halford moved ahead with the trial offshore....

"The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal and Halford’s previous attempt to publish was rejected.... Yet some herpes patients, who are part of a tight-knit online community, have followed the project with hope and enthusiasm. One American participant ... Richard Mancuso said ... the vaccine has stopped his severe outbreaks. 'This has saved my life,' he said."

Read more: http://khn.org/news/offshore-rush-for-herpes-vaccine-roils-debate-over-u-s-safety-rules/

Thiel invests millions in 'immortality project'

Mammoth task: billionaire Peter Thiel funded effort to resurrect woolly beast | Technology | The Guardian - Olivia Solon:

June 30, 2017 - "PayPal billionaire and Gawker war-wager Peter Thiel has invested $100,000 in a research effort to resurrect the woolly mammoth.

'Thiel, who believes that viewing death as inevitable is a sign of 'complacency of the western world', gave the money to Harvard University genomics professor George Church, whose laboratory is attempting to revive the extinct pachyderm .... taking DNA extracted from frozen mammoths and using it to genetically modify elephant cells....

"Peter Thiel’s team did not respond to requests for confirmation of the investment, but Church told MIT Technology Review that it was true....

"It’s not entirely surprising Thiel wants to bring a mammal back from the dead. According to several interviews, Thiel sees death as a terrible inconvenience that needs disrupting.

"'Almost every human being who has ever lived is dead. Solving this problem is the most natural, humane, and important thing we could possibly do,' he is quoted as saying on the website of the SENS Foundation, a charity Thiel funds that approaches aging as a disease in need of a cure.

"In 2015 he continued on his warpath against human fragility.

"'I’ve always had this really strong sense that death was a terrible, terrible thing,' he told the Washington Post, 'Most people end up compartmentalizing, and they are in some weird mode of denial and acceptance about death, but they both have the result of making you very passive. I prefer to fight it.'

"Thiel’s 'fight' involves investing millions in biotechnology and artificial intelligence in what he has called 'the immortality project'. His investment firm Thiel Capital has, according to Inc, expressed an interest in a company called Ambrosia, which is running a trial where individuals can pay $8,000 to receive a blood transfusion from a teenager in the hope that it will restore some youthful vigour....

"He has also signed up with cryogenics company Alcor to be deep-frozen at the time of his death in the hope that he too can be resurrected."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/30/peter-thiel-woolly-mammoth-back-to-life-donation
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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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Thiel gets standing ovation at GOP convention

Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel receives standing ovation at GOP convention - Mercury News - Julia Prodis Sulek and Matthew Artz:

July 21, 2016 - "Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel received a standing ovation at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night when he said he was proud to be gay.... The libertarian-leaning co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist made his convention debut just days after the Republican Party adopted one of the most anti-gay platforms in history....

"Thiel received a warm reception in the convention hall, even after he essentially chided the platform committee for debating which bathrooms transgender people should use. He called the debate 'a distraction from our real problems'....

"He said he doesn't 'pretend to agree' with every plank in the party's platform, 'but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump'....

"Thiel, 48, has always been known for his contrarian political views, but he still raised plenty of eyebrows in Silicon Valley when he signed up to be one of three Trump delegates from San Francisco....

"In his speech, he said he supported Trump because he's a builder, not a politician. Although the economy looks strong in Silicon Valley, he said, 'Silicon Valley is a small place. Drive out to Sacramento, or even just across the bridge to Oakland, and you won't see the same prosperity. That's just how small it is. Across the country, wages are flat.'

"He said the government is 'broken' under Democratic leadership.

"'Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can't even fly in the rain. And it would be kind to say the government's software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn't even work at all,' he said.

"'This is a staggering decline for a country that completed the Manhattan Project. We don't accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government.'

"Thiel originally pumped $2 million into former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's SuperPAC, but later switched to Trump in a move that stunned other valley leaders turned off by the Republican nominee's protectionist policies and jabs at Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg."

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_30153175/how-did-peter-thiel-silicon-valleys-libertarian-leaning
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Seasteading Institute's floating cities of the future (video)

Designs For the Floating Libertarian Cities of the Seasteading Movement - Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, Gizmodo:

August 18, 2015 - "Seasteading, the concept of building floating cities that are independent of the government, is a big, expensive idea that would require billions of dollars and decades to see to completion. It’s hard to even imagine what these communities would look like. But a design competition for architects has done some imagining for us....

The Seasteading Institute, a group founded by Peter Thiel in 2008, views seasteading as the ideal solution to the government’s inability to 'innovate sufficiently.' It’s a movement that has grown up in the tech world, attracting interest from libertarians and techies alike (it was famously parodied in the second season of Silicon Valley, too). In a seminal story on seasteading that Wired published in 2009, the concept is described as the urban planning equivalent of Linux: 'a base upon which people can build their own innovative forms of governance.'

"This spring, the institute announced a competition that invited designers and architects to visualize these floating cities. It’s not so much that the group is ready to build them (lol) — rather, it seems like the competition was designed to drum up public interest. A picture of a floating city, replete with pools, yachts, gardens, and luxury housing, is worth a thousand words. Judged by architects, scientists, engineers, and seasteaders themselves, the competition wrapped up this month — and the results were recently posted online."

See designs here: http://gizmodo.com/designing-the-floating-libertarian-cities-of-the-seaste-1724827820

Who will Peter Thiel back for POTUS in 2016?

Which 2016 Republican Is Libertarian Billionaire Peter Thiel Going To Back - BuzzFeed News:

March 28, 2015 - "The question of [Peter] Thiel’s loyalties looms large in the Republicans’ heated 2016 fundraising race. The gay, libertarian tech tycoon has funneled millions of dollars in recent years to a diverse array of causes and campaigns, from marriage equality advocacy groups to insurgent Tea Party candidates. In an era when a single motivated billionaire can prop up a presidential candidate all on his own, Thiel’s endorsement would be a major coup for any campaign. But only two contenders in the emerging GOP field can claim an inside track to the billionaire’s cash: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"Thiel’s ties to Paul ... are well established. During the 2012 election, Thiel gave $2.6 million to a super PAC supporting Rand’s father, Ron Paul — an eccentric libertarian protest candidate with a narrow but devoted grassroots following. And since then, he has reportedly been an ally and adviser to the younger Paul, opening doors for the senator in Silicon Valley, connecting him with donors and tech operatives, and meeting privately with him as recently as last summer....

"Last year, when a New York Times story described Paul’s political and fundraising infrastructure as feeble and unimpressive, his advisers fired back by giving the Washington Post an exclusive on its 50-state political network. The Post story described Thiel as a 'looming figure in Paul’s constellation of friends, advisers, and possible bundlers,' and 'one of his top West Coast allies'.

"Less well known, however, is Thiel’s longtime support for Cruz.... In 2009, Thiel contributed $251,000 to support the star litigator’s bid for Texas attorney general. Cruz eventually aborted the campaign, but the billionaire’s donations made up one-fifth of his entire campaign war chest. When he then ran for Senate in 2012, Thiel plowed $1 million into Club for Growth, the conservative pressure group that heavily funded Cruz’s primary bid.

"Asked about Cruz last September, Thiel told The Daily Caller, 'Well I think he’s very smart. I think one of the challenges we have in the Republican Party is … our representatives, our senators, are somewhat lower IQ than the people on the other side. So, I think there is something to be said for getting some really smart people in there'....

"Thiel has not yet announced his support for any presidential candidate, and through a spokesman, he declined to comment.... Advisers to both Paul and Cruz also declined comment, but people in both camps said they are courting the billionaire."

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/which-2016-republican-is-libertarian-billionaire-peter-thiel
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Seasteading Institute negotiating reality TV series

Reality show about an unregulated offshore techno-libertarian Utopia in the works | VentureBeat | Business | by Gregory Ferenstein:

February 23, 2015 - "Silicon Valley’s favorite libertarians have pinned their hopes of an unregulated utopia on floating cities. Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel is among the Silicon Valley elite supporting so-called 'seasteading', manufactured ocean colonies not bound by the nagging government that taxes and regulates tech companies in California.

"The Seasteading Institute confirmed to VentureBeat that earlier reports last Friday by Fusion of its planned reality show, are, in fact, true. 'While the show is still in development we aren’t able to release any additional information on our end,' wrote Seasteading’s Randolph Hencken to VentureBeat in an email.

"'The Seasteading Institute is consulting with a new unscripted television series for a major cable network. The show is seeking a variety of experts and survivalists ready to create a new community on the ocean while building, engineering, and rehabbing residential quarters.'

"So, if you think the last tech reality show, Start-ups: Silicon Valley, could have been a lot more like Survivor, get excited."

Read more: http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/23/reality-show-about-an-unregulated-offshore-techno-libertarian-utopia-in-the-works/
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Asperger's better than MBA for business success, says Thiel

Peter Thiel Criticizes Harvard Business School, Praises Asperger's - Businessweek - Natalie Kitroeff:

October 7, 2014 - "PayPal co-founder, billionaire, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel mused in a San Francisco ballroom on Saturday about the benefits of mild autism and not being competitive. In a wide-ranging talk before hundreds at a conference for gay MBAs, he also took a direct shot at the culture of business school and posed some provocative, if unusual, questions about the entrepreneurial spirit of gay people.

"'So many of the successful companies are formed by people who seem to be suffering from a mild form of Asperger’s,' Thiel said, referring to Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning type of autism. People with Asperger’s often have limited socialization skills and, he said, are unafraid of pursuing ideas seen as strange. 'What is it about our society where anyone who does not have Asperger’s gets talked out of their heterodox ideas?'

"Thiel was speaking at a conference hosted by advocacy group Reaching Out MBA to promote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, a new book in which he argues that competition stifles original thought. In a navy crew-cut T-shirt, khakis, and sneakers, his vibe clashed with that of the jacketed and tied professionals in the audience. Thiel has not identified himself as someone with Asperger’s but praises those with the disorder for their willingness to pursue offbeat ideas....

"By contrast, Thiel said, MBA programs produce thinkers who tend to buy into innovations only once they’ve peaked. Thiel noted that MBAs flooded the world of junk bonds in 1989, a year before industry king Michael Milken went to jail. No MBAs went near Silicon Valley until 1999, he said, at which point “HBS perfectly timed the dot-com bubble,” referring to Harvard Business School."

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-07/peter-thiel-criticizes-harvard-business-school-praises-aspergers?

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Free State Project testing ground for freedom-enhancing technology

The Free State Project: A Libertarian Testing Ground For Bitcoin, 3D Printers, and Drones - Kashmir Hill, Forbes:

June 12, 2014 - "Long before billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel dreamed up the idea of a floating libertarian island nation, a 24-year-old Yale grad student named Jason Sorens proposed a far more down-to-earth experiment for those who wanted to live the limited government lifestyle: that a critical mass of 'freedom-loving people… establish residence in a small state and take over the state government.'

"The 'Free State Project' call to action was in 2001. By 2003, five thousand people agreed to take part and they held a vote to decide which low-population state would be the staging ground for the libertarianvasion, which would be triggered when 20,000 people signed on. New Hampshire (population: 1.3 million) won ... and early movers began trickling in to help the state fully realize its 'Live Free or Die' motto....

"Thirteen years later, there are over 2,000 Free Staters scattered around New Hampshire and the petition is now 4,000 signatures short of triggering the full move....

"I was invited to snowy New Hampshire this February ... because Free Staters were interested in two things I write about: Bitcoin and corporate privacy practices. I discovered that this isolated group has fully adopted Bitcoin, and that it’s extremely enthusiastic about other 'freedom-enhancing' technologies such as 3D-printers and encryption. Everyone I met in the Project owned Bitcoin and was willing to accept it for goods and services. Of the couple thousand people living there, at least seven own 3D-printers. Though the idea originally was to get a critical mass to influence the political process, many in the movement now feel that the freedoms they want may be better realized through technology that routes around the government rather than engaging it directly."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/12/the-free-state-project-a-libertarian-testing-ground-for-bitcoin-3d-printers-and-drones/
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Thiel makes a libertarian case for minimum-wage hike

Uber-libertarian Peter Thiel praises minimum-wage hike | The Daily Caller - Neil Munro:

February 26, 2014 - "Uber-libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel suggested he may support a spike in the minimum wage to $12 an hour because it could roll back the welfare state.

"'I actually think that it’s a very out-of-the-box idea. … It’s something one should consider seriously, given all the other distorted [government-created economic] incentives that exist,' Thiel said in a video interview conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle on Feb. 21.

"Thiel is so much of a libertarian, he’s trying to create islands where people can work and live away from national laws. He’s used some of his $2 billion fortune to fund the libertarian Club for Growth PAC and spent almost $4 million to help Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul campaign for president in 2012....

"'“Given how low the minimum wage is, and how generous the welfare benefits are, you have a marginal tax rate that’s on the order of 100 percent, and people are actually trapped in this sort of welfare state,' Thiel told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/26/uber-libertarian-peter-thiel-praises-12-an-hour-minimum-wage-hike/

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'Seasteads' offer the vision of floating cities for the future

Super-yacht not big enough? 'Seasteads' offer libertarians the vision of floating cities for the future - Architecture - Arts & Entertainment - The Independent - Paul Peachey:

December 26, 2013 - "Seasteading has emerged as a political movement – with nods to climate change and land shortages – to create new water-borne city states. Over 85 pages, a Dutch engineering and urban development company has outlined the feasibility of a floating "village" for 225 permanent residents and 50 hotel guests - a blueprint that the pioneering seasteaders hope will become hundreds of floating petri dishes of social and political experiments.

"The design consultants envisage a series of interlocking 'hollow box' square and pentagonal platforms, allowing each city to grow organically – or be dismantled and towed away in the event of political dispute or interference. Individual seasteaders would decide on how they would rule or be ruled....

"The vision is funded by a US non-profit organisation, the Seasteading Institute, established by two darlings of the libertarian movement including the billionaire founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel.

"The institute’s stated ambition for the seasteads is to 'guarantee political freedom and thus enable experimentation with alternative social systems'."

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/superyacht-not-big-enough-seasteads-offer-libertarians-the-vision-of-floating-cities-for-the-future-9026242.html
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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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The top libertarians in business today

The Top Libertarians in Business Today | Benzinga - Alex Biles:

February 22, 2013 - : "Although the Libertarian Party never seems to climb out of the single digits in the polls, libertarians have a surprising influence in the business world and are well represented in a variety of sectors.... Benzinga took a look at the top libertarians in business today:...

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amaxzon ...

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com ...

Marc Faber, head of Marc Faber Limited ...

David and Charles Koch, Executive Vice President and CEO of Kock Industries ...

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Inc. ...

Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist ...

Erik Prince, CEO of Academi (formerly known as Xe, Blackwater ...

T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor ...

Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, Ltd. ...

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital ...

Peter Thiel, PayPal founder ...

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/general/entrepreneurship/13/02/3358739/the-top-libertarians-in-business-today
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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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