By 2022, a neo-utopia of floating Pacific islands near French Polynesia will allow you to live under the government of your own choosing, as well as transact solely in cryptocurrencies.
The so-called “Floating Island Project” is a sea-bound island state that will feature 300 homes, offices, restaurants and hotels.
It will be the world’s first self-sustaining floating island hub with a political structure independent of traditional government.
The initial phase of the Floating Island Project will cost more than $50 million dollars.
Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of PayPal, is one of the project’s more notable investors and backers.
The Floating island project will also be funded via token donation sales of the project’s signature cryptocurrency, the Vayron.
The project is being developed by French Polynesian government officials and a cadre of international academics, investors and philanthropists.
Nonprofit organizations such as the Seasteading Institute and Blue Frontier were responsible for brainstorming the creation and logistics of the project.
The developers of the project, who fashion themselves as “seasteaders,” wrote: “Our goal is to maximize entrepreneurial freedom to create blue jobs to welcome anyone to the Next New World.”
Thiel considers seasteading as an “open frontier for experimenting with new ideas for government.”
Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, a political scientist and researcher for the Floating Island Project, predicts that the island’s residents will be free of “fluctuating geopolitical influences and trade issues.”
Mezz-Garcia said that the developing island state prototype could also be theoretically used as a refuge from catastrophic weather events.
“Once we can see how this first island works, we will have a proof of concept to plan for islands to house climate refugees,” said Mezza-Garcia.
Green roofs
The Floating Island Project will be built off the coast of Tahiti.
Mezza-Garcia believes that the project may unearth solutions for human habitation options in the age of extreme climate change.
“There is significance to this project being trialed in the Polynesian Islands. This is the region where land is resting on coral and will disappear with rising sea levels,” said Mezza-Garcia.
Each island structure will feature “green roofs,” canopies made of vegetation. Island construction will use locally sourced coconut fibers, bamboo, wood, plastic and recycled metals.
Along with being green-friendly, the Floating Island Project also acts as a refuge for people disillusioned with traditional land-based politics.
Each island platform, or grouping, could house its own government structure as a way to “liberate humanity from politicians.”
If you disagree with the governance you are living under, you can just unmoor your island and join another island-state nearby.
Joe Quirk, a spokesperson for the Floating Island Project, views the project as a way to evolve how people live under political structures.
“Governments just don’t get better,” said Quirk.
“They’re stuck in previous centuries. That’s because land incentives a violent monopoly to control it.”
