In the 2010 era, freedom activists moved forward with high-level ideas and first and had a first-rate plan to implement them. Known as seasteaders, they founded The Seasteading Institute, best known for their "Floating Island Project".
The idea is to create a habitat, called seastead, that is capable of supporting people in the oceans. This includes the possibility to leave the area if the seas become unsafe for political, climax or other reasons. The Institute received $ 1.7 million from PayPal founder Peter Thiel.
Furthermore, they have made some progress, but maybe less than one person expects that much money: some physical models and water tests, beautiful designs, substantial publicity, web forums that are still quite active in the post-web forum world, and some conferences. But mainly, there is no seastead. However, the attainment to be observed is the external reaction to this simple feat - because it is the source of the reaction itself.
For the preface of achievement: With migrant efforts aimed at increasing freedom, it is assumed that the final inhabitants of the goal do not become xenophobic (having or showing dislike or prejudice against people from other countries).
But what happens to pastors is the opposite: the government is looking for them. Not to threaten, but to invite them to its territorial waters. Being a formal invite rather than a perceived attacker is a big deal. Persistence about the possibility of rising seawater seems far beyond nervous, if any, about construction or foreigners. In early 2017, the official representative of the Prussian Polynesian government signed an agreement with The Seasteading Institute to, as the pastors said, "work together to create a legal framework to enable the development of the Floating Island Project." There is now a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.
ICO for Seasteaders
Seasteader, through their new company, Blue Frontiers, is planning next steps related to crypto. "We are targeting the Fall release," Managing Director Randolph Hencken told Crypto Insider. He refers to Fall 2017 and the expected introduction of a kind of "seastead coin," which is currently referred to only as a "token offering."
"I think we will stand out from other crypto assets," he continued, "as our tokens will eventually be related to the physical seasteading world."
The nature and nature of the expected token is sufficiently shrouded in secrecy. The website only says this:
As part of our overall financing strategy, Blue Frontiers is in the final stages of validating token bids. Our team, lawyers and consultants have been doing due diligence for the last few months. We have taken into account the recent announcements by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, where we joined. We will announce the details in the near future. Sign up for our mailing list and be the first to learn it.
"We are not in a position today to say more about our coin offer than we have stated on the website," Hencken added. "We still have some important decisions to do internally, I will be happy to share more with you as we specifically announce our latest token, as well as opportunities to engage in legal blockchain activities in our special economic marine zone."
On August 19, they have not gone far enough with the hiring process to name people who will set up the token. "Right now," Hencken wrote, "the contract is incomplete and it does not make sense to name people before time."
In the past, raising funds was not a weak link in the chain of seasteader merchants. The problem is the size of the objectives and the limited concrete achievements along the way. The "first rate measurable plan" I mean above will involve the manufacture of small model seasteads that you may show off in the tub. This will be followed by larger and larger modular samples, perhaps modular, resale, each more useful and further away from the mainland until you have a crowded city in international waters. The brilliance of the idea is that even if you only have a tenth of the way to the goal, at least you may have a funny device that the person can use. If you get to the middle of the road, maybe you have a multi-family family home. So, even with the smallest progress, you will have something to show for this endeavor.
A simple and successful initial coin offer (ICO) can easily push the previously imagined project from paper to a usable device, because it has realistic goals.
Today, modular ideas have survived, and so does the concept of "increased location." Seasteader tends to believe that you can not jump from where it stands until the seastead is expanding and rising in international waters. So they wisely choose to try and "build something where they can, and maybe do the rest later" rather than starting at the main target location.
But how much scalability - the ability to start small and deliver small results with a small amount of money - fixed? "If something goes wrong," as the saying goes, "something is too big."
Is it worth it?
When you first see the Blue Frontiers page, it's easy to get the impression that it's made up of many paid staff. However, the official number is not too big - yet. Hencken says they have seven paid staff and the rest are volunteers.
Until now, what Seasteading.org has done with previous fundraising does not seem too efficient. Contributing donor Peter Thiel has raised his hand and claimed that seasteading is currently impractical, but marine trackers have made considerable progress to keep dreams alive more than life. They are arguably the second most effective "organized terrorist" in the world still in action. And for all the mysteries surrounding token bidding, Hencken does have interesting details about his plan.
"Our pilot project on a Tahiti lagoon is planned as a dozen floating islands with an estimated cost of about $ 5 million," he wrote. "These islands tend to be 1.5 floors high and 25 x 25 meters wide .They can accommodate 30 people, or for single families.We also plan to have office space, boutique hotels, community rooms etc. The project is scalable - designed as interchangeable modules.We will release new architectural rendering and cost estimates in the coming weeks. "
When you compare the price projected with conventional multifamily home prices, the figure looks realistic. Presumably if they "only" raised 10 million dollars, they could build at least one of these micro islands. It is not clear what their smallest physical target is, and how much money is enough. After nearly 10 years of "big picture", this is not a really important long-term plan - this is the question of whether the sailor really goes from zero floating islands that can be used to a floating island that can be used when we're young. Although the island is only a multi-family residence, the effect should be electricity. But until there is, we are forced to bear the burden of severe skepticism.
Assessment
If the contract is not complete enough to name the ICO team, the Blue Frontiers go ahead with the Fall token launch target; That leaves four months to complete the contract and launch the token. Is that enough time to prevent a known problem that could harm a new token?
"It's easy to mess anything up in running ICO," as Santim's founder Maksim Balashevich put it into a conversation unrelated to NeoCash radio.
What happens if a token has a security hole? Or fail to generate the expected revenue? Blue Frontiersmen had other fish in the fire and reported that they funded the project to some extent with their own money.
Hencken wrote a letter to Crypto Insider saying:
We are confident that we can finance our projects through multiple channels, tokens being one. Since the project is planned as a pilot, and is planned to grow organically, there is little concern about our inability to raise funds. Although I do not want to ignore the challenges and realities that need to be increased by the tens of millions of dollars, we are actively working with brilliant minds and educated people in various disciplines to provide solutions to other exciting challenges related to marine developments and technological integration at Floating island.
I then e-mailed this question in response: "Say you will raise" only "five million by 2020, which I understand will be more than this kind of project, or a freely oriented, deliberate migration that has existed in the past. Can you build a floating island that can be used with it? What is the plan to deal with that possibility? And is it the minimum to be able to build something worth constructing?
Four days later I have not got an answer.
A common-but-not-helpful theme in a loop of freedom seems present. It may be too focused on the "big end-goal" rather than the "small goal that can be achieved."
"We are in the middle of a very large project," Henken wrote earlier, apparently greatly admired, "it takes a small army and combat to achieve our mission."