“Since no country in the world offers the optimal conditions for innovation, we might as well create our own. That’s what the bosses of the Sillicon Valley must have said to themselves, on the verge of launching their own micronation.
Launched in San Francisco in 2008, the Seasteading Institute set out to create artificial cities on the ocean from scratch. The idea appealed to the co-founder of Paypal, Peter Thiel, who would also like to leave the mainland. So he put his hand in his wallet to raise the 50 billion dollars needed to build the island.
e-beautiful island at sea. These floating cities will be made up of interconnected platforms that can be modulated according to the number of occupants. They will host research institutes and laboratories, a business hub, housing and the necessary equipment to ensure their self-sufficiency, including aquaculture and vertical farming farms. On paper, it sounds more dreamy than the business district of La Défense.
The Seasteading Institute sees in this dream of micronation the opportunity to reinvent a new world. Unbelievers, on the other hand, prefer to see it as yet another way for the web giants to get out of the tax business. Because the advantage of being in the middle of the ocean is that we are also far from “earthly” taxes.
After ensuring the technical feasibility, the Seasteading Institute has just signed a first agreement with the country that will host the first island city: French Polynesia. If the project does not sink by then, the installation of the first float is scheduled for 2019 and could mark the kick-off of urbanization… in the open sea!
