Would You Tell an Angel Investor How to Start a New Country? (1729.com) 59
Angel investor Balaji S. Srinivasan (also the former CTO of Coinbase) is now focused on 1729.com, which wants to give you money to do his bidding — or something like that. He's calling it "the first newsletter that pays you.
"It has a regular feed of paid tasks and tutorials with $1000+ in crypto prizes per day, and doubles as a vehicle for distributing a new book I've been writing called The Network State."
His latest post? "How to Start a New Country" (which envisions starting with a "cloud first" digital community): We recruit online for a group of people interested in founding a new virtual social network, a new city, and eventually a new country. We build the embryonic state as an open source project, we organize our internal economy around remote work, we cultivate in-person levels of civility, we simulate architecture in VR, and we create art and literature that reflects our values.
Over time we eventually crowdfund territory in the real world, but not necessarily contiguous territory. Because an under-appreciated fact is that the internet allows us to network enclaves. Put another way, a cloud community need not acquire all its territory in one place at one time. It can connect a thousand apartments, a hundred houses, and a dozen cul-de-sacs in different cities into a new kind of fractal polity with its capital in the cloud. Over time, community members migrate between these enclaves and crowdfund territory nearby, with every individual dwelling and group house presenting an independent opportunity for expansion...
[Cloud countries] are set up to be a scaled live action role-playing game (LARP), a feat of imagination practiced by large numbers of people at the same time. And the experience of cryptocurrencies over the last decade shows us just how powerful such a shared LARP can be...
The cloud country concept "just" requires stacking together many existing technologies, rather than inventing new ones like Mars-capable rockets or permanent-habitation seasteads. Yet at the same time it avoids the obvious pathways of election, revolution, and war — all of which are ugly and none of which provide much venue for individual initiative...
Could a sufficiently robust cloud country with, say, 1-10M committed digital citizens, provable cryptocurrency reserves, and physical holdings all over the earth similarly achieve societal recognition from the United Nations?
For the "do his bidding" part, the post promises that up to ten $100 prizes will be awarded to people who share constructive reviews on their sites/social media pages (including proposals for extensions).
Previously the site had offered $100 for the ten best hirelings "running a newsletter for technological progressives at your own domain, as a way to begin incentivizing the decentralization of media." (It cited a tweet that argues succinctly that "The NYT is telling anti-longevity stories for us. We must take control of our own story.") In general the site describes itself as "a newsletter for technological progressives. That means people who are into cryptocurrencies, startup cities, mathematics, transhumanism, space travel, reversing aging, and initially-crazy-seeming-but-technologically-feasible ideas." So the newsletter-creating task had envisioned them all "constantly pushing for technology in general and reversing aging in particular, writing like their lives depended on it. In other words, blog or die!"
Other rewards went to the first 10 people to complete three Elixir problems, the 100 people who posted the best inspiring proof-of-exercising photos, and 40 people who helped identify people and places "where the ascending world is surpassing the declining world."
For one of his latest "tasks," Srinivasan wants you to read a long essay on quantum computing (and answer questions), with an optional series of "review emails". $10 in bitcoin will be awarded only to the first and last 50 readers/question-answerers, while another $100 in bitcoin will be awarded to the first and last 5 review-email readers who "persist for a month."
"It has a regular feed of paid tasks and tutorials with $1000+ in crypto prizes per day, and doubles as a vehicle for distributing a new book I've been writing called The Network State."
His latest post? "How to Start a New Country" (which envisions starting with a "cloud first" digital community): We recruit online for a group of people interested in founding a new virtual social network, a new city, and eventually a new country. We build the embryonic state as an open source project, we organize our internal economy around remote work, we cultivate in-person levels of civility, we simulate architecture in VR, and we create art and literature that reflects our values.
Over time we eventually crowdfund territory in the real world, but not necessarily contiguous territory. Because an under-appreciated fact is that the internet allows us to network enclaves. Put another way, a cloud community need not acquire all its territory in one place at one time. It can connect a thousand apartments, a hundred houses, and a dozen cul-de-sacs in different cities into a new kind of fractal polity with its capital in the cloud. Over time, community members migrate between these enclaves and crowdfund territory nearby, with every individual dwelling and group house presenting an independent opportunity for expansion...
[Cloud countries] are set up to be a scaled live action role-playing game (LARP), a feat of imagination practiced by large numbers of people at the same time. And the experience of cryptocurrencies over the last decade shows us just how powerful such a shared LARP can be...
The cloud country concept "just" requires stacking together many existing technologies, rather than inventing new ones like Mars-capable rockets or permanent-habitation seasteads. Yet at the same time it avoids the obvious pathways of election, revolution, and war — all of which are ugly and none of which provide much venue for individual initiative...
Could a sufficiently robust cloud country with, say, 1-10M committed digital citizens, provable cryptocurrency reserves, and physical holdings all over the earth similarly achieve societal recognition from the United Nations?
For the "do his bidding" part, the post promises that up to ten $100 prizes will be awarded to people who share constructive reviews on their sites/social media pages (including proposals for extensions).
Previously the site had offered $100 for the ten best hirelings "running a newsletter for technological progressives at your own domain, as a way to begin incentivizing the decentralization of media." (It cited a tweet that argues succinctly that "The NYT is telling anti-longevity stories for us. We must take control of our own story.") In general the site describes itself as "a newsletter for technological progressives. That means people who are into cryptocurrencies, startup cities, mathematics, transhumanism, space travel, reversing aging, and initially-crazy-seeming-but-technologically-feasible ideas." So the newsletter-creating task had envisioned them all "constantly pushing for technology in general and reversing aging in particular, writing like their lives depended on it. In other words, blog or die!"
Other rewards went to the first 10 people to complete three Elixir problems, the 100 people who posted the best inspiring proof-of-exercising photos, and 40 people who helped identify people and places "where the ascending world is surpassing the declining world."
For one of his latest "tasks," Srinivasan wants you to read a long essay on quantum computing (and answer questions), with an optional series of "review emails". $10 in bitcoin will be awarded only to the first and last 50 readers/question-answerers, while another $100 in bitcoin will be awarded to the first and last 5 review-email readers who "persist for a month."
Re: (Score:2)
Invade & conquer Sealand. It would be cheap to hire some mercenaries
You could avoid the cost of the mercenaries by colonizing Rockall [wikipedia.org] instead. You could earn money by leasing fishing rights, tax-free internet banking, and crypto-mining with wind power.
Or arm the North Sentinelese [wikipedia.org] with assault rifles and declare independence from India.
Re: (Score:2)
Invade & conquer Sealand. It would be cheap to hire some mercenaries
You could avoid the cost of the mercenaries by colonizing Rockall [wikipedia.org] instead. You could earn money by leasing fishing rights, tax-free internet banking, and crypto-mining with wind power.
Or arm the North Sentinelese [wikipedia.org] with assault rifles and declare independence from India.
Too bad the UK claims it.
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad the UK claims it.
The UK also claims legal jurisdiction over Sealand.
Once the North Sentinelese become proficient with their assault rifles, the obvious solution is to transfer them to Rockall/Sealand.
They defended North Sentinel Island for ten thousand years with bows and arrows. With modern weapons, they should have no problem repelling a platoon of Royal Marines.
Re: (Score:3)
Why bother sending in Marines? Just park a ship nearby and lob shells at it.
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad the UK claims it.
And tangle with @BorderRockall and NATO Article 5 at your own peril!!
https://twitter.com/BorderRock... [twitter.com]
The UK also claims legal jurisdiction over Sealand.
Not technically true. Any enquiries about Sealand are referred to the UK's Foreign And Commonwealth Office.
Sealand declared UDI before the UK extended its territorial waters from 3 to 12 nautical miles in 1987, so at the time of UDI it was in international waters.
OK so no states formally recognise it as a sovereign state, but the UK does not assert legal jurisdiction over Sealand.
Re: (Score:2)
Or arm the North Sentinelese [wikipedia.org] with assault rifles and declare independence from India.
Indian military history isn't exactly resplendent in glorious victories, but trust me, you do not want to do that. (Maybe Libya or Ethiopia instead).
Why bother? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you have the budget of several blocks of oligarch town-houses, you can afford a security council member. If you have less money you can settle for a Balkan country. If even that is too expensive, there are 100+ third world countries and half of them can be bought for the right price. Quoting a joke from one of Emir Kosturica films: "As our Bulgarian friends say, what cannot be bought with money can be bought with LOTS of money".
Well this ought to be interesting. (Score:3)
Certainly sounds like a billionaire throwing money at people in the hopes that their viewpoint becomes your viewpoint. However, I know how this goes, people want the money and it will be hoovered up... by bots.
Automated analysis will regurgitate the information from the article into given into the questionnaire. Will the scheme work anyway when nobody actually reading it gets a dime? Stranger things have happened.
Re:Well this ought to be interesting. (Score:5, Insightful)
However, I know how this goes, people want the money and it will be hoovered up... by bots.
And the "investor" will fall for it because it feeds his ego - the overinflated ego that led him to come up with this narcissistic concept in the first place.
Twelve months from now, he'll have moved on to something else - a new book where he discusses his great disappointment in the human race, driven by he new "insight" into human behavior.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> And the "investor" will fall for it because it feeds his ego - the overinflated ego that led him to come up with this narcissistic concept in the first place
That's hella mind-reading right there.
He's well-versed in the origins of the Westphalian system and frames the cryptonation as the synthesis of the religion thesis and the state antithesis, in Hagelian dialectic terms.
He may not be correct, but the analysis is structural.
Buzzing in with my Jeopardy answer... (Score:4, Interesting)
Cult, not country (Score:5, Insightful)
All you'd be doing is adding an extra layer of administration on top of what already exists. It isn't a "new country." It just a new association, fraternal organization, cult, or similar thing.
Just like all the other ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless you actually try to make it a new country, in which case you'll probably go to jail for tax evasion at the least.
Interesting point in the summary though: cryptocurrency == LARP. Huh.
Re: (Score:2)
Life is LARP.
But prison gangs demand fungible tokens. You can observe their similarity to a LARP, but it won't keep the toothbrush shiv out of your body.
Re: (Score:3)
I think that was a Family Guy [imdb.com] episode.
Re: (Score:2)
People have tried it in real life too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Not even a cult - a moron with too much unearned$ (Score:3)
It's an equivalent of Facebook/Zuckerberg coming up with its fake digital money, convincing its users to sign away their homes/mortgages/apartments in exchange for said fake money - and then claiming for itself a title of Principality of Facebook.
That's not a cult.
Those are symptoms of mental illness and unchecked egotism fueled by unearned money and privileges.
It's what happens when a narcissistic fachidiot [stackexchange.com] with untreated mental issues accidentally lucks out into more cash than what he can safely handle.
former CTO of... (Score:2)
I don't think consulting for $10 or $100 (Score:2)
is a very lucrative offer.
Now if they were offering "free" citizenship for consulting, maybe extending to future generations, that would kinda be ok.
Re: (Score:2)
> is a very lucrative offer.
It is for about three billion people. Balaji is already in Asia.
so tribes (Score:2)
Need beer. (Score:5, Funny)
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
- Frank Zappa
Re: (Score:2)
"Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST."
- Frank Zappa
Gonna need an anthem too.
Re: (Score:2)
How about "Titties and Beer" by Frank Zappa?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
We invented this long ago (Score:2)
It's a cool idea. But it ain't new. It's ancient.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I am totally going to start a country based on genetics. That literally has never gone wrong. Mixed-blood pure race! Ganbei to my Chinese-American kidos.
That sounds like sedition (Score:3)
These rich assholes don't understand how little money they have. None of them can afford a country big enough to not be at the whim of its neighbors.
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't they set up Sealand near Singapore? And then they had to float into international waters because their shit was not put up with. And then pirates attacked them.
Re: (Score:2)
Sealand is located at an abandoned Maunsell Naval Fort near Britain. Pirates did attack, and they were fended off. Still exists, and sovereignty still denied by others. From the wiki...
"In 1987, the UK extended its territorial waters from 3 to 12 nautical miles (6 to 22 km). Sealand is now in British territorial waters.[14] The United Kingdom is one of 165 parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (in force since 1994), which states in Part V, Article 60, that "Artificial islands, installations and structures do not possess the status of islands. They have no territorial sea of their own, and their presence does not affect the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone or the continental shelf."[36] In the opinion of law academic John Gibson, there is little chance that Sealand would be recognized as a nation because it is a man-made structure.[14]"
I suppose that the USN also uses Art. 60 as one of its primary supporting legalities when sailing through the S. China sea.
Re: (Score:2)
I must have the name wrong, but it was some seasteading in Thailand. Here's one example. [reason.com] And I'm pretty sure pirates took out another seasteader.
"How to Start a New Country" (Score:2)
Like bacteria, take an existing country and split it in 2.
Liberland (Score:1)
A round of drinks on me. (Score:2)
And once we can write our own Constitution, start our own [crypto]currency, and assemble a police or paramilitary enforcement agency, we will celebrate with free cherry KoolAid for all.
Re: A round of drinks on me. (Score:2)
More like Purple Drank for you peasants.
Real KoolAid is for the Inner Party members only.
First mistake angel investor (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
But they are called "angels" because they a freeloving, grace-giving, supernatural beings sent from God... right? Manifest destiny -- hurrah!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: First mistake angel investor (Score:2)
Freeloving ... you're right about that... In the sense of "You suck my dick, you get the money." (Hint: You do not even get the money.)
The crypto standard: solutions for non-problems (Score:2)
Oh look! It's another crypto currency enthusiast kicking the can down the block further, proposing a "solution" for which there isn't really a problem.
Do we really need virtual LARP communities that run on blockchain? What problem with society and the human condition does that solve?
Was trying to interact with other people in a mutually beneficial way not complicated enough?
Re: (Score:2)
How do you have virtual LARP? Isn't that just called role-playing... I am totally confused by this aspect of the summary, wtf is wrong with people and words these days.
Minimum Wage Violation (Score:2)
In this new Utopia, the minimum wage seems to be pennies per hour
NOT a country (Score:2)
If you buy a lot of houses and apartments scattered around the world, those houses and apartments are in existing countries. Do you think those countries will stop claiming sovereignty over them? Will they stop expecting you to obey their laws? Will they let you create your own courts and police force to enforce new laws you made up yourself?
No? Then it's not a country.
Re: (Score:1)
If you buy a lot of houses and apartments scattered around the world, those houses and apartments are in existing countries. Do you think those countries will stop claiming sovereignty over them? Will they stop expecting you to obey their laws? Will they let you create your own courts and police force to enforce new laws you made up yourself?
No? Then it's not a country.
What if you setup a Virtual Private Country first, and connect them all together that way?
Snow Crash did it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
This! Great book. Glad I read it, because stuff from it like this comes up from time-to-time as weird proposals. What was one of them... "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong"? Checking... yep, nailed it. Wasn't sure if I'd get the name exactly right. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the summary. Now time to 'poon a passing vehicle on a private toll road...
starting with a "cloud first" digital community - (Score:2)
Already done, and quite a bit more.
fsp.org (Free State Project) began long ago recruiting adventurers and entrepreneurs who wanted control over the government. They wanted a small state where they could have an outsized influence on government and at least a little influence in federal government. So far over 5,000 of them are scattered around New Hampshire and many thousands more are committed to joining them.
Announcement from their site: "June 2021: Join the Free State Project at The Porcupine Freedom Fes
Re:starting with a "cloud first" digital community (Score:4, Funny)
Whenever I hear the word "liberty" I'm reminded 99% of the time in the modern era, the definition means, "It's my right to infringe on the rights of others, especially if I was here first (any history to the contrary is "fake news"), have a firearm, and am wearing red, white and blue."
Re: (Score:1)
> 99% of the time in the modern era, the definition means
Challenge: go to the site the GP posted and find the definition, in context. Hint: it's in the pledge.
Re: (Score:3)
And you think it's true! How cute.
Too complicated (Score:2)
Rich guy disconnected from reality (Score:2)
News at 11.
A country is an entity that exercises exclusive sovereignty over a well-defined territory with a core fixed population.
"Exercies exclusibe sovereignty" is a polite way of saying that there are burly men with guns who have license to use lethal force to defend the interests and enforce the will of the government of that country. A bunch of nerds trading NFTs of cat memes for bitcoins over internet tubes running through some other country and calling themselves a country is not even a joke, it's no
Stolen plot? (Score:2)
First... (Score:2)
First I'd ask them to define what an "angel investor" is. Following that, I'd decide whether to tell them how to start a new country.
Stop calling them "angels". (Score:2)
"Leech with a trap that uses bait" is the correct description.
Uninformed at best. (Score:2)
Election: It's funny that he puts an election or referendum according to the laws of a country in the same category as separating of "with the consent of the international community" (whatever that means)
Cloud countries: what should that be? You wont have own laws, you will own territory but not have political power over it. At best a cloud country is an influence group acting together in their corresponding countries. (And this is exactly what the Hanse was/is after the territorial nation states formes ar
So, a new supervilllain? (Score:2)
Planning to start a country, to avoid all taxes? And he's hiring henchmen and minions (and cannon fodder)?